North by North Interactive Web Design » North By North Interactive Web Design and Development

Perfect Pitch

joshfeck — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:47:08 +0000

Why a fairly innocuous discussion about perfect pitch gets a DMCA complaint…sent to Google.

The slippery snake oily slope starts here?

The Great SEO Debate of 10/09

joshfeck — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:11:19 +0000

Last week Derek Powazek harshed on the SEO industry with some valid points. This led to quite a lot of discussion all over the interwebs. Of note was Danny Sullivan’s balanced open letter in response.

I think there’s truth to what both are saying.

The sad thing is, I’ve seen sites built by self-proclaimed SEO experts:

built entirely with tables
with random keywords stuffed all over the place, even in the footer
with titles left blank
without H2 tags around the main headings

I could go on, but I think my point is there’s a big difference between those who can build great sites that perform well and those who don’t. But it’s not easy for the average client to figure this out.

Something brought up in the bigger discussion is the need for consumer education. This responsibility falls on the more reputable designers developers, and optimizers out there.

Update: The title is a bit crass, but this article revisits this topic two years later. Anything change since 2009? Not much.

Google Does Not Use Keyword Meta Tags

joshfeck — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:00:12 +0000

Here’s a question I get asked a lot: Can’t you just add the keywords to the site with the Meta Tag? “Well, I could, but it doesn’t really work that way. Because if it did, well, everyone else would too.” My usual ineffective answer.

Matt Cutts from Google posted a nice simple video that will hopefully clear this up for the masses.

So, don’t sweat the meta tag keywords.