News

Crystalline Incandescence Competition

How we got listed first...

The magazine .net commissioned an article about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques, and a centrepiece of this is a competition between six SEO companies.

Click here for results

The Idea

This is the cover feature - so it had lots of useful information in it for readers who want to get their sites to the top of Google's listings as well as being an entertaining, enjoyable read.

One of the things readers continually tell the magazine is that they want more information about SEO techniques, and the editor thought it would be interesting if they were to pit a few top SEOs against one another in a similar experiment. The idea would be for the magazine  to choose a phrase that currently generates zero Google results - crystalline incandescence, and to give the same phrase to each of the SEOs; after a month, they'd see whose site was the top of the pops on Google, Yahoo! and MSN for a search on crystalline incandescence.

No Rules

There were no rules - if a respectable SEO wanted to play dirty and use all kinds of underhand tricks that they wouldn't use for a real client, that would be just as interesting as (and potentially more fun than) legit techniques - the magazine offered the SEOs a good plug: a photo, URL and blurb about them and why they're so great, followed by a few paragraphs explaining how the SEO approached it, what the results were and what lessons their readers can learn from their SEO expertise.

Six Search Engine Optimisers were given the challenge to optimise for crystalline incandescence, then each SEO had to explain what methods they used and how they went about it. The magazine also had a control page - with basic meta tags and then do nothing, to see how far down the search results it ends up.

Potential Downside and Upside

As you can see, there was a potential down side here: not everyone can win the competition side of things. But that's why some companies thought it worthwhile going to extremes, trying some unusual techniques, having some fun with crystalline incandescence.

We got to talk about our business for a while, why we're better than the competition, and we offered words of advice to the magazine's readers and so on.

The deadline was 23rd December 2004. The contest was officially started on Friday 5th November 2004, and the results appeared in the March 2005 issue.

Results - We Were First

We scored the major success of getting listed first. Within four days of the competition starting, the site we constructed specifically for the competition was listed top on Google for "crystalline incandescence". We then did practically no further work on the special site, and it stayed top for two weeks, while our competitors all worked hard to catch up.

We were also listed 3rd out of 56,300 results (and above all the competing SEOs) for the single keyword incandescence. In many ways this was a better achievement, as it more closely corresponds to real life, where there is competition amongst a large number of sites to get to the top. We got to 3rd position without specifically optimising for the single keyword.

We've now removed most of the links, so you may not see our site (www.webvisible.co.uk) any longer if you search Google for "crystalline incandescence".

Legitimate Techniques Only

We only used legitimate techniques. We did not use keyword stuffing, deceptive re-directs, hidden links, hidden or "cloaked" text or other techniques which might get your site banned by search engines.

Please contact us if you think you might like our help in getting your site seen!

Beaufort Web Design Welcomes a New Associate

We are pleased to welcome on board a new Associate - Arthur Fitzjohn.

Arthur is an experienced computer consultant who will strengthen our technical capability and client support. He has over 25 years experience in Information Technology, and has worked on a wide range of technologies and platforms (both Windows and Unix). He delivers professional quality in design, implementation and support. His most recent clients include TNT, OFSTED, and the Home Office.

Arthur is based in Hertfordshire.