the long and short of it is that you need a good one.
A client, had a site which for one reason or another was inaccessible, I remade the content choosing this (cheap) URL a cumbersome www.frenchmediterraneanproperty.info. a nightmare to type ( but once in your browser cache it comes up straight away ).
Any combo of a Google 'browser bar' search using the keywords FrenchMediterranean and Property will bring this site up... So, I think that if your key (descriptive) words, are in your URL, you have a better chance of climbing, than if your URL say, only comprises your name...We have all done it, Google your own name. Ronald Birks is plastered all over the web, several mentions have emanated from SFN, thanks guys!
However this is not much use as you would need to know my name, not my business sector. The obscure spelling of the name helps, but also I publish lots of pics, which when clicked on in the images search of Google....here, many pics come back to SFN, aw it's nothing guys!
Word splitting is also food for thought. Apostrophes, I believe aren't permissible, underscores Ugly, can you use Upper and Lower....I have many sites to do with Cap D'Agde ...difficult to URLerise!
This is probably a good working example of the 'perfect' site.( in my humblest of opinions ) Stunning graphics, rich content, easy to navigate, no wizzes and bangs. Elevationstudios is a design and marketing house in Swindon, headed up by Sam Allen a former student of mine. Sam was also in my employ for 10 years, and it was to him I gave my business 10 years back when I retired.
The topic here is on improving your ranking, but that is only part of the story. Selection of the right web address is also key. People in my opinion overvalue the worth of a .com, sure it's generic and says 'business'. But if you are and individual, charity, or club you might want .me.org. or .info. The suffix brokers are coming out with new combos all the time there is now I believe .xxx hmmmmmm great if you are a brewer of Strong Ale?
I looked at .us once thinking ooo 'sounds a bit like a partnership', but woh! its stands for United States, leave well alone! I have a ful list of www suffixes and what the are normally used for. Just ask and I will publish them.
Many more things have a bearing as to whether your site is 'working for you' Does it create 'stickiness?' ie are visitors encouraged to stay/re-visit....are they responding to your 'call to action' ie to join up, visit your FB page, make an enquiry etc.
Many sites nowadays, whilst carrying out the job of 'informing'/selling are there also to encourage 'clicking'....as purely for, or in addition to, the site's function to be part of a revenue stream, generated by this activity. Nothing wrong with this, at all.
You probably need a site that will do the job you need. If it's a shop, then it should be a shop. If you are a design agency then you are gonna have that 'Flash' or now XHTML5 intro that's more detailed than an arcade game. Fine as long as you can 'cancel' it!
Here is another site from a former partner Martyn Poynor
No text, but easy to navigate, clean, simple and gets to the point, it is a 'showcase' to publish his photographs. Better snaps, in my opinions youwould find difficult to find anywhere on the web.
What I guess we are saying is that this site has less change of being 'visible' because of the lack of text. My understanding is that because of so much 'abuse', the major search engines rely much less on text and metatags nowadays...is that true?
Might need the Turbonerds on this one Steve. My knowledge is scant. From my experience, Blogs shift up PDQ, changing content? dunno.
It always makes sense to link back to Mother site, but you would do that. I am fairly sure that if your drag down a YouTube clip, preferably your own, this improves your hit rate. I also spoke to a specialist who said Google spiders prefer certain 'web friendly Type faces: Ariel, Helvetica etc. although he pointed out that this will not be the case in the futre as more and more 'modern' Body and Display fonts are being accepted.
The interesting thing about Simon, his standing in the music industry is clear, is that his style of Graphics, montage, double imaging, destroyed text, has been his since.... well college days, 40 years back. The street/grunge look is now all the rage, believe me Simon Ryan was the original.
The site says a kind of statement to me. Understated, and here it is. Clearly the work speaks for itself.
My main website has a good hit rate, been around for a few year and the guys that built it look after the SEO.
However, I am trying to get higher hits on my blogs and all this info really help. One blog for my cycle shop is just a show case for my product, as I do not do mail order I only need local traffic. But as much of the contents is about top end brands I automatically seem to be getting lots of hits, with hardly any posts, which is a little irrelevant as many are from the US.
My other sites are slower in building up, despite adding post a few times a week. I have also switched to Wordpress from blogger for a new site for my book. Despite what I have read it seems Wordpress is giving me quite a few hits in the first week.
Now I find that deeply irritating. Complete and utter lack of info and content. And the address and phone no slapped in the middle of the page? Please!
Don't tell your friend - or if you do rephrase my comments though!
This is all really helpful and interesting guys, though I think that my site fits the sort of criteria that has been mentioned so far (I hate clutter and flashy stuff too - it's just a distraction, try to use key words etc in the right places). The problem is I guess it's difficult not to have tunnel vision about your own website.
from a purity point of view, I personally don't like clutter ( visually ) on a page, printed or otherwise. Minimum text for me. What is annoying about Google and the other spiders from Mars is that it seems they like the 'wordy'....and I believe to 'secrete' words in pages is disapproved of. I.e. Black text on black background.