August 2005 |
search engine positioning and its impact on brand reputation |
| In the course of the last net-update we mentioned
that a website we examined was outperformed on a search engine
by a hate site for its own company name. We thought that we
would come back to this, as it is an important point to be aware
of. |
| Lets take a rather extreme example of this to
illustrate the point. A search on Google for “Huntingdon
Life Sciences” shows that the company occupies top position.
However, eight of the next nine results can be described as
being hate sites. Remember, because of the popularity of Google
as a search tool, more people probably look at this page than
Huntingdon’s home page. |
| Its not too hard to see what the potential problems
are. Even without visiting any of the websites, you get a flavour
of their contents from the results page. It could scare off
potential customers, employees or even investors. That can have
a direct and negative impact on brand reputation. Even in the
wider picture, people previously undecided on the vivisection
debate, might find themselves influenced by the volume of material
and the emotive language used. |
| So if you find yourself in a similar situation,
what can be done about it? Well, before launching a costly PR
counter-offensive, or hiring a fleet of expensive lawyers, there’s
always the alternative of optimising your website. |
| Many website owners and webmasters only look at
getting the home page of a website to perform for the company
name. But not every website visitor has to come through the
front door. If there are a number of pages performing well for
the company name, then that denies search engine real estate
to other pages that might have less favourable things to say.
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Use and abuse of the <noscript> tag |
| Lately, we’ve come across a number of websites
where the <noscript> tag has been mis-used. When JavaScript
is added to provide extra functionality to a web page, the <noscript>
tag is meant to be used to provide an alternative for the users
who do not have it installed or active on their computer. |
| Instead, we have found a number of websites where
the <noscript> tag is stuffed with extra text and hyperlinks
in a bid to improve search engine performance. This is all very
well for most people, as they wont see it, but if you are part
of the minority that doesn’t have JavaScript running on
their computer, its all a bit of a nightmare. This is particularly
true for people using some screen readers. There is no choice
but to sit there and listen to a stream of redundant copy. |
| The search engines, whilst not explicitly
damning this practice, do generally frown against This kind
of thing, and the ultimate sanction could be to remove a website
from their listings. |
| Search engine optimisation generally
comes in two flavours – “white hat” and “black
hat”. Mis-using the <noscript> tag falls in the
latter category. If you are hiring a search engine optimisation
company, its important to know which camp they fall into –
because if this sort of practice is reported to Google, it could
result in your website being removed from the search engine.
And that could have a massive impact on your business. |
| One of websites we found misusing
the <noscript> tag was an e-commerce company, and a household
name at that. If Google had seen what they were doing, and decided
to remove them from their database, it could have had an impact
on their business worth millions of pounds. |
| This practice also impacts on accessibility. A
website optimised for the search engines in this way is very
much against the spirit of the Disability Discrimination Act.
Which is ironic, in a way, because it is generally accepted
that an accessible website tends to be naturally well optimised
for the search engines. |
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Jooly’s Joint 10th Birthday Celebration |
| On Saturday we attended the 10th
Anniversary of Jooly’s Joint. Jooly’s Joint is an
online community for people with Multiple Sclerosis. The website
is more than just a place to get information about the condition,
it’s a place for people to talk and share their experiences. |
| We can’t tell you how many
people we spoke to on Saturday night who testified that Jooly’s
Joint was a really important part of their lives. It was fantastic
to see so many people having such a great night, and we know
for a fact that we weren’t the only ones nursing sore
heads on Sunday morning. |
| So we would like to offer our congratulations
to Julie Howell, who set up Jooly’s Joint on the 10th
anniversary. |
| If you want out find out more
about Julie’s Joint, please visit http://www.joolysjoint.com
[opens in a new window]. |
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| That’s all for this month’s net-update.
If there’s a specific issue you’d like to see covered
next month, please let us know. |
| Ends |
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