10 Amazing SEO Tips You Need To Use

Obviously the above is a joke but over on Poynter, Jim Romenesko contrasts three views on SEO and the death of the clever headline. All of the linked articles are worth the read but there’s a quote in David Wheeler’s Atlantic article from Ian Lurie that rung out to me:

Readers need more information when they’re browsing content on the Web—it’s a fact. Depriving readers of valuable information in an effort to make them click will backfire every time.

Fair enough, but look; Google is a dumb beast, people aren’t. Good content will always drive traffic because it’s linked to; not because it’s first in a list. You see this every day on Twitter as the people you follow (forgive me) curate what you read. Quality and delight should be job one because you want to bring people back and have them explore not just drop them on a page then send them on their way.

Details

An old read from A List Apart–The Details That Matter. From the article:

Creative professionals who can see all angles of a project are the ones who ultimately succeed in the industry. They win awards, get promoted, and make money, but most importantly they develop a reputation for caring about detail, for putting a personal and deliberate effort into making sure all of the tiny things are in place to make the final product perfect.

I’d like to be someone who pays attention to the details. In the past, I’ve let them slide. I’ve overlooked things or given detail only a cursory glance. The stitch keeps the shoe together not the form.

Web Standards Sherpa

Web Standards Sherpa has launched and it should be an “instant join” by anyone interested in Web Standards and accessibility or working on or around the web. From the site:

The goal of WebStandardsSherpa.com is to provide web professionals the opportunity to receive feedback, glean advice and learn best practices from experts in the field to help them improve the quality of their own work.

Authors like Dan Rubin, Jared Spool, Erin Kissane, built on ExpressionEngine. What’s not to like? Exactly the kind of thing I go insane over. Finally, a place I can read about goofy semantics questions and content and delivery approaches! Your prayers are answered!

People, Not Machines

humans.txt – “an initiative for knowing the people behind a website.” The idea is simple, create a humans.txt file that lists the people involved in a project. Far less intrusive than say, putting a link back to your own site in the footer of a client site. And I’m going to be generous and say that those footer links are there in lieu of a credit/blame comment or file and not a cheap SEO linkback strategy for your company.

Yr’ Shitting Me

I’m proud to introduce my latest venture: Yr’ Shitting Me, an online website critiquing service aimed specifically at designers. Using Yr’ Shitting Me is easy! Just enter the url to the page you wish to critique, hit ‘submit’ and ta-da! Instant Crit! Most helpful when you want to point out flaws in a design that’s not of your doing. Roughly (barely) tested in FF, Chrome and Safari with a little more designery to come. If things break, I don’t care. Fun!.