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I quite often like to take a look at Web Pages That Suck, it reminds me that I can design decent websites, and that there is a lot of word still to be done! What amazes me though is the massive amount of websites which either do not have a clue, try to be too clever or perhaps just make me want to use words which would be innappropriate on such a public website.

Whilst there is a lot of drivel out there, there is always the odd site, which goes that much further, I know I know, it is hard to imagine just how bad some websites can be, but let me introduce for your entertainment only http://www.havenworks.com/ - without doubt, one of the worse websites I have ever had the displeasure of seeing!

In fact the website is so bad, I just don’t know where to begin! It is information overload on a massive scale, yet the information has no hierachy, and the colours only detract from what the content of the site is actually about. So rather than me comment, I will let you be the judge, if ever there was a lesson on how NOT to design your website, then this site would be lesson 1-25.

Filed under: Bad website design by Moley
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Just thought I would send out a quick update based on my previous post, the great blogging experiment.

Firstly, July 2008, was the first month my blog had any action on my site, to cap off that month my stats were as follows:

• 98 Visits
• 69 Search Engines
• 16 Referring sites
• 13 Direct Traffic

August 2008, has been the first month of the blog being live for the whole month. I have been quite surprised by some of the statistics.

• 535 Visits
• 104 Search Engines
• 293 Referring Sites
• 138 Direct Traffic

Now I will advise you to ignore both the Referring Sites and Direct Traffic data, this has been influenced by joining a few site networks, and thus I am going to exclude this from discussion and instead focus on the search engine benefit alone.

In June 2008, 2 months ago, search engines only generated 17 visits to my site. Since adding the blog, within 2 month, traffic has increased by around 900% – up to 104 visits. The figures also indicate that the blog section of my site is now the most popular piece of content here, which is not really surprising.

I have also noticed that since I have been adding content on a regular basis, my blog posts are now indexed within hours, and generally less than 2 days. So in theory, I am currently adding between 2-6 pages of new content to the Google index each week. So realistically speaking I should be able to add at least another 200 pages of indexable content in the next 12 months! (easier said than done).

I will provide a much bigger update with more stats soon!

Filed under: SEO, PPC, Design by Moley
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I am sure most website designers and developers hate the thought of picking up older projects which have been badly built, designed and marketed by older colleagues!

Well that has been the case for me on more than one occasion, and sadly when you try to show them the light, all that happens is that you create a bigger mess! I was unfortunte enough to pick up the following site some years back (probably about 6 years thinking about it) http://www.notcutts.co.uk - Notcutts the company is a well established local brand from where I am from in the UK. They specialize in gardening and the sale of plants, however sadly that seems to be where their unique speciality ends

What was more sad was the relationship Notcutts had with the previous web designer, I won’t name names, but all I can say is thank the lord this person is no longer producing trash for the web. Because they were so tight with the client, the client took everyone of their words as being gospel, yet all this person had, was a basic concept of HTML, no other programming languages, no search engine knowledge, no design skills and certainly no clue as to what a website should be!

When I picked up the notcutts website, it was already using technologies I considered outdated, namely frames. Frames that fantastic relic from the web of old, a technology which looked impressive but had more flaws than the document describing the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Then of course there is the actual design of the site! I mean the site starts with the following quote “Excellence in Gardening since 1897″ but surely having a website design that pre-dates this is just too painful. What makes this so much sadder, is that I had stopped using frames when I inherited this website, yet the person then maintaining it was still proactively using frames as the technical solution of choice.

It is sad to see that long after I was involved in this technically dire excuse of a website, nothing has been done to truly release its potential. Do I blame Notcutts? Sort of, are they badly advised? Most probably! Sadly when money changes hands, it is easy for an external company to tell them what they want to hear, rather than what they need to be told, and quite frankly I think the mentality or ego of some of their staff couldn’t handle the truths about how shocking their site was/is.

This site was originally built around the pre-2000 era, when most of us were still coming to grips with windows 98! As such they were never educated about the benefits of the web, what a content management system is, what problems frames create, especially for search engines. I know when I tried to implement innovative ways with which to free up some of their budget it only landed me with a slap on the wrist from the boss, so as a way of saying thanks Notcutts, I would like to formally present you with a virtual award for having one of the technologically worst websites I have ever had the displeasure of working on.

Considering how well advanced some of their competition is, I find it sad that no real investment has been made to actually take their current website and create a truly unique online experience for their users. They could build a massive educational resource, which potentially could tie into a great ecommerce site. Not to mention actually building a list of email newsletter subscribers. Every company needs to move with the times, and embrace technology that will help their business. Sadly this website is 10 years past a makeover and I can only hope that a well established and respected company such as this might pull their finger out and get something happening!

However I guess there may be a little glimmer of light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, their sister site http://www.notcutts-design.co.uk/ looks a little nicer, and has been updated since my association ended. However I can see glaringly obvious problems with this site that can’t bring myself to go into!

Filed under: Bad website design by Moley
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Without doubt there is a multitude of information out on the web regarding ways to optimise your website for search engines and really try to bring home the bacon, or traffic so to speak!

However I have often considered alternative ways with which Google might use data to help influence rankings. This is just pure theoretical on my part, and whilst I have no proof, I am guessing at some point soon or in the future, some or all of the following will be considered.

• Google Analytics – without doubt this fantastic free tool has helped informed webmasters the world over about their websites traffic, helping to identify trends etc – however whilst us dear webmasters have been informed about this, so too has Google. I would guess that Google would base some of the algorithm on related stats. For instance a better website with great content would have a shorter bounce rate, and visitors would of course stay on site for longer! Not to mention that Google would also be able to detect keywords from other search engines and links which contribute to the flow of traffic, in fact the deeper your delve into an individual analytics account, the more you could see the benefit of using this data across a wider scale.
• Gmail and GTalk – we use GTalk at work all day, passing quick comments, links, office banter etc, is it possible Google would monitor what links we provide in GTalk? And could this then be extended further into Gmail? In fact could Google Consider the words around any links as having additional keyword relevance, possible!
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets – similarly to the point above, any links and URLs mentioned in Google Docs has the ability to be considered at some point.
• In fact the same could be said of other Google Products like Youtube and Orkut.

They are just a few ways with which Google could, in theory use off-site data to enchance their algorithms. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a load more examples of ways with which google feed information into their systems to help enhance their algorithm, and in some cases, that data would actually use real user generated information to power their search engines, in addition to code!

Filed under: SEO, PPC, Design by Moley
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One of the many challenges we all face is that of reducing energy consumption, which is slowly killing our planet. Yes, we can be ignorant, we continue to leave lights on and leave TVs on standby not to mention not installing energy efficient lightbulbs!

Whilst we are to blame for these actions, a lot of blame has to be laid firmly at the door of big buinesses, housing developers and governments across the world who’ve failed to contribute anything meaningful to real, cost effective renewable energy!

We are a slave to energy, there is no doubt about that, and when you also factor in the ever increasing costs associated with energy consumption, then energy usage becomes bad financially as well as environmentally. There are ways with which we can improve or reduce our energy usage, and these can also help the environment.

The installation of Solar Panels and Wind turbines can seriously reduce your monthly energy costs by up to 80%. Both methods are very environmentally friendly, and the energy produced is free! Most businesses who install renewable energy at home will charge upwards of $3000+ for such products, meaning you will not see any financial benefit until at least 5 years, perhaps longer! So unless you are blessed with a substantial budget, these alternative energy sources are unrealistic for the majority of us.

However, in my research for cheaper alternatives to installing renewable energy at home I found this fantastic site, earth4energy - it promises that you can actually install and run renewable energy for about $400. The program does require a little DIY, but if, like me, you fancy yourself in the DIY department then there is no reason why the products cannot be produced for a lot less! I am no accountant, but my build cost of around $375 dollars will have paid for itself within 3 months based upon my current savings. Thereafter saving me considerable energy costs. The guide will set you back a few dollars, but in my professional opinion, it is a good long term investment, both financially and for the environment!

So take five mins, and click to visit the Earth 4 Energy website, and improve your energy usage today!

Filed under: Good Products by Moley
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