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In the first weeks of January, Google began rolling out a new and more power version of their search engine, code named “Caffeine”.

Is your Web site up to snuff? Has your Web design company or developer taking into consideration the future of Google search and SEO in general? If you are using the World Wide Web as part of your business strategy or if you are trying to figure out how to incorporate a Web strategy, understanding what “Caffeine” has in store is important.

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As a Web designer and developer, Firefox has become my Web browser of choice. I’m not using Firefox because I hate Internet Explorer or because Google Chrome is Safari based. I use Firefox because it offers the best tools for my job of designing and developing search engine friendly Web sites. One of the reasons is that Firefox has a plugin interface which allows software developers to write “mini applications” that work within Firefox.

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2010 looks like it will be a big year for SEO (search engine optimization) with a lot of the web trends of 2009 such as Twitter making its way into SEO. 2009 seemed to be a dismal year for most every industry including SEO. With the US economy picking up and the ever increasing awareness of technology, we are looking forward to leaving 2009 behind us.

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One of our current projects at Abraxas Web Design & SEO is Web design and development for Mike Collins & Associates. Mike Collins & Associates  is one of the larger IT firms in Chattanooga with offices in Chattanooga, Nashville, and Knoxville.

Mike Collins & Associates (MCA) came to us asking for a new Web design that would both help them build on their current client base and be used as a resource for their existing clients. MCA’s previous design was done in-house and based on templates. They wanted to go beyond the original design with a more compelling look.

After meeting with the “stakeholders”, we began thinking about the Web design that MCA needed. Today we have a total of three mockups that we have presented. The first mockup is a very clean, straight forward design that focuses on information. The second mockup again straight forward and clean but put more emphasis and graphics and animation to draw the user to the information. The third mockup is a combination of the first two. These mockups were rendered with Adobe Photoshop.

[View with PicLens]

This article continues from SEO Tip: Improve PageRank (Google PageRank Demystified…Sorta) Part 2. As with any of our articles you should be aware of the disclaimer:

Disclaimer: Chattanooga Search Marketing Blog features SEO and Web Design tips for the benefit of our readers and clients in order for them to understand what we do and help them with their own SEO projects. As with any SEO technique, these techniques and tips are based on our experience and are our best opinions. Our opinion may change and this tip may still exist.

It has been a little while since I started this series of articles. I expect that everyone is waiting on pins and needles to learn more. After I bashed PageRank in the previous installment; you are wondering why you should read this. Honestly, PageRank isn’t going to help you much with SERPs.

Here’s what it will do for you: PageRank is Google’s way of measuring how important your Web site (actually Web page) is to the overall World Wide Web. If you have a PageRank of 10, then you must be very important. If you have 0 PageRank, then you aren’t important at all. Most Web site home pages have a PageRank of 3 or lower. Depending on what your PageRank is that is how Google treats you – but not in SERPs.

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I have written an article that is filed in the pages of this Web site offering up advice to Chattanooga business owners (and any other business owner) regarding picking a SEO company and a Web design company. I didn’t think the full article warranted a post in the Search Marketing Blog, because, there is no real SEO tip there, but is more intended for prospective clients. However, I did want to bring up a few highlights and point those interested over to the proper article for more details.

As most “real” experts in the SEO business know, we are constantly fighting false information, and companies offering less than desirable SEO techniques. Just as buying anything, the informed buyer is a better buyer. That’s the goal for this article, to inform the buyer.

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This article continues from SEO Tip: Improve PageRank (Google PageRank Demystified…Sorta) Part 1. As with any of our articles you should be aware of the disclaimer:

Disclaimer: Chattanooga Search Marketing Blog features SEO tips for the benefit of our readers and clients in order for them to understand what we do and help them with their own SEO projects. As with any SEO technique, these techniques and tips are based on our experience and are our best opinions. Our opinion may change and this tip may still exist.

In the previous article I introduced some of the common myths about Google PageRank. There are many myths, but the three that I listed are the most common and are somewhat tied together. The reason for discounting the myths is simple. It’s important to work on other aspects of your website and not to just grieve over PageRank night and day.

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(Disclaimer: Chattanooga Search Marketing Blog features SEO tips for the benefit of our readers and clients in order for them to understand what we do and help them with their own SEO projects. As with any SEO technique, these techniques and tips are based on our experience and are our best opinions. Our opinion may change and this tip may still exist.)

When Google exploded in the search space in prehistoric times (1998), one of the concepts that made Google much better than the popular search engines of the time (Alta Vista, Excite, etc.) was PageRank. Of course, PageRank, was not the only thing that made Google better, but it is one of those things that allowed Google to provide better search results. PageRank has evolved since 1998, and I expect it to continue to evolve. Search engine optimization (SEO) experts that figured out PageRank in those early days were able to get results for clients, and those who had always done practical SEO continued to do well.

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