The Technology Studio

Duplicate Content has recently become a hot topic within the SEO community, with the 3 search engine “giants” (MSN, Yahoo! and Google) proactively filtering out similar search results in a quest to present the user with more relevant and distinct web pages.

Would you know if your site rank is suffering?

Duplicate Content refers to substantial blocks of similar web page content, either site-wide or across domains. This is a commonly used technique in search engine spam – You probably see this regularly; redundant websites full of keywords and links in an attempt to deliberately trick search engines into returning low quality results.

It’s good that people like Google are trying to give us a better user experience with original and fresh content, but sometimes hard working webmasters can unknowingly spam the search engines.

A common example is a dynamic E-commerce website which queries a database. The website may have multiple URLs which are in effect just different routes of accessing the same content: a product (which usually includes a copy & paste manufacturers description also found on any other site selling the same item), or the URL may contain a unique session id passed through the query string.

On February 12 2009, the 3 major search engines introduced a new microformat which lets the search engine know which URL you think is the “canonical” or “proper” version. In effect you are telling the search engines “this page is the most useful amongst those with duplicate content”. They will then consolidate link popularity into that single URL

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/product/1234/" />

Although a step in the right direction for some types of site, the new microformat doesn’t completely address the problem of duplicate content. And whilst duplicate content isn’t grounds for search engines to take action unless it appears to be manipulative and intented to decieve them, there’s a few steps webmasters can take to ensure users are seeing their content.

The Technology Studio’s first travel website, GoLearnTo, has just been awarded ‘Website of the Week’ by the Daily Mail. GoLearnTo provides a range of  learning holidays to suit any location or budget.

The journalist reviewing the site commented that the site provided, “Excellent search options and a reassuring level of detail”. He followed this with, “If you’re looking for a holiday course with a learning element, this website is a time-saving godsend”.

GoLearnTo invested time to work with The Technology Studio to design and plan the website before the final build. This commendation proves that the more time spent planning your website, the better this is reflected in the end result.

The Technology Studio have a strong background in travel websites and as such we are aware of the issues you may face as a travel provider and how these must be addressed in your website. Through careful planning and good project management, your website should also be one which consumers champion.

Research by Fasthosts has found that half of UK businesses with a website make no effort to optimise their position on search engines.

When it comes to finding a business consumers are heavily reliant on search engine results and they prefer to use organic (main search results) rather than sponsored (businesses have paid to have them displayed) listings when making a decision on which business they should approach. However, with 17% of UK businesses yet to even submit their website to search engines and 35% of UK businesses making no effort to ensure their website is listed highly in search engine results it is not surprising that consumers are failing to find one in two businesses online: and this is ignoring all those businesses that don’t have a website at all. All these companies are losing out on potentially massive sales opportunities simply because they are not being found by the people that are out there actively looking for them.

The main reasons for this failure to cash in on online opportunities appear to be, that business owners and marketing teams do not understand how search engine results are compiled therefore they cannot see how their actions in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO) can influence their website ranking. In addition to this, there appears to be a lot of mis-understanding in regards to the amount of time and the costs involved in SEO.

The Technology Studio has long recognised the need for SEO when it comes to online marketing and making the most of a website. This is why the web development team ensure all websites they build are done so in an SEO friendly way. But you don’t need a whole new site to improve your search engine listing positions. Simple tweaks to your existing website such as making sure the content on your site is up to date, relevant, and contains keywords that your customers are searching with will make a huge difference to your online presence. The Technology Studio can make suggestions which you can then easily implement in-house as part of your company’s on-going marketing strategy.

Commercial property search engine, NovaLoca is just one company that has already benefited from making some simple changes. Read their story here and if you want to find out more about Search Engine Optimisation and how you can improve your ranking, contact The Technology Studio.

The head does what the head is designed to do whilst a leg does what a leg is designed to do, but they both work together (with other parts!) to form a whole body that functions.

This maybe a slightly random analogy to use to explain the launch of the Technology Studio, but let me explain.

Earthware (the head) was launched back in January 2007 with the aim of using the latest web based mapping technology to bring their clients products and services to life. Seeing the success the mapping had in achieving this we came to see the additional benefits of using the latest web development technologies to create a complete website that would further ensure that the clients services are brought to life and attractive to customers (the arm). The two parts have been happily working independently, and together, for some time and have both shown great successes under the overall branding of Earthware.

However, we believe that now is the time for the ‘head’ and the ‘arm’ to be recognised under their own names. Earthware will continue to be the brand name for the interactive mapping and will be the registered company name under which the web site development will operate, however, the web development will be known under its own branding name of The Technology Studio.

What makes The Technology Studio unique?

The Technology Studio’s web developers have many years of experience in designing, planning and building websites. Therefore, we have a comprehensive understanding of how a website should be designed and built to make it perform well, as well as of the processes we, and you, need to go through.

With all this then put into practice you will sign off the final site with a satisfied smile on your face knowing that you have a site that you, and we, are proud of; one which attracts and converts customers and one which hasn’t caused you, or us, any sleepless nights during the development process.

In order that we can make this happen for you:

1. We refuse to quote you for a website straight off – We will only put a quote together for once we, or another developer, have created a schematic or wireframe of the proposed site. We believe that it is only then that we are able to accurately estimate the time and cost involved in building your site.
2. You get what you pay for – Our schematics mean that the website spec is so detailed from the beginning of the build that you and we understand exactly what the requirements, costs, timings and expectations are, meaning that there will be no nasty surprises for either party along the way.
3. We don’t spend your money unless it makes you money – If we do cannot see how you will generate a financial return after spending money on us we will persuade you not to spend money on us.
4. We are in it for the long term – Sorry, once you’ve got us, you can’t get rid of us! We aim to get intimately involved in our client’s business and always challenge ourselves on how we can help them make money. If we see something that will benefit you, we will let you know.
5. You can call any of our clients – We could tell you what we want working with us to be like but only our clients can say what it is actually like. Therefore, we will send you our clients contact details (they have agreed to this!) so you can have a chat with them about their experiences of working with us.

What Does The Technology Studio Actually Do?

For a complete idea of what we do and to see some examples please visit The Technology Studio website, but in the mean time here’s a taster:

• Web design and development – create an effective website

   

• Online marketing – drive traffic to your website

   

• Software development – improve your businesses efficiency

   

• Technology consultancy – review your existing systems and processes

For more information about any of these services or The Technology Studio, please contact us and to find out about Earthware’s mapping solutions contact them here.