Main | March 2007 »

February 09, 2007

Welcome

Welcome to Websites and Whatnot, a discussion of everything web (mainly the internet). This blog is moderated by two Ross School of Business sophomores, Eric Brackmann and Wesley King, in section 4 of BIT 200.

Posted by brackme at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)

Our Topic

Each week we will make a posting about current web trends, tips, concepts, debates, products, companies, news, or anything else web (internet) we can think of... We hope not only to provide a dialog about the web (internet), but also seek to provide you with a better (and easier) way to use it.

Posted by brackme at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Disclaimer

This post provides an explanation of SEO as I come to understand it from a number of resources and optimizing and managing SEO campaigns for a number of websites. I believe the information provided is 100% accurate; however, it is important to note that SEO is an incomplete science and very few people agree on the right approach.

A Word to the Wise

Always remember that SEO is tricky and no one can claim to be an expert. If you ever are told by a company that they can guarantee that your site will in the top results of the major search engines, they are attempting to deceive you. In the end, SEO is really guess work.

What is SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the science of not only improving the number of, but also the ‘quality,’ of visitors to your website (SEO, Wikipedia). There are a number of different ways to approach SEO and, unfortunately, they all require a certain amount of guess work. The fact is that no one, at least no one that will talk, knows the inner workings of the major search engines. To quote Wikipedia,

“Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask.com do not disclose the algorithms they use to rank pages…. Some SEOs have carried out controlled experiments… although consensus is rarely, if ever, actually reached. (SEO, Wikipedia)”
All that anyone can do is make educated guesses.

The one thing that most people can agree on is that SEO breaks down into two basic categories: ‘on page factors’ (internal SEO) and ‘off page factors’ (external SEO).

Check back soon for explanations...

Posted by brackme at 03:53 PM | Comments (2)

February 11, 2007

SEO Part II (Internal and External SEO Explained)

Disclaimer

This post provides an explanation of SEO as I come to understand it from a number of resources and optimizing and managing SEO campaigns for a number of websites. I believe the information provided is 100% accurate; however, it is important to note that SEO is an incomplete science and very few people agree on the right approach.

Internal SEO

Internal SEO can be a little difficult, but most agree that design and content are your best weapons. In particular, you should strongly consider:

When done correctly, these items can be of enormous benefit to your site. On the other hand, there are also many things that can tarnish your site in the ‘eyes’ of a search engine, including:External SEO

External SEO can be just as important as internal SEO. Effectively, external SEO comes down to incoming linking. The logic is that if people want to link to your site, than you have content that is worth looking at. Furthermore, if a really highly ranked site links to yours, you must have really great content. In short, whoever has the links makes all the rules.

So what can you do to get your links out there? Quite simply, advertise with Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing. These programs are by far the best bang for your buck. They are easy to use and will almost instantly drive traffic to your site. Some SEOs also suggest listing in directories such Yahoo Directory, which can be costly, but effective.

What shouldn’t you do? Buy or exchange links or advertising on ‘shady’ sites. Link exchange sites are not your friends. They will not help you achieve a better ranking. Search engines know that these exist and will knock you down for using them. In short, only work with companies and sites you really trust.

Posted by brackme at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)

Pandora Internet Radio - Helping to find new artists

For my first blog, I thought I'd talk about a website that I have been using on and off for about a year now, but have recently become a huge fan of. The website is

The basic premise of the site is that you enter several songs you like (in a certain genre) and they analyze your choices for common music melodies, instrumentals, and lyrical content, to name only a few of their criteria. From the data they gather, they play different artists on your "radio station," and there you are, discovering artists no one else has even heard of. If you dislike a song, you just give it a thumbs down. If you especially like a song, give it a thumbs up.

After a few sessions of fine tuning your station, you are listening to songs that you have never heard before, but you somehow find yourself enjoying.

Among the things I enjoy most about the site is the instant feedback that you can give the Pandora program, which can instantly shift the focus of a certain station. A thumbs up will open up a whole new box of music. Also, the website draws from almost a century of music, so there are probably hundreds of thousands of artists and songs that they draw their data from.

It's a great site, and the more time I spend on it, the better suited to my personal tastes the music is. If you want to go a little further, you can buy a personal Pandora.com player, a bit like a more specific Sirius or XM mp3 player.

Posted by kiwesley at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2007

Over optimization?

My last entry on SEO has got me thinking and I’ve done a little more reading. In my research I came across an article on over optimization. The idea is that a website could be 'punished' by search engines for being too perfect. That’s right; a site gets punished for being too perfect. For example, if a site contains too many keywords in comparison to the total number of words in the site, search engines assume the site was designed for search engines and not people, and is therefore, not as ‘good’ as another site. It may sound crazy, but it is a valid guess at what search engines do. Take a look at the article.

Posted by brackme at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2007

WEB 2.0

Forget about that first Internet, the one that had all those business websites like Amazon.com and Ebay.com; old news, the both of them. If you have been on top of things and logged-on to the web, you know about the NEW internet. Web 2.0.

Social networking sites are the "IT" thing nowadays, and, if you haven't wiki'd something, you're old news. Let's see. How about "michiwiki" or "U of Mikiwiki," something along those lines. There. That's it. I'm "in." Actually, I'm taking part in the revolution right now, I'm blogging. So pretty much if you are doing what everyone else is doing and you are on the Internet, you are probably taking part in Web 2.0.

One of the most indicitive aspects of a Web 2.0 site is the fact that it is user-guided. It goes hand in hand with OpenSource projects, users are encouraged to use the website and add to it.

Many websites include the following technology:


.... and much more.

Interested in experiencing some of these websites? Then click here to check out some of the most popular Web 2.0 applications!


Posted by kiwesley at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2007

Google - The Best Company to Work For

Fortune recently released its list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For 2007” and Google is at the top. Something truly unique is happening at Google, in a world where the trend is offer less, they offer more - free gourmet food, exercise facilities, on-site doctors and a relaxed approach create an atmosphere, that according to the article, is “like college.” Is this the future of human resources? Is the company that revolutionized (and continues to revolutionize) the internet revolutionizing the way we look at our human capital? Check out the article.

Posted by brackme at 06:35 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2007

Quick Definition: Analytics

Analytics is the science of tracking visitors in a website. It is by far the most important part of managing a website - using any number of products the owner of a site can track their visitors and gather information about them and their experience, including (just to name a few):

To learn more about analytics, look over the following:


Posted by brackme at 07:41 PM | Comments (1)