Craven & Murray are Rochdale Opticians, based in Norden, Lancashire, and when they approached us, we helped them to plan and deliver a website that helps to reflect their bespoke and friendly opticians.

We used a similar drop-down menu (see right) to the one here on Peloton Internet, which works well across all browsers and makes the site ‘feel’ a bit more classy and showy, without showing off with needless functionality.

Lots of Search Engine Optimisation planning has been built in too, and we’re very much hoping that the site will pay for itself by bringing in those all-important search engine customers over the coming months.

We love Wordpress and we love SEO - blogging is a superb way of keeping your site fresh and enhancing your marketing efforts. Here’s an interesting SEO for WordPress Blogs White Paper, found on Blizzard Internet.

We’ve just launched a free link Directory. We know how difficult it can be to submit your business to good quality websites, so the Peloton Internet Link Directory is perfect for you to submit your link. All we ask for is a reciprocal link, and that it’s a decent site we’re linking too. Nothing dodgy will be approved.

You’ve probably heard about this but I think it’s still worth blogging as a simple reminder about how powerful search has become. When the now infamous John Darwin was suspected to have faked his own death, and his not-so-widowed-widow Anne moved to Panama to console herself, a Daily Mirror reporter just, on the off-chance, did a Google image search using the term “John Anne Panama”, and immediately found a photo of the not-so-dead John and Anne, on holiday, since his death, in Panama.

This simple bit of evidence lead to so many questions in the media along the lines of ‘why did they get their picture taken in the first place?’. The quite simple, obvious answer, is that John and Anne were clearly unaware of the power of search.

Originally taken from Webmaster World

1. Myth: Time on site matters
Some of the most valuable sites to me are the ones I stay on the LEAST amount of time, because I got my information FAST.

2. Myth: Bounce Rates affect my ranking
When I can get the information I am looking for on the page G finds most relevant, voila! No need to go any further! Awesome!

3. Myth: Natural link text is important
The most natural link is either “click here” (Adobe ranks #1 for Acrobat reader) or the name of the company. “Varied” link text is actually unnatural.

4. Myth: Link acquisition rates shouldn’t be too fast
News worthy items generate a ton of links quickly. Example: the host of a future Olympics is announced. A site (Olympic site) that is new, had no links, suddenly has a ton overnight.

But one could argue these are from “authoritative” sites and won’t raise a flag. Ok, think of all the esoteric niches that have the equivalent of a major announcement happen.

By ignoring or even penalizing these links, Google does the opposite of serving good results. I think Google LIKES seeing sites that get links fast, it is a clue that something is “hot”.

5. Myth: Links from topically relevant sites are critical
Search for “financial services” and Adobe appears #5. Why? Because their homepage (PR 10) links to a page with the words “financial services”. That’s it. And they are beating every single financial services company for that term except Primerica. And don’t you think AMEX, VISA, and all the banks get links from “topically” relevant sites? Face it, Google doesn’t know topical relevancy, it is too much of a wishy washy thing to comprehend for a computer. It understands PageRank.

6. Myth: PR doesn’t matter
See #5 above. Adobe is a great case study on how PR works.