Net66 Web Design: Designing a Mobile Site – Top Tips

As a business owner you need to keep up to date with every aspect of your business, and that includes the website. Now a lot of us aren’t tech savvy, much in the same way us “computer geeks” aren’t social savvy. So here’s some top tips to help you not only understand mobile design, but also how to have an input in the design process too:

Keep it Simple

The mobile experience, although immersive in it’s own right, can get bogged down by too much content. A mobile device’s screen is a lot smaller than even the smallest netbook. So if you’ve a 500 word, graphic rich, video inclusive home page, a mobile device will take it’s time to load all of this content. So keep it simple. An image here or there isn’t too bad, you also don’t want reams of text, as users will struggle to read it all on a small device.

Ensure Compatibility

iPads, iPhones, Adroids, Tablets and now Smart Watches. Each device released makes it harder for one website to do it all. Even with the ubiquitous iPhone, with each new release comes a new screen to fit your website to. So you need to make sure your website is looking how you want it on a range of devices.

Responsive Web Design

This type of design is designed to respond to the size of the browser width that you’re viewing it through. This ties in with the second point as a responsive website can usually respond to a range of different mobile device screens. More than that though, if you’re on your computer and choose to shrink the size of your browser window, the website will respond to that straight away. So you can still view all the content of your favourite website, but whilst also having another window open.

Full Website Option

Some people are quite averse to mobile websites and would prefer to view the website in full. So make sure you always include this option.

Follow these tips and if ever you want a mobile website designed, you’ll have a head start on what to do.

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Net66 Google: Google Launches New Card Layout for Mobile Search

Web Design has progressed a lot over the years and it seems to be the current trend is to just simplify everything. We’ve seen that most recently with Google’s redesigned logo. This has lead to a lot of companies now redesigning their own websites with simplicity in mind.

Google is again rolling out their interpretation of the simple design by introducing a new layout for their Mobile search. Known as a card layout, this design segments different areas of the website and displays them floating apart from each other, over a static background.

This has previously been introduced on Google+ and it’s also similar to Facebook’s recent timeline update. But now it seems to be the turn of the Google Search Results themselves. You can see a screenshot below of what the new Card Layout looks like on the iPad:

I really quite like the new design. I’m also comfortable saying it’d work just as well and look just as nice on your computer. What do you think to the new Layout?

Net66 SEO: Google Releases Hummingbird Algorithm Update

Google last night revealed their biggest change to their famed search algorithm in 3 years. They tinker with the algorithm all the time, allowing them slight refinements to it so they can better provide you with the search results you’re looking for.

But this time they’ve added by far the largest update to their algorithm so far. This update will affect 90% of all search queries! That’s right, 90%! To put that in perspective, Google’s Penguin Update affected 2.3% of English queries and caused an uproar that is still lasting to this day.

I’m sure you must be aware of all the penguin recovery techniques that are going around. Even now, months after it’s been rolled out.

So what does Hummingbird actually entail then? Well the main purpose of this update is to better answer long tailed questions that are put to the search engine. So for instance, before the update, if I were to search for “How do I make sticky toffee pudding without raisins?”, because raisins aren’t everyones cup of tea. The previous algorithm would still have counted raisins as a search term as it is in the search string. To find recipes without raisins I’d have to enter the more complicated search “Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe -raisins”. Because when you add the minus sign before a word, Google will return all search results without that word in them.

This Hummingbird update is now set to change that, so that Google will be able to understand more long tailed question search terms. Previously the algorithm’s main prerogative was to search for short tail related keywords. Which is why my search for a good sticky toffee pudding recipe took so long.

Google has also took the time to update their voice search capabilities. They want communication with Google to be as if you were taking to your friend. So for instance if you were looking up information on Malta you could say “Tell me about the History of Malta” and Google would come up with results for historical data about Malta.

But then, you could say something along the lines of “What about it’s geography?”. Google would then present you with geographical knowledge about the country, without you having to repeat it’s name. Cool isn’t it?

I’m sure that the hummingbird update had a lot to do with how much Google is pushing into mobile search as well. As on a mobile, its easier to hit one button and talk rather than fiddle with the device’s small keyboard.

Finally, in a well thought out release, the Hummingbird update also coincides with Google’s 15th Birthday celebrations. So, as well as a cute little game on the Google home page, it also subtly implies how far Google has come in 15 years by releasing their most intelligent Google Algorithm to date. Smart Move Google.

High Score for the day: 155

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Net66 SEO: Google Now Encrypting Every Search

Google is set to make SSL searches the default for all users of their search engine. They’ve previously stated that they would only encrypt anyone who used the https:// version of the site, or users who were signed into their Google Account (YouTube, Gmail, Adwords etc).

But now in a dramatic and sudden U-Turn, they’ve completely reneged on this and encrypted every search term being entered. Now there are two main theories going round the web here:

1. Google have acted on their users concerns of data sharing with the US’ PRISM program. So to draw users back to their site they have assured us that they’ll encrypt all searches so no one with the power to do so can see what we’re searching.

2. Advertising sales are down and, as you may know, Google still passes on keywords used to advertisers. So in withhold keyword data from analytics, it could push more people onto their adwords, thus driving up revenue.

I’m more inclined to think it’s a mixture of the two. But what do you think?

Blog Post by Greg McVey

Net66 News: Google Changes Logo – Or Figures the Bevel Setting on Photoshop

Ok maybe I’m being a bit cynical here, but if Google’s logo was a physical thing, it just looks like they’ve hit it with a brick. Not smashed it, just flattened it. Technically it isn’t even a “new” logo. As Google has been using it internally for years now to save on Printing costs. You can compare the two new logo’s below:

To be fair there is a noticeable difference in the colours, and it’s bang on trend with the whole minimalist approach that’s so prevalent these days. I do like it as well, it’s neat and precise.

What do you think?

Blog Post by Greg McVey

Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images; Ars Technica

Net66 Google: Léon Foucault Given Google Logo

You may have been pleased to see a new Google Doodle today. If you’ve not already seen it, just cast your eyes downwards:

This is in honour of Léon Foulcault. A French physicist who first demonstrated the Earth’s rotation with his creation of the Foulcault Pendulum.

The way this worked was to set a pendulum up and place dominos or something similar around the edge of the pendulum’s swing. You then proceed to swing the pendulum.

Given that we now know for sure the earth is rotating, this device proved to show that with no external force, the pendulum that would supposedly swing backwards and forwards, eventually had it’s swing distorted into an oblong by the natural rotation of the Earth.

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Net66 SEO: A New Player in the Digital Marketing Game? Enter Adobe Target

We all know Adobe as the company that created Flash, Photoshop, Fireworks and of course the much loved Adobe PDF reader. So why has this creative company suddenly decided to release a new product designed specifically to help business owners understand the complex world of digital marketing.

But further than that, it also has the best interests of the end user in mind too. Not only will helping the business owner/SEOer improve the digital marketing aspect of the website. But tidying up all the onsite issues will surely increase the benefits of the website as a whole, thus, creating a more enjoyable experience for the end user.

It also deals with optimisation issues that some business owners can find confusing. They may know everything about how to whiten teeth, but when it comes to analytics, they will know nothing about this subject. So can get confused with the difference between unique visitors and regular visitors, bounce rate and time on site and the myriad of other statistics Google display through their analytics software.

With an online presence being a massive tool in revenue for businesses; more and more owners, marketing execs, accountants and anyone who has something to do with the website will be wanting to understand where their revenue is coming from, and how the website has attracted it. This way they can make an informed decision on whether or not each marketing avenue is worth pursuing
or not after analysing how much business each stream has brought to the site.

This software also goes beyond mere analytics and offers targeting, with the chance to set up favourite audiences so you can make the most of your online market. They further offer a step by step process, so that even the most novice digital marketer can have the chance to get a grip of their digital marketing campaign and steer it in the direction they want.

You can see the video that Adobe have released below:

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Net66 SEO: Google Asking you to Recommend Good Websites for Search

People have long complained about being unable to break into the top of Google’s SERPs simply because of the fact that although you have a better website and provide a better service, they spend more on SEO than you.

Well all that is set to change (maybe) with Google now asking SEO’s to send websites to Google that they think are first page worthy, but currently aren’t on the first page due to the high paying optimised websites. It was actually a Tweet by Matt Cutts that revealed this news, and, the link to where you can recommend your websites.

Here’s what the Tweet said:

If there’s a small website that you think should be doing better in Google, tell us more here: https://t.co/s80BibIBhN

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) August 28, 2013

This has thrown up a question for me though, with the massive amounts of competition out there, the fact that anyone can submit to this leaves it open to exploitation. Especially when you consider that the majority of people follow Matt Cutts are SEOs who would love to show off their work.

It could also open the doors to black hat techniques such as submitting a website 200 times from different IPs to make it look like 200 people like your site. So what do you think the reasoning behind this is? Do Google want us to do their Jobs for them? Is this a trap? Or do they genuinely want good sites recommended?

What do you think?

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Net66 SEO: The Keyword Tool is Dead. Long Live the Keyword Planner

So, the keyword tool has finally said it’s last hurrah and been replaced by the new Keyword planner. To start with, the keyword tool was quite an excellent tool designed for PPC Specialists, but used by SEOs nonetheless. Reason being, it was the closest thing anyone had to getting traffic estimates for certain phrases, especially when you consider that you had local and global monthly estimates.

You could also add broad match or exact match phrases to the same set of results, which would give a more in depth look at who was searching what, in what volume, and present the figures side by side. Anyone could use this tool too, even without having to sign into a Google account, you just had to fill in a captcha.

So here’s where the keyword planner differs straight away. First of all you DO need to sign up for a Google Account when using the Keyword Planner, drawing the ire of many a marketer. I’m sure they all have Google Accounts already, it’s just frustrating when you need information quickly and you have to fiddle about signing into things. Plus if you want to talk to a client and use the keyword planner, they’re not always going to have a Google account themselves so this could throw a spanner in the works.

Secondly, you have to view exact match and broad match keyword statistics on different pages. Which limits your ability to check keywords side by side for the difference in statistics between broad and exact.

Also, you now can’t filter results by “Closely Related”. This always provided more enhanced results when you were looking for phrases related specifically to one subject. A move that has been remedied straight away by Google, such was the force of the backlash. Google now say that they will be reinstating the “Closely Related” tool, at some point in the future.

It isn’t all doom and gloom though, as there have been some improvements to the old tool such as the fact that there are more geographic targeting tools. Allowing people planning Local SEO campaigns to break down targeted locations more specifically. You can also bundle together these new geographic targets to get even better results.

You can also upload more keywords of your own with with the limit being much higher than it used to be. You can now upload up to 10,000 keywords.

A nice new feature is that you get ad groups suggested to you. Sort of a quick fix for keywords relating to what you’re looking for. These groups come with an average cost per click and an average monthly traffic, indicators of what you can expect from this ad group. You also get to have a look at which keywords are in the group so you pick and choose the ones you want.

So although some features of the old keyword tool will be missed, you’ve got the keyword planner to look after you and although you might not love it yet, I’m sure you’ll come to.

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Net66 Google: Google to Respond to Quick Questions Personally with Search Results

I encountered a problem recently when I booked a flight. I wanted to make sure we were going to the right terminal and unfortunately this meant going to my emails, digging out the flight number and then searching that. Well all this is set to change with Google wanting to answer such questions as “Is my flight going to be late?” with a quick answer in their Search Results.

This works by using data collected from you being signed into your Google account, as well as information from the web. So if I had asked my phone “What terminal do I need to go to?” and was signed in to my Android Phone, it could find the flight number in my emails and then search the web for information about that flight. Combining both of these we’d be able to get the answer we wanted with minimal hassle.

Quite similar to Google Now, but Google want to push this out on all platforms turning Google Search into more of a personal assistant. And it works with much more than flights too. You can check the status of your deliveries by having that delivery information stored in your emails, and then entered on the relevant delivery website to find out where your package is. Pretty clever.

It can also help you with the answers you might be looking for that are stored in your Google calendar. Such as “Do I have any meetings today?”. I’m sure there are going to be many and varied applications for this feature and all them as useful as the next.

What do you think?

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Net66 SEO: Matt Cutts on Linking 20 Sites Together

First of all, 20 domains different sites on 20 different domains is quite a lot. Like, really a lot. So why would you want to link them all together? See Matt Cutts’ video response here:

SEO – makes the World a Safer Place

After the fury that Edward Snowden caused by telling us all something that we probably already suspected that, our Governments are looking after us and are actively looking for the bad guys out there who want to do us harm, how does SEO fit into all of this ?

Google, and other search engines, have amassed a huge amount of technology in automatically reading absolutely huge amounts of text, and then somehow making sense of it.

Your average search engine can crawl through millions of webpages, index them and selectively serve them back up to us as and when we enter a search query, all within time scale of “two shakes of a lambs tail”

I do not know what goes on at Spy Central, but I guess a liberal use of the software and technology that search engines use is borrowed and adapted to find recurring key words and phrases in communications that fly around the world.

How much of the research and development and blue sky thinking that are put into making our search life easier is diverted to make our real lives safer, is anybodies guess

This is not the place to be political, there are many other other blogs that can discuss those matters so much better than I.

So next time I am toiling away in my office Manchester trying to SEO a phrase to death, and nothing bad has happened, and the lights are on as they should be, and the world carrying on as it should, I will spare a thought for all of the technicians and machines all over the world that are working to keep us all safe.

I think it would be milking it a bit to claim that all SEOs are heros, but all of us who practice the noble art of SEO have made a contribution, however small

Ps If you are a machine in Spy Central and you are reading this “Good day to you”

Neil McVey

Net66 News: Net66 Launch Their New Website

Much more than a few design tweaks here and there, we’ve completely redesigned our whole website with lots of new features and information available.

For instance, you can now view our website History. Look at all the old Net66 faces of the past and pick your favourite. You can see how much has changed in web design from the very first blue (I know) website, to the beautiful red delight you see before you now.

There’s also plenty of information on How Google Works. We take an in depth look at the Algorithms, Links and other factors that Google looks into when deciding how to rank your website so you can see how it all works for yourself.

We’ve also updated our portfolio and just our web portfolio either. You can now see our SEO, Web Design and Ecommerce portfolios accompanied by our new Case Studies section. Take a look at our clients who have earned large contracts or developed their business exponentially with our help. Such as Winton Flooring, who got a large contract from the Olympics to lay the flooring down the “Fast Walk” event at the London 2012 Olympics.

I’ll let you finish reading now, I know you’re eager to poke around our site, but for our website at a glance take a look at the screenshots below:

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Net66 SEO: Link Building Techniques to Avoid Post Penguin

Even Pre Penguin there was a large buzz on the internet about what will work, what wont work, what you should remove, what you should add. But now that the dust has (seemingly) settled, it’s becoming apparent that certain ways to build links are not only ineffective, but will actively hurt your site’s performance in the SERPs. Here’s some things NOT to do when you’re link building now:

Quantity over Quality

Sure, having a link profile with hundreds linking root domains might look good, but it’s not all that effective if the hundreds of domains that are on there are low quality sites with little relevance to your own. I’ve often said this and will continue to say it, relevance is key! I would take one relevant, good quality website than one hundred links from irrelevant, poor quality websites. A whole afternoon’s work can be classified as a success even if you get 1 good link. If your boss get’s on your case for so few links, educate them.

Ignoring Your Own Site

People get hung up on guest posting and will reserve the best content to give to other blogs as this increases the likelihood of the other blog accepting and publishing your content, providing you with a link from a relevant blog. But why? I know you get a great link from it, but what about the links the content attracts for the blog where it’s published. If the content is that good, it’ll be worth linking to and will benefit that blog. You’ll get some secondary link juice from this, but not a lot. So why not publish that content on your own site, and receive all the organic links to it yourself?

Anchor Text Angst

OCATD. Obsessive Compulsive Anchor Text Disorder. People would spend so much time searching for that one link they could get where they could insert their own anchor text and manipulate this to boost rankings. With the advent of Panda, this is no longer going to work. It’s going to work against you in some cases, especially if your Link Profile is skewed so much that it has over 50% keyword anchor text. Think about it, if people were organically linking to your site would they choose to link to you with a keyword? And if so, what are the chances that you have a whole bunch of people all miraculously choosing the same phrase. Strikes me, and now Google thanks to Penguin, as a little odd.

No News is Good News

People publishing monthly/bimonthly press releases are either gifted with an incredibly high amount of foresight, or they’re actually fabricating “News” to release. The bottom line with this one is, if you have no news to report, you have nothing to report. You shouldn’t seek out the tiniest little thing and publish a press release, Google will get wise to this as press releases are usually reserved for Product launches, Re-branding and other such large projects. Not the fact that you’ve added a new page to your website.

There are so many other habits that people are finding hard to kick but as it stands these top the pile on my most seen poor link building practice podium so far.

What are yours?

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Net66 News: Google Maps Reaching New Heights

Today Google maps has reached a definite highlight in it’s service. It has now, not only taken street view for it’s first Skyscraper, it has chosen the tallest Skyscraper in the world. Check it out below:

View Larger Map

Clicking and dragging the street view man on the left hand side of the map to view the maps closer in.

You can view various different floors on the building as well gaining a beautiful vista of the city of Dubai.

Net66 SEO: Happy Summer Solstice

As Britons we love the sun. Being on the British Isles however it seems we rarely see it but today we see the sun for longer than any other day in the year with today being the summer Solstice. Every year the tilt of the Earth’s axis thrusts us closer to the sun and now we’ve reached as far as we can go. We now proceed with every day the sun sticks around for less and less time. Minuscule amounts of time to be fair, but soon enough it’ll be Christmas.

Google celebrated this glorious day by putting up a lovely Google Doodle of people in a swimming pool adorned with Google coloured hats.

Einstein states that for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction and in this case it’s true. As the Northern Hemisphere enjoys the most sun, the Southern Hemisphere has it’s day with the shortest amount of daylight. Google also celebrated this date with another Google Doodle. This time depicting a pair of hands knitting a scarf.

Which Doodle do you prefer?

Blog Post by: Greg McVey