This is great news for SEOs and webmasters as there were fears the major search engines would introduce their own Sitemap equivalent protocol.“Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling…” - Sitemaps.org

Congratulations to Sitemaps.org for their dedication as well as the SE’s for widely supporting this feature.

Sitemaps of your website can be submitted to major search engines at:

• Yahoo! Site Explorer
  http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
• Google Webmaster Tools
  http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/
• Microsoft Search
  A submission system for Microsoft Search is expected in 2007.

Since working in the web development industry I’ve always wanted to clear my throat of the following itches.

1. Recommending .com domains for Australian orientated websites

   Australian companies providing products and services to Australians should hold a “.com.au” extension. Having an Australian domain extension assists search engines in providing the most relevant local information to searchers.

2. Using Image Titles or Flash Instead of HTML Headers and Markup

   Flash sites (unless packed within structured XML files) and image headers are not “seen” by search engines. Simply put, your fancy Flash navigation and poorly implemented image headers limits the depth search engines can crawl and what they know about your business.

3. On page redirection to “/asp/index.asp” or “/index.php”

   If you type in “www.domain.com.au” and yet the URL in the address bar appears as “www.domain.com.au/asp/index.asp” your site may be using on-page redirections. This form of redirection is ignored by search engines meaning they don’t see your site until someone links to you, there are many ethical ways to redirect pages.

4. Limited site search

   Site visitors are using site search more than ever and yet across the industry poorly implemented internal search continue to respond with “No results have been found”. Inclusion of advanced search functions and intelligent suggestions are required.

5. Not defining page backgrounds

   If a page background is not set the current Operating System theme window background is used. For XP users this is light-grey, for everyone else, who knows…

6. Lack of integration of “robots.txt” and XML Site maps

   These services have been made available to assist site owners in managing how and which content is presenting to major search engines.

7. Prominent back linking on client sites to web developer site

   Web development firms that place links to their own site artificially boost their ranking for competitive keywords. Unless a clear benefit is seen by your users this practice should be abolished and any back links removed.

What other things are done wrong within Australia’s web development industry? Have you worked with companies that don’t build search engine friendly sites?

Today was my last day as Web developer for local Brisbane web development firm, icemedia. I now take on full-time responsibilities for Internet marketing with Red Block. I must concede, the last year with ice has been a great and valuable experience, working with friendly, energetic colleagues and the leaders in ASP, .NET and online applications.Behind the Red Block curtain we’re tracking remarkable results from client sites and are working with fantastic clients across the international small-medium business sector. My addition to the team will assist in further penetrating the Australian online marketplace in our mission to raise the bar of standards for Australian Internet marketing campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation services.

From the team at Red Block, thanks for supporting us!

Use of .au domain extensions for Australian websites

If you’re promoting a company, product or service within Australia it should be localised to an Australian 2LD. The auDA currently offer several options of enterprise to best suit your purposes.

• asn.au
  For incorporated associations, political parties, trade unions, sporting and special interest clubs.
  For registration information, please contact an auDA accredited registrar.

• com.au
  For commercial entities, such as companies (with ACN as registered through ASIC), and businesses (registered with state governments).
  For registration information, please contact an auDA accredited registrar.

• net.au
  For commercial entities, such as companies (with ACN as registered through ASIC), and businesses (registered with state governments).
  For registration information, please contact an auDA accredited registrar.

• id.au
  For individuals who are Australian citizens or residents.
  For registration information, please contact an auDA accredited registrar.

• org.au
  For charities and non-profit organisations.
  For registration information, please contact an auDA accredited registrar.

• edu.au
  For educational institutions registered at federal or state level. This domain is managed on behalf of the Australian education sector by the Australian Information and Communications Technology in Education Committee (AICTEC).
  For policy and registration information, please contact Education.au Ltd.

• gov.au
  For federal, state and local government bodies. This domain is managed on behalf of the Australian government sector by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO).
  For policy and registration information, please contact AGIMO .

• csiro.au
  For the sole use of the Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO). This domain is managed by CSIRO.
  For policy and registration information, please contact CSIRO.

Extract taken from .au Second Level Domains (2LDs) at The Australian Domain Name Administrator

Only when a company expands into an international market is consideration for a 1LD required.

Protect client online identity by registering related domains

To protect the online identity of the clients website it is recommended to register the ‘.net.au’ and allowed domain equivalents.

This action also allows the client to expand their future market reach if they choose to develop that site separate from the primary domain. Redirect incoming traffic through an HTTP 301 Error to the primary domain if the related domains are not to be developed.

Unnecessary use of secured (HTTPS) domains

Any publicly accessible site should not be hidden behind a secure Internet connection.

Forms on public pages should submit to a secure location or make use of popup windows as demonstrated by leading Australian banks and social networking sites.

Pages behind secure connections can be expected to receive low credibility from search engine spiders through restricted or ignored indexing.

Site exclusion for broken links

Just as if a link is known to be broken it should be removed or updated, the same applies to broken links appearing in search engine listings. An HTTP 301 Error should direct incoming traffic to the broken page to the updated URI.

Wordpress: “You don’t have permission to do that.”
You: “What!? I’m an Administrator! I can do what I want damn it!”

Until a fix is released a workaround for adding a new category is to simply fill the Category name:, Category slug:, Category parent: and Description: (optional) fields as usual but click on one of the input fields and press the Enter key. By avoiding use of the Add Category » button you can still add new categories to your install of WordPress in harmony.

The Paths module allows you to change page addresses from …/node/5 to a human friendlier …/about/. Drupal 5.1 dev comes with Paths in it’s list of modules not enabled by default.

Enable paths module

1. Log in to your Administrator account from the front page
2. Expand the Administer menu
3. Expand the Site building menu
4. Open the Modules page
5. Tick the Path checkbox
6. Accept the changes by clicking Save configuration

Create on page basis redirects

To redirect pages you wil need to know the existing relative address (eg. /node/5) as well as decided the updated name (eg. /about/).

1. Open the URL aliases page from the Site building sub-menu
2. Click Add alias
3. Enter the existing relative address into the first text input
4. Enter the updated relative address into the second text input
5. Accept the redirect by clicking Create new alias
6. Test the redirect by entering the redirected page address into your browser