Googling web design

I’m supposed to be studying the new language, but got sidetracked as usual, studying competitors for web design and development in Sydney. Very interesting reading, comparing the guys who are supposed to be really good at web design, and are placed nowhere on most search engines, compared with the nuts like me who spent time optimising sites for search engines, but are babes in the wood when it comes to building serious sites.

So just doing the standard stuff got me to #1 on MSN.com and #2 at Yahoo.com for the phrase “sydney web design”. And nowhere at Google, cos I don’t have enough incoming links comparatively, or PR or age, etc. And the same sites are on page 1 at MSN and Yahoo with me, meaning we all have the same basic strategy.

And the real high-end designers who have concentrated on building great sites, didn’t seem to be concentrating on that little phrase. One of my jobs is going to be seeing how I can change that.

So I checked to see where the good guys were listed, and where they weren’t. Shock, horror, some had even missed out on getting in to Zeal and DMOZ – and these are serious companies, not like my little affiliate sites that have buckley’s chance of getting on to those human-edited directories.

So I got distracted after searching on ask.com for web design, and finding WebPagesThatSuck.

Had fun checking out the worst sites of 2005, and contenders for 2006. And the webmaster was right – visiting his site makes you feel you’re not so bad.

His Daily Sucker page led me to a post on how to look like a Web2.0 site. The Web 2.0 generator was fun, as was the web 2.0 Logos , and the strange similarity in fonts that they all use. Reinforced at Naked IT where they also comment on the rounded shapes and shading they have in common.

But the ultimate has to be at Sacred Cow Dung where he lists everything Web 2.0.

Given that I haven’t even got into tagging, don’t yet own an iPod (although both my kids do) and haven’t got around to podcasting yet (for the sake of search engine ranking, of course), I definitely need to do more reading.

After learning that language.

cheers.