Read one Irish entrepreneur's blog as she operates a business in Dublin
Giving Bad News To People
August 29, 2005
I know now how a doctor must feel when she's giving some terminal news to her patient. I just had to do the same in relation to a website that looks like it might have been blacklisted by Google.
We were invited to pitch for a search engine optimisation job recently. When we took a closer look at the backend of the site, we found that the structure of the pages is near to impossible to optimise. The site is managed by a content management system developed by a web design house in Dublin. Instead of including content in the pages, it includes references to other pages where that content lies. And on those pages there are references to content on other pages, and so on. A bit like trying to navigate your way around Tokyo with a map drawn by someone on hallucinogenic drugs!
Another company came on board last year to optimise the site and used doorway pages to do so. A short term solution to a long term problem. Google despises doorway pages as it deems them to be spam. And rightly so.
What has happened now is that it appears as though the site may have been blacklisted by Google. That is the website equivalent of getting cancer. You do not want that to happen to your site.
So today I had to deliver the bad news that this site is sick and in order to repair it, there is a lot of time consuming work to be done. It did not make me feel good. And it did not make me feel happy to be delivering bad news to a company that has honestly invested fairly large amounts of money into their online presence.
So the moral of this story is - search engine optimisation is a time consuming process. There are no shortcuts to a high ranking. And it does not pay to try to be smarter than Google.
If you have a site that is not getting the rankings it deserves, contact us for an honest appraisal of what we can do for you. You can be assured of a clear response with realistic objectives and targets.
Google Launches Skype Rival
August 24, 2005
"We are going to be the first in the world to connect everyone to everyone". So said Georges Harik of Google as they announced the launch of a new service to rival Skype. (Imagine having that as your corporate mission! I'm struggling with 'double sales and profit in 12 months'!)
Google Talk will offer voice over internet telephone services to users and marks another step by Google to build a cluster of programmes on the net that act like an operating system. Google wants to turn its collection of services and add-on programs such as the Desktop Search sidebar into a helper that users can turn to no matter what they want to do.
If that last paragraph read very well and came across as being written by a well informed person, that's because it was lifted off the BBC News item on this story!
The Ovum telecoms consultancy says that if the story is accurate, Google search results could be linked to its Net phone service, enabling customers to call anyone or any company connected to it direct from their PC.
Whatever!
I will stick with skype because they make my life and my phone bills much easier. I feel very loyal to them because they offer all this to me for free. Now I know they're going to start looking for revenue real soon, but until they do, I'll remain a skyper. Find out more about Brightspark's views on skype.
Anyway, I love the sound of Skype as it rolls of the tongue - say it with a country accent and you'll see what I mean.
Skangers are official!
August 15, 2005
Guess what?
The term 'skanger' is now part of the lexicon. It's defined on that wikipedia....and for your linguistic pleasure you can read about it here.
Here in Dublin, the home of the term, we spell it with the k..but c goes. You wouldn't believe the amount of traffic we get to this site from people searching for the word "skanger", that might fall off somewhat now that it's included in that most wonderful of online encyclopedias - wikipedia.
But do keep reading the Brightspark blog becauase we like to bring you lots of new things to think about and terms to throw about in your dinner party conversations...
Site To Be Proud Of
August 03, 2005
About to share another one of my sites with you now - this one is for Impetus HR Consultants. This site needed to be written for two audiences:
- People in the HR industry who would understand the jargon
- People with a HR need who come from industry
Not only that but in true consultant style, the owner of the business, had a number of points he wanted to make by way of illustration. Not wanting to deliver another set of same-old images that can be viewed on any site around the world, Brightspark commissioned a set of illustrations to translate the client's needs into a unique and quirky set of images to convey the main points of each HR service. Take a look and I'm sure you will agree that they have been extremely well executed by my favourite illustrator in town!
Work is underway at optimising the site for the search engines - Google, I hope you follow this link to an international HR consultant and add it to your listings!
Overall, it's been a very nice project to work on. The owner of the business is open to suggestion, so it's been creatively enjoyable. The site looks good, reads well shortly will be found by anyone searching for HR consultancy services.
That's it. Brag over!
Fun on a Bank Holiday Monday
August 01, 2005
Working away on the Brightspark site today - while the rest of the country is out enjoying the day. Ah well that's the way it goes. I think they refer to it as 'cobblers shoes' - the way the cobbler never has good shoes because he's so busy making them for other people. [Brighstpark has very good shoes indeed!]
I received this in an email from a good friend of mine - handy tool for cleaning screens...
"The other day I noticed that my computer monitor was not quite as clear as when we first purchased it. Apparently the electrons build up on the inside of the screen with time, and the picture deteriorates. I found a free program that I used to 'clean' the inside of the screen and the improvement was quite noticeable."
Go on, try it, it's free and it's not a virus. And it's so cute!