Copyright © 2010 Colin Skinner 2010-09-06T16:40:05+0100 2010-09-06T16:40:05+0100 http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. http://www.i-com.net/blog/ http://i-com.net/images/icom-net.gif http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. I-COM International blogmaster at i-com dot net Colin Skinner Colin Skinner en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 http://www.i-com.net/blog/assessing-and-dealing-with-a-devastating-drop-in-rankings-379/ All in-house and agency SEO experts who manage websites have come across the dreaded 'drop in rankings' scenario after an algorithm change or update. However, there is a better way to deal with the situation than losing the plot and going off on a Google slating session. Some website owners have reported up to a 90% drop in recent traffic following the Mayday update. Unusually, Google themselves has cited the update as a possible reason for changing rankings. Clearly, in situations like this there is no point moaning until Google revise the algorithm. The only thing you can do is try to find out where the issue is and address it. By looking at drastic ranking changes in a positive light, you may be able to correct issues and ultimately find that your long-term site results exceed their previous levels. Once you have settled on the idea of resolving the issue you must then come to terms with the timescales involved. All search engine experts know that ranking improvements will not happen overnight. Once the damage has been assessed and the possible causes determined, you then have to spend a fair amount of time figuring out how to retrieve your site's previous status. Before reporting the issue to the client as simply "Google's fault", you may want to try some basic checks and research to eliminate certain possibilities: Site Metrics - checking if the ranking drop is across the entire site or just certain pages gives you a clue of where to look and whether recent page amendments have triggered the fall. Also checking the percentile drop per page can tell you if some pages' characteristics are having the most effect. Indexing Problems - Double check that nothing is blocking the search engine robots from indexing your site's content. If a robot is being blocked then the chances are that you will see a drop in traffic from all the search engines, rather than just one. You can confirm this by looking into Analytics statistics and within Google Webmaster Tools for flagged issues. Penalties - bad behaviour in the form of black hat SEO techniques can result in search engine penalties, so reviewing your recent SEO methods may be a good way of eliminating this from the list of possible reasons for a sudden drop in rankings. Content - ensure duplicate content has not played a part in the issues and examine not only the uniqueness of site content but also where the origin of the content. If a new page leans too heavily on its reference sources, the search engines might devalue it. Links - check the link profile for the site. If a number of acquired links are from a similar network, the search engines may devalue them. Information Architecture - research the types of websites that have been impacted by recent algorithm changes and if these sites can be categorised by the type of architecture they employ. Algorithm - checking for algorithm change information that has been made public (this is rare) can shed light on possible reasons. This can be tricky as the majority of algorithm changes or updates aren't even acknowledged. SEO Community - one of your best sources for analysis and commentary on the latest algorithm changes is the SEO community and, in particular, their blogs and forums. While researching and reading this information it is important to stay critical of the references and theories, as a lot of it is both contradictory and biased. Even if you have come to terms with your predicament, your employer or client may still be panicking about the implications of the drop in visitors. Calming down frenzied clients or managers is hard enough but an SEO shouldn't make the mistake of making continuous site changes, most of which can't be realistically measured. Explain the reasons for the drop in rankings and explain how you are going to address these issues. Create a corrective plan of action and keep your client fully informed of your progress, ensuring they are aware that you are doing everything improve the situation. It would be great to be able to say that it will all be resolved by Friday in time for celebratory beers, but you must be realistic in managing client expectations and let them know realistically how long corrective measures may take. Patience is a virtue that any SEO must possess, but it is particularly important during a period of confusion over sudden changes in rankings. If any Search Engine Optimisers have any further tips for this sort of situation then feel free to add them to the comments. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-08-09 15:23:19 http://www.i-com.net/blog/assessing-and-dealing-with-a-devastating-drop-in-rankings-379/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/cybercriminals-seo-techniques-362/ After reading a McAfee report on The Web's Most Dangerous Search Terms, I got thinking about the SEO techniques which can and are being used by everyone from "solo operators to organized criminals", to fraudulently and illegally con the everyday searcher into clicking on a site. These online criminals' increasingly sophisticated efforts are said to be raking in as much as 7,300 a day according to one web security firm. Image from Net-Security.org A popular method used by cybercriminals is the inputting of popular keyword typos (such as Obbama), found through Google Trends, into their site's meta data, as these are uncompetitive and therefore easy to get a site indexed for, are searched for on a daily basis and mean their site can easily be mistaken by users as a trustworthy link. Once the link has been clicked the website (most likely a blog) will spread a malware virus onto the computer through a "video codec" file, or to other users through email or instant messenger. Another technique these cybercriminals use is the common desire by people to 'work from home', which lures many of them into a cyber trap. According to Hitwise the most popular and risky of these terms is "free work from home". In my opinion if you are ignorant enough to be searching for a 'free' job (presumably implying that you either don't have to put much effort into the interview process, or you work for free) then you may well deserve to be lured into a scam. Image taken from McAffee report The true depravity of the cybercriminals is revealed by those attempting to target global disasters terms (such as 'tsunami') to con potential charity givers into spreading a virus or donating to fund their crime. Back in 2005 'Google bombing', as it's known, was more effective, yet the search engines have retaliated in an attempt to lessen this type of crime. An obvious popular term at the moment is "World Cup" searched by millions of football hungry fans on a daily basis. This, and related terms, are being targeted by SEO criminals to push fake tickets and malware to unsuspecting punters. This is a particularly appropriate event to use for cybercriminals as many countries have less internet savvy populations, searching for updates on their football team. According to MacAfee the highest risk categories for search terms were 'Lyrics', 'Free' and 'Web'. All fairly popular terms that make up a number of keyword variants when combined with other words. The UK currently stands at 26th out of 27 listed countries most at risk from search cybercrime with the Czech Republic coming 1st. We (being non criminals) still don't understand a great deal about the way cybercriminals operate, particularly with the fast moving pace of the internet and changing SEO techniques. What we do know is that as much as virus protection software (such as McAffee) and search engines try and fight the battle against cybercriminals, popular culture will continue to drive more people thier way, seeking celebrity gossip, freebies and get rich quick schemes. McAfee points this out by stating "hackers are now motivated largely by profit, the biggest profits can be wrung from the largest pools of potential victims". Be aware when searching and always think before you click. For a guide to cybercriminals' exploitation of the World Cup visit Search Engine Watch. For more reports on Cybercrime and malicious sites visit Finjan. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-06-16 15:09:04 http://www.i-com.net/blog/cybercriminals-seo-techniques-362/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/optimising-your-facebook-fan-pages-353/ Before we talk about Facebook fan pages I think its important to establish the difference between a group and a fan page. Groups on Facebook are perfect for planning an event or letting people know about a cause on a personal level such as charity sponsorship or a party event. Pages are suited to companies, brands, bands, businesses, games, films or celebrities who want to interact with their customers or fan base without connecting them to a personal account which would exceed Facebooks 5,000 friend limit. The Picture One of the first things a potential fan sees when visiting your page will be your page 200px picture. If you have a recognisable brand or logo then by all means create a picture of it. Branding and personalisation are key to a page that has a standard format and can look identical to the next. Making your page memorable and individual can create brand awareness even if your logo or company isnt already well known. There are options to choose which application box your visitors land on so that you can have some sort of promotional image or poster as the landing page instead of your fan page profile.  Share Options If you are encouraging visitors to your site to share links via Facebook then make sure you have optimised your share options so that when the visitor shares a link to your page there is a suitable thumbnail preview which reflects your brand and the meta description on those pages. This simply promotes your brand to those receiving the shared links (potential fans). Separating Your Content Public profiles now let you have different landing pages for users who are fans and the non-fans. Keep the content on these pages separate and distinctive. Bear in mind that users on your main Facebook page could be neutral or angered by something your product or service has or hasn't done. They are looking to see what others are saying about you and possibly comment about an issue, expecting a swift apologetic reply. The visitors to your fan page, however, are looking for mutual appreciation and other positive people who share a similar interest in your brand or your products. These two groups should therefore see different layouts and information. Clearly you will want to incentivise and motivate the potential fans to become fans. You should be appreciative of the confirmed fans and help them interact with your brand and each other. Vanity URL These personalised URLs are now available to anyone whose fan page has over 100 fans. They simply remind visitors of your brand and make it easier for them to type in your fan page URL when wanting to return. Define a Post Schedule By creating a set calendar schedule for your page interaction you will be able to keep a constant yet unobtrusive discourse with your fans. If you post updates too often then fans will begin to hide your updates from their feeds or potentially unlink from your fan page altogether. By mixing up the types of updates you post you keep things fresh and save your brand being forgotten by your fans. A mixture of photos, video, links, notes, and status updates keeps the fans interacting and visiting your page. Participation Use your fan page to encourage participation and interaction amongst your fans, rather than it simply being some sort of petition that fans simply join and then forget. Use competitions, quizzes etc to give your fans the incentive to keep posting about your fan page and increasing the number of fans. For example, a company who sells tea & coffee makers encouraging their fans to post their own tea & coffee recipes on the fan page with the potential for some to be added to the recipe section on the live site. This is a very easy and free way to promote interaction between your fans, the fan page and your main website. Monitoring Your Facebook Page Changes Now that you have optimised your fan page you will want to find ouot how the changes you made affected your page. There are a number of tools out there for monitoring your Facebook fan page and evaluating how successful it has been and currently is. V itrue recently rolled out a new social media observation tool they call Social Page Evaluator which tries to aid companies in finding out the revenue and marketing potential of their fan page. By looking into the number of fans, number of posts, amount of interaction, and other factors, the tool attempts to give an accurate annual monitory value to the page owner. Whether or not the Vitrue tool is accurate is unknown but they recently valued Starbucks' fan page at $20 million/year. Yet this is nothing compared to the $75 million amount that Vitrue claims Starbucks could achieve if they optimised their fan page to include audio and video interactivity. Here are some examples of successful Facebook fan pages to inspire you: Pringles Red Bull Adidas Starbucks Coca-Cola Now go forth and amass devoted Facebook fans. If you have any Facebook fan pages you particularly like then leave a link below. Social Media Marketing 2010-05-24 09:33:41 http://www.i-com.net/blog/optimising-your-facebook-fan-pages-353/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/8-tips-for-successful-link-building-emails-340/ Those of you who thought emailing an organisation such as a charity or university for a link was easy, think again. There's a big difference between a successful email and spam. Heres some tips to stay away from the Junk Mail box 1. Contact a Person (Where Possible) When searching around a website for contact details try, where possible, to find an actual person usually in charge of press/media/website content or an administrator. These individuals will not only be able to change the website content but also have more time to reply than, say, the Director or Chairman of an organisation. 2. Keep it Personal & Tailored Add as many references to both the individual reader and the organisation you are emailing to keep things personalized and relevant. Make reference to a blog or interesting page on the site, including the link to the page, to confirm you have actually spent some time navigating their site. By adding the organisation name as an email header and addressing the email with "Dear Name" you reduce the risk of being considered a spammer and increase the possibility of a reply. Add the initials or name of the organisation in the email subject along with your client name and "Client's Support", "Useful Link" or "Site Sponsorship" to reduce any spammy connotations.3. Keep it Brief By keeping your email neat and concise, you put across an organised image and show that you realise the reader may be rushed or have restricted time. 4. Show Value Whether this is financial, experience, content or sponsorship, show the reader the value in linking to your client's site as much as possible. This may include mentioning that you can also add a site link on your client's website (a reciprocal link). Use words like 'perhaps' or 'possibly' to give an open offer and not a guarantee or promise before you have the client's approval. 5. Keep it Structured Create a structure that can replicated for other link building emails. Start with an introduction of who you are and what you are responsible for. This gives the reader a person to relate to and lets them know why you are contacting them or their organisation in particular. Next, lead on to a bit of information about your company or the client you are link building for, keeping it short and to the point with information that shows how successful the client is and the types of work they do. It's a good idea to take the information from the clients Homepage/About Us and condense it. Give a link URL at the end of this to the homepage. Then, explain why linking to your client would be useful/beneficial for their site's visitors such as offering a related service or product. Including a link to the most relevant page on your client's site helps them relate to your client. Now is the asking/begging part where you let them know what you would like to offer them in return for a link on their site. Paste in the page URL where you would like your link placed as it shows them you really have searched around their site and makes the whole process a little smoother. Be helpful by enclosing the html code for your link as it gives the reader the opportunity to simply paste the link into the page source code and reduces hassle. Remember to make your anchor text a targeted, relevant keyword. Lastly, give your contact details to not only confirm you area real person making a legitimate request, but also in case they would like to call you or require more information to review the proposal. 6. Always Reply Whenever you get an email back whether positive or negative you should ALWAYS reply. If they say no and give reasoning then reply saying "thank you for taking the time to get back to me". If they reply back quickly then thank them for "replying swiftly to my email". If you don't have the power to say yes or no to an offer then respond stating "I will contact the relevant person at "Client Name" and get back to you as soon as possible". This way you are not keeping them waiting and can forward the email on to the relevant person. 7. Keep Track Remember to keep track of every email sent on behalf of a client. By filling a spreadsheet with the address, contact name, website links and dates you emailed/spoke to them on top. This allows you to quickly note down any replies received and not be confused when someone replies by phone and leaves you lost for words. It also means that if a client asks for a report on progress of the link building or wants to see where you are up to, you have a full spreadsheet of who has/hasn't replied, etc. 8. Be PatientRemember that people are busy and take time to pass things on to the relevant person or discuss with a team or committee. You may get a few replies quickly then nothing for weeks, but be patient throughout and if you are really desperate for a reply then consider calling the person directly and making reference to your sent email.Happy Link Emailing. If anyone has any further tips feel free to comment. Alternatively, if you'd like to know more about link building or SEo in general, contact us about SEO training. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-04-22 11:02:37 http://www.i-com.net/blog/8-tips-for-successful-link-building-emails-340/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/google-social-search-324/ Late last year, the boffins at Google churned out another interesting little addition called Social Search. The idea of Social Search is that you sign into your Google profile and then input a search query in the form of a question and get an answer/response from your friends or personal social networks such as Twitter, Gmail, Flickr and FriendFeed. These results are then incorporated into the natural search results similar to how images, maps and video are currently included. This is Googles attempt to build upon sites like Yahoo Answers & Aardvark (now owned by Google) and assign more relevance to social media content than just from the webs larger network of websites . SEO Tips for Social Search Results John Greer of Search Engine Watch claims there are certain tips for SEOers to make the most of the addition of Google Social Search. The first is obvious to some but clearly not to others as many businesses still havent invested time in setting up a Twitter account and populating it with news and updates relevant to their industry or services. The more updates and relevant keywords included, the more likely that users searching for related terms will come across your Twitter feed, leading them to your website. However do not see it as an outlet to sell sell sell. See it as a way of building up a following by potential customers or clients for your up-to-date information and news which could then lead to capturing some new customers at different points in the buying cycle. Other social profiles need to be kept highly up to date and gain as many subscribers as possible. The more these profiles are being visited, the more Google will consider what they are talking about to be worth linking to or showing in the social search results. Facebook, LinkedIn and the notoriously flawed Google Buzz are all worth keeping updated. With the inclusion of Gmail and soon to be other email accounts, it's worth thinking about optimising your newsletters in emails. These can be posted online or found by Google Desktop Search, so ensuring newsletters arent made up of one or two large images and contain relevant targeted text could provide benefits. Potential Downside With Googles new Caffeine update to be released shortly, constant tweaks to the Google algorithm and additions like Google Social Search the foundations of SEO are fundamentally unstable. Constant and often sudden changes in trends and practices can destabilise months of work by SEO firms. Results are no longer determined by SEO consultants' attempts at optimization along with web designers' work on making sites SEO-friendly. It may become a more democratic way of searching where our friends and colleagues preferences and online activity determine our online behaviour. Personalised Search Engine Google has a history of changing the set of laws that govern its results yet with this natural progression to include personalised social results Google is clearly developing the concept of a 2search engine'. After all, Googles search engine was born on the web and is by its nature and purpose personalised. Personalisation is not just a trend online but more of a culture that constantly evolves to relate more to each individual user. Google being one of the most innovative and pioneering companies on the planet, it is determined to keep up with and include personalisation in its products. This evolution by Google may make SEO harder to implement but its a concept that I for one encourage. Search Engine Optimisation 2010-03-18 08:35:21 http://www.i-com.net/blog/google-social-search-324/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/an-insight-into-online-personal-reputation-services-288/ We have all typed our name into Google once or twice to confirm our internet fame, obliterate our name exclusivity and see how much information about us is really out there . But have you ever considered paying to have results removed or promoted in light of other people searching for you? In todays ever expanding world of online information, personal name results are being scrutinised and picked through daily to back up offline knowledge. With real time search launched on Google recently, social media postings are being added into the monitored information equation. This raises the question, at what point does our personal responsibility for our own online reputation end? Its no surprise then that one of the most popular web 2.0 businesses in 2010 will be companies paid to make it their responsibility to defend personal reputations. Over the pond in the US these online services are already thriving while drenching their websites in a mixture of cheesy sales patter and over-enthusiastic stats. Promoting Your Online Personal Brand The lowered guards brought on by the anonymity of the web have been raised as people realise their education prospects, work future and even dating chances are affected by web information. Hiring a personal branding site to become your own online PR agent is the newest solution. PlaceYourName.com is one of these businesses, with a website overflowing with enthusiasm which claims it "creates a positive online image and gives you a solid Internet presence when someone searches your name." These businesses tend to use a mixture of SEO techniques, web development and public relations to achieve this. Eliminating Your Online Personal Dirt Whats the point in promoting positive online presence if you have negative postings and results that are going to drag it down? Enter services like DefendMyName.com who have a "team of engineers that is not only ready but also excited about the opportunity" to remove your negative information because of "the cool yet frightening revelation that people trust opinions they find on the internet more than those from newspapers, TV, radio and magazines." Childrens Online Reputation With kids now contently exposing every facet of their personal life on sites like Bebo and MySpace its no surprise that these services are now being targeted at parents. A mixture of paranoia, popularity and future education/career prospects are pushing parents to hire companies such as ReputationDefender for their 'MyChild' service. This service produces a monthly report detailing references to your child's name, images, screen name and social network profiles that is meant to encourage the parent to request changes, deletions and promotion of positive results. ReputationDefender.com claims: "Teens have always cared about their reputations - the Internet defines the reputation of a person." Besides, do teens really want their parents seeing everything they do or say online? Surely this infringes on a teenager's right to be a kid in favour of building a parent-controlled online persona for future success? Surely even online, teenagers need to build their own online persona and learn from their mistakes. Then again with 'enthusiastic' customer quotes like the one below how can anyone dispute such a service? Limitations There are clearly a lot of legal issues with removing online information when you dont own the rights to that post or article. An FAQ on ReputationDefender.com site highlights these issues when asked "Can you remove absolutely anything?" The site responded stating "No. Newspaper articles and court records are difficult to impossible to remove" but goes on to state "we typically focus on content that is slanderous, private, defamatory, invasive and/or outdated." Surely two of the most slanderous and private sources of information online are newspaper articles and court records. This is one of many fairly substantial limitations for online reputation services. At the end of the day if you're that worried about your online reputation and you want to keep it respectable then behave as though your mum or nan is looking over your online shoulder. For more information on this topic visit Personal Branding Blog. Internet 2009-12-18 15:24:24 http://www.i-com.net/blog/an-insight-into-online-personal-reputation-services-288/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/social-media-reputation-management-271/ In today's recession stricken market and unpredictable trading conditions, consumer trust is at an all-time low. Their confidence in brands is being chipped away every time a company fails to live up to customer expectations or standards. Companies can no longer rely on monitoring their offline resources and media history - more and more businesses are pushing time and money into monitoring social media sites in order to ensure they maintain a positive online reputation. In the online world, brands share their results with customers, competitors, bloggers, and users who with one review or blog can bring down the whole perception of quality for future online and offline customers.  This produces an environment where actively managing, monitoring and repairing your online brand is crucial. Brands should be aware of guidelines in each of these areas to help it stay ahead of its competitors and avoid or repair negativity online.Research Your Reputation Researching your online reputation and finding out what is being said about you and where is vital to understanding how much work you have to put into to repairing negativities or boosting positives. Make reputation research a regular occurrence and create an inventory of your findings for future reference as the web is constantly changing along with your audience Don't Try Too Hard to Impress Users You can plaster flashy design, interactive bells and impressive whistles on your sites, blogs and social media pages, but if there's nothing of substance then you will have unimpressed users leaving and potentially saying bad things about their experience to their online contacts in a public forum. Don't Treat Your Audience Like Statistics Your audience may be spending their time complaining, reviewing, tweeting, commenting or posting but if treated like statistics then they will be unimpressed with your attitude towards your customers. There are many people out there that will take an interest in your business. Don't limit your brand's focus to a selected group or segment of "important people" thereby forgetting the growing audience - any one of whom could become one of those "important people" in the future. Know Your Outlets Know the places where your brand is appearing, whether its an obscure forum, purposefully set up social media site or personal blog. After all, how can you mange or repair your reputation if you don't know who's talking about you and where they go to do it? Remember, however, that it's not just the blogs you must look out for - some of the most negative comments come from the comments sections of blogs. If you're looking to defend your brand then these comments are the ones to take time to answer.Give Your Brand Personality and a Face Companies don't have conversations, people do. Remember that these feeds and sites are portals for your customers/clients to communicate about you and with you, a person - not a faceless corporation or business. Oscar Wilde said, "Being yourself is far easier than putting on a front." You are more likely to receive positive comments or repair negative comments by having a person take an interest in what customers are saying (through social media or blogs) because people can relate to a person who is speaking with them directly and answering their feedback than they can with an enquiry for or an email address. Acknowledge the Good as well as the Bad Remember reputation is made up of both negative and positive comments, reviews and feedback. Monitoring and acknowledging the positive is just as important. If you are already known on the web or offline then you need to remember that your customers helped you get there. Engage with users and customers leaving positive comments and attempt to build a community amongst your customers because those happy customers could be your strongest defence against negative comments when they happen. Think before You Tweet Twitter is a great way to give your brand personality and seem more 'human'; but for companies using it there is a thin line between good and bad. Remember tweets are automatically set to 'public access' so your foul ups are seen by all. Learn before doing and avoid the following: Don't "hard sell" through tweets Don't spam people or harvest email addresses for spamming Don't tweet about mediocre or old industry content Don't use ALL CAPS Don't spell things rong Don't over tweet And lastly, don't tweet while intoxicated Finally, if you've learnt nothing from this post, at least take a page out of the 'book of real world' and treat online relationships similar to real-life relationships. Think of those traits in your staff or favoured people in your life (e.g., honesty, respect, confidence, uniqueness, informative and worth) then apply them to your online brand personality. Social Media Marketing 2009-11-18 10:26:53 http://www.i-com.net/blog/social-media-reputation-management-271/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/splash-pages-an-seo-hindrance-256/ While doing some client research I came across the Leeds United website. As I am not a footie fan, my SEO spidey senses kicked in instead so I noticed they had a splash page with relatively mundane and commercial messages on it. I started to ponder how much these 'splash pages' dilute SEO efforts and PageRank so went and had a bit of a dig in the information sand pit of the web. So, firstly, a splash page, also known as a "pre-home page," is the "welcome page" of a site and as such can have a number of different uses. These range from choosing your language, to confirming you are over 18, to redirecting you to another site or simply grabbing your attention with a giant graphic or interactive flash animation. Research has found that 25% of users claim they leave a site straight after seeing the splash page because of pure annoyance. So apart from annoying users with a pointless entry page, slow loading and often time-wasting advertisements, why are splash pages bad for SEO? Where a splash page isn't essential to the user experience there are a number of SEO experts out there who believe they can have negative effects on your sites find-ability and rankings. SEO practitioners believe that splash pages contribute negatively to a "dilution effect". This is the idea that every link between search engine and content has a certain degradation factor to it when passing your PageRank  on to your homepage. So by having an introductory page (splash page) you're actually intercepting the link to your homepage and only transferring part of that PageRank value to the actual content. A large amount of your PR will go to anchor texts that have no relevancy to your site's product or service such as "Skip Intro", "Choose Language" and "Click to Enter". Splash pages often dont provide content and may stop spiders from crawling through the main site content. This could result in search engines not only ranking the site lower because they consider it a less important source but also not caching other pages, particularly for a new site. Search engine spiders require text content and links to find and understand each page. With flash movies and images the crawler cannot do its job. While the search engines are working to resolve the uncrawlable flash issue it is still important to provide keyword-rich content on a landing page. But be careful adding content behind a splash page because if it's done improperly or without thought you can be penalized for 'spamdexing' by the search engine. Splash pages often contain site redirects which can reduce the chances of being indexed as a search engine's key goal is to get a user to the source of a site's information as quickly as possible (the home page). Very few splash pages are cross-linked and this can make the search engine think this is the most important page of the site, often leading to an uncached or ignored home page and site map. Search engines applaud new, fresh and constantly updated content therefore by having a splash page that rarely (if ever) changes, the search engine may presume you dont update your website a lot and as a result will start to index you less regularly. Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineWatch.com says of splash pages: "Basically, the most important page in your site is your home page. Search engines have tended to give it a slightly higher ranking boost. It may be the first page of a new site to get indexed. It's also the page people tend to link to the most. If there's no text, then the search engines have nothing to index - sort of like handing out a blank business card. So the splash page represents a wasted opportunity." Some examples of splash pages for you to ponder their SEO potential: Inspire Web Design Nina Bagley H Rubes Funky Punky Aksident Screen Vader Take Shaper Search Engine Optimisation 2009-10-21 11:27:25 http://www.i-com.net/blog/splash-pages-an-seo-hindrance-256/