We have crafted a nice recipe for success for the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce.

The short article in a recipe format describes the basic how-to for optimiing your website for better rankings on the internet. You may read it here.

I visited a website they other day, that will remain nameless. My task was to find a particular page where I could submit some information for a service request. Now knowing that we deal with websites everyday, and that we have been around the website block many many times, we think that we would be able to navigate even any navigation structure put in front of us.

But to my utter surprise and frustration, I could not locate this page. Anywhere. There were hundreds of pages on this site, but my little old page was buried. Never to be found.

In frustration I called the company and had to actually have the customer service rep walk me, click by click, to the page I was seeking. It turned out the page was only accessible by click on a general topic link from the home page, and then scrolling down through a list of over 300 links, in alphabetical order, to another category link, and then finally the eighth link down in the right column was my target.

The moral of the story is thus. Make sure your website is usable by the users. Seems simple enough. Yet many companies, and government agencies make the fundamental mistake of creating a website with no logical way to find information.

How many customers could your website be turning away in frustration?
How quickly can a user find the information they are looking for on your website?

These are fundamental aspects of a website that if not handled properly, lead to a bad user experience.

About obu Web Technologies, inc:
Founded in 2003, obu Web Technologies has quickly become the leading professional website design company in Arizona. Many clients have turned to obu Web for progressive web design, search engine optimization, and internet marketing services. obu Web Technologies’ business friendly approach as help many growing businesses achieve a positive return on investment for their web design dollars. Located in the heart of the Arizona Tech community. 13951 N Scottsdale Rd. Suite 132, Scottsdale, Arizona, 85254 www.obuweb.com

The Google update was named Jagger1.. and it seems thus far to be sticking around.. SEO is still and will always be a viable way to achieve top rankings.. one just has to adapt to the changes in the algo. But as always content is king. Here is a nice post on Return of Design that talks about solid seo pratices focused around content.

Well well,

There are many theories being tossed around the many forums as to what Google was trying to accomplish with this update. This is common as the knee jerk reaction is to question, moan, and cry in despair. Over the next few days it will calm down and the serious work of really analyizing will begin. Some of the most recent theories include: that google is looking more for synonyms in anchor text, therefore ranking sites more from permutation and variety of keywords rather than strict semantics. Also many are suggesting that large directories that sell links, are being devalued. This MAY be an effort by google to discourage artifical popularity building.

Matt Cutts blog mentions a possible link and PR update coming soon. Perhaps within days.

Relax and let the dust settle..