Webdesign book

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good book on web design...how to change text on a website, urls etc. I need to know how to change a website in technical ways for google etc to recognise it and index urls, how to change titles and meta tags for relevancy...

Thanks.

Hi Seonewbie,

Is your only goal to optimise the page's ranking in Google etc. or are you going to maintain the site generally?

Google largely (completely?) ignores the title and meta-tags in favour of its own pagerank algorithm. Which is a good thing, really.

Hi Exile,
Well it started as an seo exercise but basically I've now realised that the web site in question is going to need a lot of work. I know nothing which i have figured out from reading seobook.com and web posts.

Another problem is that google can't read site apparently because it is java script or something. What a task!

So need abook that covers how to change all these things for both seo and one that teaches me how to do it so I can maintain site as consultants are way too expensive...Any suggestions greatly appreciated (I know I'm expecting alot from a book)

Ah, "seo"newbie, I get it

There used to be an O'Reilly book called "Webmaster in a nutshell" which admittedly I haven't read, but I think gave a good overview of everything one needs to know/be able to do to manage a site, without being a specific reference on any one technology. I don't know if they released further editions, 'cause otherwise it would probably be years out of date now. If you need to learn HTML or JavaScript there are free courses on the web which would give you a grounding pretty quickly.

Hard to believe Google can't read a website - was that possibly just a theory as to why it wasn't highly ranked? The most fundamental element to Google's ranking (if I remember correctly) is how many OTHER sites link to yours - and if they have a high ranking themselves then their 'opinion' counts all the more.

Thanks Exile,

I'll have a look for an updated version of that book...do you know the addresses or names of those sites that give those courses????

I don't know what the story is with google but it doesn't like our site at all. Using a google tool that they supply to search for keywords said that there was wasn't enough text to search --- but the site is only text and there is alot of it. So now forced to get know the area so I can figure out the problem. Had read blogs, advice etc that said Google can't read Javascript or flash. Maybe that's the problem but as I don't know the area so I can't say for certain, hence my rapid search to figure it out!!!

Theres a lot of factors involved in getting a good ranking. Its strange that google can't read your site text. Was it done in flash? Or is the text flattened as an image (ie not html text?) Who designed the site in the first place?

Hi Paddi22,

Not worried about ranking yet cause heard it takes ages to be ranked and only just started...starting tho to develop quality links to the site etc.

No its not in flash, I think its in Javascript but not sure. Meeting tomorrow with the web designers that developed site so hopefully they can explain the problem. Maybe I did something wrong when I was using the google tool...very possible!!!!!

SEOnewbie,

The most important part of ranking for Google is inward links to your site. Google translates these as "votes" for your site and increases your ranks according to the number and quality (high page rank) of the sites linking in to you.

Also, if you primarily target customers based in Ireland then Google needs to be your main focus as 80% of Internet users here use Google which makes MSN and Yahoo etc a much lower priority.

I actually own a website company that is primarily focused on websites as a marketing tool, rather than just being pretty brochures. If you would like to talk it through just give me a shout. No hard sell, I promise! ([broken link removed] or mkelly@ridge-web.ie )

..........if it's down to one specific term that you would like a high ranking for, you could also consider googlebombing.

A typical example can be seen by searching for the word "failure" in Google.

Google also gives an explanation here.

Thanks all for your replies! Must get moving on the google thing!

Yikes - be careful of things like Googlebombing. Make sure you're familiar with the "Google Sandbox" before you try anything too tricky. You could get your website blocked by Google for a year if they decide they don't like your tactics (they'll deny this of course!).