What do you mean you can't get me to rank #1??

One question that always comes up when people ask about SEO (search engine optimisation) services is "does that mean I'll rank number one on Google?... But Company X said they'd guarantee they could get me to number 1".

You've all heard it right? Well the guys at Google have further updated the Webmaster Blog post:
"What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly?"

I really do urge that anyone offering SEO services and equally anyone looking for SEO services should look at this article NOW!

Help us raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support

OK a slightly out of context post today but one for a very valid and worthwhile cause so if you don't like it - tough! :-)

Jon (the founder of Code Required) and a friend Pat Fahy (of Sonaa fame) are doing a parachute jump from 12,000ft in an attempt to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support a charity very close to both of our hearts and I'm sure many of you reading this if you have ever experienced the devastating effects that cancer can cause not only to the sufferer but to the friends and family as well.

Therefore it'd be great if you could sponsor us (even just a few pence will make a difference) at http://www.justgiving.com/patandjon

Thanks so much for your support!

Semantic content: images with alt attributes vs plain text? Part 2

OK so interesting results from our little test case... Although it looks like Google is certainly acting as expected for natural rankings with the way we markup content we've had some interesting results from the other guys at Yahoo & Altavista where it looks as though our mate Roger (un-sematic plain text content) is certainly leading the way!!

Page name	Position
	Google	Yahoo	Altavista	Ask	Live/MSN
Frank (H1: image with alt and title)	3	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Fred (H1: as plain text)	1	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Roger (P: as plain text)	2	2	2	n/a	n/a

I must say - I'm a bit concerned by these results as it certainly doesn't bode well for the way we've been told we "should" code so often!

Watch this space for further updates!! Feel free to drop Jon an email if you want to see more comparisons.

You can see the pages at:
http://www.mycardioworld.com/tests/frank.html
(header as image with alt and title attributes)

http://www.mycardioworld.com/tests/fred.html
(everything as plain text)

and...
http://www.mycardioworld.com/tests/roger.html
("un-semantic" plain text)

Semantic content: images with alt attributes vs plain text?

One of the big arguments I constantly have about SEO is whether semantic content as images (with appropriate alt text) or simple text values will rank differently.

For example - which is better for SEO?

<h1>header</h1>

Or...

<h1><img src="header.gif" alt="header" /></h1>

...And does the H1 tag actually make a difference?

<p>header</p>

Not surprisingly it's an incredibly difficult subject to find any solution for so here at Code Required we're currently running a simple test to see what happens...

You can see the pages at:
http://www.mycardioworld.com/tests/frank.html
(header as image with alt and title attributes)

http://www.mycardioworld.com/tests/fred.html
(everything as plain text)

and...
http://www.mycardioworld.com/tests/roger.html
("un-semantic" plain text)

We'll be monitoring the situation over the coming weeks on all the major search engines and posting updates here - in the meantime if you would like us to add other versions or have any comments please drop Jon an email.(For example should we do a sIfr version? should we do a version without title attributes on the images? etc).

Page name	Position
	Google	Yahoo	Altavista	Ask	Live/MSN
Frank (H1: image with alt and title)	1	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Fred (H1: as plain text)	2	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Roger (P: as plain text)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Quite possibly the best CSS "hack" I've ever used...

After a good couple of days banging my head against the desk trying to figure out a solution to a Windows Safari "bug" I think I may have found the best CSS "hack" ever...

Ever wondered why Safari renders fonts bolder than all other browsers on Windows? Well it's down to a setting hidden away in the preferences dialog shown below:



Which is great if you can control everyone's install of Safari but, well let's face it - you can't. Which left me with the dilema... how the hell do I get the headers on my website to render as expected in Safari? Well fear not - just add the following line to your css:

text-shadow: 0 0 0 #FFF;

Where #FFF is whatever the background colour your text appears on and voila Safari's nasty aliasing "bug" has vanished!