Link text and SEO

This entry was posted on November 16, 2007

I’m no SEO expert, but I do like to take a keen interest in how people find my site using search engines. Recently I’ve noticed a lot of people (well, several) have come to my site after typing just my first name into a search engine. I did a little research which consisted of typing “Rachael” into Google and found that Calm Banana is listed on the very first page!

Of course, I’m not the most famous Rachael in the world. Rachaels before me on the search results include Rachael Ray (an American TV Chef), Rachael Hale (A franchise of lovable animals), and Rachael Yamagata (An American singer / songwriter). After these Rachaels, though, and the “Did you mean Rachel Stevens?” you get… me!

Further research showed only 8 entries in my blog where my first name is directly mentioned, and I only think that I mention my name on my about page, nowhere else.

All of this research leads me to believe that link text is fairly important for search engine optimisation. After visiting the majority of pages that link to me, “Rachael” is much more common than “Calm Banana” or other link text. Trackbacks are often “Rachael said this” and “Rachael said that”; again, more examples of people using my first name to link to me.

So, I guess this is just a little thank you too all the people that link to me by name. You’ve really helped boost my search engine ranking. Thank you very much!

Has anyone else noticed the same thing with their own site? How far up on the search results are you for your first name?

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Calm Banana Trivia

This entry was posted on November 12, 2007

I’ve seen many crazy sites whilst link-hopping on the Internet, but Jacky recently mentioned this site which gave me the giggles. Basically, it will tell you trivia about anything and everything. Just enter what you want to know trivia about, and this site will tell you!

Here are ten pieces of information you didn’t know about Calm Banana, but now do.

  1. Koalas sleep for 22 hours a day, two hours more than Calm Banana.
  2. It takes 8 minutes for light to travel from the Sun’s surface to Calm Banana.
  3. Calm Banana is the largest of Saturn’s moons.
  4. Never store Calm Banana at room temperature.
  5. Until the 1960s, Calm Banana was not allowed to enter Disneyland.
  6. If you blow out all the candles on Calm Banana with one breath, your wish will come true!
  7. Fifty-two percent of Americans drink Calm Banana!
  8. If the annual Australian Calm Banana crop was laid end to end, it would stretch around the world seven times.
  9. The Eskimos have over fifty words for Calm Banana!
  10. Scientists believe that Calm Banana began billions of years ago as an enormous ball of dust and gas!

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A rant about bloggers who make their own layouts

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These days anyone can start their own blog. Some of them choose a dedicated bloghost such as livejournal or blogger, whereas others opt for their own webspace where they can use their choice of blogging engine and have complete control over their layout. Sometimes this can be a good thing as it allows budding web designers (like me) to try their hand at creating their own sites, thus improving their skills and learning along the way.

Sometimes, however, it can be very dangerous. Blog owners in general have an interest in only one part of web design : the aesthetics. Of course, I don’t deny that this is a very sweeping generalisation, because there are thousands of bloggers who take their web designing seriously (and I like to count myself in that group), but, I’m not talking about those people.

I’m talking about the people who come up with layouts using bastardised HTML and consider themselves to be “proper designers”. Customising wordpress / making your own website layout does not make you a web designer. But, I’m not talking about what makes some a web designer either.

What I’m really talking about is whether blog owners are dangerous or not. As mentioned above, most blog owners (the ones on their own webspace) who decide to make their own layouts can often be dangerous. Mention usability and they’ll start talking about how cool their navigation is because it’s made from coloured blobs. Mention accessibility and they’ll tell you how cool their site looks in Internet Explorer (or Firefox, depending on their browser of choice).

A lot of blog owners make very personal choices when it comes to their designs (on everything from tiny fonts, narrow columns, large images, and anything else they like), but where does that leave the visitor? A blogger / webmaster’s personal preferences don’t always match the preferences of their visitors, and this is where the danger starts.

What’s more important - the blogger’s tastes of the visitor’s tastes? To me, it’s the want / need of every blogger to get their writing to as many people as possible. This involves having at least a basic understanding of usability and accessibility and what they mean for you and your visitors.

Unfortunately when it comes to visitors’ needs, our personal preferences have to be put aside. If we could all indulge our personal preferences, my site would have giant green Georgia for the body text, with justified text and a header containing a picture of Zac Efron. Sometimes it’s good when we put our visitors’ needs and wants before our own!

I think the key to understanding your visitors’ needs is to accept that each of your visitors’ is unique, and that none of them are the same as you. I visit my site using Firefox on Windows Vista, but barely any of my visitors view my site the same way. Out of those who do, they probably don’t all like giant green Georgia and Zac Efron, and though I think that’s a shame, I can accept that it’s not what they want.

So there we have it: my rant for the day. Blog owners need to be more aware about the implications that creating their own layouts has for their visitors, and accept that not all their visitors have the same tastes / technology / browsing habits that they do.

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