We're full-time nerds at Sizzle, so it's essential that we're able to keep up-to-date on the latest goings-on in the exciting world of geekdom (when we're not busy being Manchester's best web designers, of course). And what better way to do so than via the medium of blogs? This post is going to serve as a little introduction to some of our favourite blogs and news sites, and might help introduce you to a whole new and exciting web community!

One of the best blogs on the Internet, Engadget provides the brand-spanking newest updates on technology-related news and product launches, keeping everyone informed about the latest gadgets they're not going to be able to afford. They're in close competition with very-similar-but-not-totally-the-same Gizmodo, but we prefer Engadget's spaced-out, airier design. Although they're very similar in terms of content, really.

Next up are the SEO blogs. There are two resources we love here at Sizzle, SEOmoz and SEOBook, although both suffer somewhat as a result of their totally anti-Google opinions. We like Google - their existence has been great for the Internet! There's also a fair bit of competition between these two, with regular articles 'calling out' one another. But they're invaluable resources which do great jobs of discussing sleazy SEO tactics and providing impartial, sensible advice about site development and usability issues. SEOmoz also has the brilliant YOUmoz blog, providing user-created articles for even more search engine reading.

Speaking of google , every good nerd should keep up to date on the official Google Blog, as well as the blog of their public-facing 'Search Quality' guy Matt Cutts. These provide platforms for Google to announce their latest developments, while providing an insight into the inner workings of The Big G. Very interesting stuff.

.net magazine is a great (if a little simplistic) resource for budding web developers, hindered only by the fact that transcribing code from a paper-based magazine is awfully hard work. But this isn't an issue for their web-based version, which compiles the latest goings-on in the worlds of web design and technology news, with regular featurettes on popular sites. It's a little less jargon-driven than the other sites discussed so far, but is still a fab web design resource.

Design-wise, we're big fans of Smashing Magazine's blog. Lots of links to really cool-looking sites, handy CSS design tips and tricks, and some really stunning bits of graphical design. Phwoar.

For video game news, you can't beat VoodooExtreme, aka VE3D. There are many sites like it, but something about VE3D's design and writing style just grabs us. And you can't beat high-definition gaming trailers without having to link out to some external, advert-ridden site.

And finally, there's Fluid Creativity's blog. While they're technically our 'competition', they're also very cool dudes. Problem is, we can't find the 'Older' button anywhere on the page, so are limited to only reading the newest posts! But a grand blog regardless, with links to Fluid's recent media design goodies.

In the world of SEO it seems everyone is out to make a quick buck. Questionable SEO firms promise businesses limitless leads, instant #1 listings, and a whole host of 'too good to be true' shenanigans.

For example, we were recently approached by a firm stating that we could get the #1 Google search result for 'web design Manchester', or our money back. At first glance, this seems perfect. We had a look into the SEO firm's tactics - hundreds of almost identical, spammy, low-quality websites serving the sole purpose of linking back to their clients. This is what's known as a link farm, designed exclusively to funnel Pagerank to client websites. Google doesn't like link farms, because they're attempting to fool the system. And everyone knows the first rule of SEO is 'Never annoy Google'.

SEO firms also love to promote things like 'Site Structure Analysis', where they look at every bit of your website's code then tell you what you've done wrong. We've lost track of the amount of times our clients have had someone tell them they're "missing the keywords tag", and that that's why they're not rolling around in great big piles of money. In reality, the keyword tag might've been the be all and end all back in 2001, but nowadays Search Engines are much smarter, and over the last 2 years missing keyword tags have very little or no impact on SEO. And here at Sizzle we're dedicated to keeping on the edge of web design and search engine optimisation techniques, and so we don't waste time on redundant technology!

Another issue is the 'W3C Compliant Code' business, insisting that our clients should have 100% valid 'Strict' XHTML, and that doing so would make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. Now don't get us wrong. We love strict XHTML, and we aim for it with every site we make, but that doesn't mean it's a neccessity, nor that it's absence is an issue. And besides, search engines are smart. They're very capable of pulling information from all but the most poorly constructed sites. As you can see from our website we're all WC3'd up!

Finally, our last rant goes to the international spam centres which offer '5,000 hand web directory submissions' and similar. The problem here is that all of these directories will be off-topic and rarely visited. Google can tell when you've been spamming, and nothing reeks of it more than thousands of poorly-worded links from general websites. And if Google thinks you're spamming, that's it. No more search engine visitors. You can't afford to annoy them! 20 links from quality, hand-picked niche directories are infinitely more valuable than any number of ones from spam-infested general dirs. And do you really want the link to your site showing up next to adverts for pharmaceuticals or other undesirables?

SEO is an ongoing job. It's not something you can 'do' in a week or even a month. Good, long-lasting results take a considerable time to develop. If you're promised results in a miraculously quick time, you're getting ripped off.

Here at Sizzle, we pride ourselves on being honest with clients. If you want good, ethical link building, you're on the right site. Want instant results? We'll handle your Pay Per Click campaigns. If you want something suspiciously cheap which runs the risk of total and permanent removal from Google's index? You'de be wise to get a second opinion first!

We aim for greatness at Sizzle. We realise that our pay monthly websites have to not only appeal to humans, but to search engines too. So when we build a site we constantly grade and re-evaluate aspects of it in order to provide the best possible business advantage to our clients.

That's why we love sites like Raven's SEO Analyser. It's by no means perfect, but it gives us a pretty good gist of how well-tuned is a site towards search engines. While we don't pretend that every site we make is going to get 100% right off the bat, we aim to constantly improve scores over time, with high scores being the eventual goal of any site we make.

Raven's tool provides a decent (if brief) report into the aspects of on-page SEO which, when combined, can make real differences.

Over at the Official Google Blog, there's an update about the newest bit of Google Gimmickry - 'SearchWiki'. In a nutshell, it lets you re-organise your search engine results pages, adding comments and removing unwanted results. At a first glance, it might seem like a pretty nifty bit of gadgetry. But on further inspection, it just seems like Google are trying to find ways to make people hang around results pages for longer, thus gaining more Adsense (Google's Ad Network) hits and making more profit for The Big G. (more...)

Today marks a monumentous occasion in the history of Manchester's I.T. industry - the launch of the Sizzle site! From this day forward, businesses across the North West will be able to get the professional web design they deserve, at highly-affordable prices and done with a smile.

You might be thinking 'who are these guys?', so let me explain. (more...)