Of the many methods a company can employ to optimise their website, we’d recommend you give text cloaking a really wide berth. SEO specialists’ views on the effectiveness of different SEO techniques differ greatly depending on who you speak to. However, text cloaking is a technique which is universally regarded as black hat and definitely one that reputable online marketers would stay well away from.

Text cloaking refers to the practice of showing differing content or URLs to users than is presented to the search engines. Serving up different results based on user agents is deemed dishonest, and can cause your site to be perceived as deceptive, resulting in its removal from Google’s Index.

The penalties for cloaking are severe and you will be caught, it is simply a matter of when. The first step will be your immediate removal from the major search engines, and often many of the less popular ones as well. And depending on the severity of the text cloaking, you may well be blacklisted. Blacklisting is as bad as it gets as far as search engine penalties go; not only will you have to begin the marketing of your site from scratch; you will also have to purchase another domain name.

This is why it is so important to be 100% sure of the intentions of any external party you pay to carry out your website optimisation. You should always use an ethical SEO organisation, as sustainable white hat methods will always outweigh any quick gain you may experience from unethical practices. It’s simply not worth the risk.

So why do people still use cloaking to improve their website SEO? That’s a good question actually, one to which we really don’t have the answer. With so many ethical methods to employ, we really don’t understand why anyone would run the risk of trying to cheat the search engines.

Here at Designer Websites we specialise in the production of high-end, functional websites which support ethical SEO techniques. For further information or for a quote from South Wales’ premier website developers, contact us today.

Importance of internal linking and site architecture for SEO

Meta tags are one of the first considerations in any website’s on-site SEO efforts. They are amongst the easiest on-site elements to change, and in the case of the meta-description, can influence what searchers see in search engine results. There are more meta tags than just those for the ‘keywords’ and ‘description’, and although there has been much debate over the value of such tags, skilfully written meta tags can greatly help with your website SEO efforts.

Which tags should be included in website design?

There are many types of meta tag, but those you should concern yourself with from an SEO point of view are:

Meta Content Type

This tag allows you to control how your site is rendered in a user’s browser. Failure to include this meta tag can result in an illegible page or faulty design. Web designers will normally use such a tag in the design process, but incorrect usage have a detriment effect on SEO as broken pages lead to high bounce rates.

Meta Description

The meta description tag is one of the most important, allowing you to describe your page to the search engines. More importantly however, many search engines use this description in their SERPs. This tag should therefore contain your targeted keywords and entice searchers to click onto your site; this is effectively your sales pitch.

Robots

The robots tag allows you to dictate whether a search engine follows links and indexes pages on your website. Although, this tag isn’t necessary for search engines to follow a link and index a page as they do so by default, even in the absence of a robots tag. You only need to concern yourself with this tag if you do not want a link followed or page indexed. It is also possible to use specific bot tags if you need a specific robot to perform an action.

Language

This tag can be used to dictate the primary language in which your site is written. This is rarely used in domestic settings but can be useful if you expand abroad or relocate to another country.

Source

This is a relatively new meta tag introduced by Google in a bid to identify the source of the news stories it ranks. Similar to social media where the authority of the author is considered as a ranking factor, we can expect source authority to become an important element of the search algorithm in the future.

Keywords

The keywords meta tag has long been discounted as a ranking factor mainly due to its abuse in the early days of website optimisation. This said, best practice dictates the keywords meta tag should still be included as you never know exactly which factors the search engines will deem important in the future.

Refresh

If your site is using this tag you should change it to a 301 redirect; this tag will have a negative effect on your website optimisation.

Used effectively, meta tags can reward your website with a real SEO boost. On the other hand, if you ignore the tags you can expect a negative effect on your website SEO.  A good website designer will optimise your met tags for you. Here at Designer-Websites.co.uk we can ensure your website optimisation works for, and not against, your website.

We have been working very hard on a new website for Access Training Wales Ltd, a specialist trade training company based in Cardiff, South Wales. The website is very large and contains detailed information on the various trade training courses offered by the company, for example plumbing training, electrician training, plastering training etc. The company have been delivering trade training courses for many many years and have a fantastic facility in Cardiff, which is purpose built to deliver these types of training courses.

The owners came to us with the requirement to completely redesign and rebuild their old website with a particular view to optimising the new site for the search engines. The trades training industry is very competitive and as such their are many large training companies like these guys who are spending lots of time, energy and money on getting their websites to the top of the search engines for the particular courses that they deliver, so this is a pretty tough ask, however we live to prove that we can do this and although we have only recently launched this site our client is already seeing improvements on the number of enquiries, and this will significantly improve over the next few months, of that I am positive.

Working with this company it was easy to see how passionate they are about delivering high quality training to individuals who want to learn a new skill or even develop a new career. They really get a buzz out of seeing their clients/students complete a course and become a qualified trades person, and that is admirable in my book.

The site is pretty large and contains over 160 pages, which was very hard to write and convert into a website. I think there really is a training course for every trade and every trade related qualification possible! Anyway take a look at the new Access Trade Training site and if you have stumbled upon this page because you are looking for trade training courses then you've definitely found the right place, get yourself on one of these courses and you'll be qualified in no time!

We were approached by an artist who is based both in the UK and the United Arab Emirates with this idea of an online gallery where art lovers could enjoy and collect art from various high calibre artists from around the globe, and artists could show off and even promote their works to an appropriate audience of art lovers. We designed a solution which allows artists to get involved, upload their art, upload a profile and even make some money from the digital versions of the art. The system then allows art lovers to peruse the art on screen and keep their own collections in their accounts, which then could be used on their TV's, mobile devices and digital pictures frames.. in a similar way to their music collections.

The idea is brilliant and although the system is quite complex, using it is very easy and intuitive. It is great for artists because they can get their work out there and they don't have to pay expensive art gallery prices to do so. However its even better for art lovers because it brings together all of these brilliant pieces of art, to leave you only to have to pick your favourite. we love the site and cannot wait to hear it become a household name, for the art-minded of course!

The site is currently in Beta mode whilst the owner of the website finds the appropriate artists to join the online art gallery revolution, but is expected to be in full swing during the second quarter of 2011, so keep your eyes peeled for this site if you love art.

We have just launched a new website for one of first ever clients, we first starting working with Craig Freeman back in 2004 and we first developed a site for them back then. We have now developed a brand new website for them based on the new branding and we think it looks great. The company is a firm of specialist dental accountants who mostly work with dentists, however they do also take on other business type clients and they are in fact our accountants and have been since we incorporated the company. More recently they have worked with a wide variety of clients whist growing their business in terms of the dental accountancy services. We of course thoroughly recommend these guys as accountants, particularly if you are looking for an accountant in the Cardiff area.

Take a look at the new website here.. Specialist Dental Accountants