mOxby Design

Have you checked in Google WMT or robots.txt that you're not excluding certain query strings? There's nothing innately wrong with your URL construction and still has keywords in it so is helpful for search and humans. So check
 
1. WMT
2. Robots.txt
3. Also check the links between the pages are fine and followed
4. Sitemap.xml? Are they in there?
5. Finally - make sure you haven't canonicalled incorrectly such to remove URLs accidentally from search.
 
Hope this helps.

SEO friendly URLs are important not purely for the benefit of search engines.
 
Compare as an example...
 
yoursite.co.uk/samsung-tv
 
with
yoursite.co.uk/products/productinfo.php?id=1023223b
 
 
Which URL are real people most likely to be able to relay to others, imagine telling someone via telephone to go the link. The former wins everytime, be it telephone, or typing in an email, writing on a note to hand over to someone.
 
Also to a user, when they see the former, its immediately obvious what they can expect when they click on the link.
 
So my point is seo friendly URLs are people friendly as well as search engine friendly
 
Search Engines DO take into consideration the keywords used in a URL, it gives a strong signal what the content will relate to.
 
However, (there's always a however..)
 
Having a URL like
 
yoursite.co.uk/this-is-the-very-best-tv-on-the-market-dont-look-anywhere-else-and-buy-it-now
 
Will more than likely fire off spam signals with the search engines so keeping them short and to the point is also key.

maybe a little, but since the dev website is no longer online its nothing to worry about
 
might be worth doing a redirect from the old url if your worried but shouldnt be needed...

The current rough guidance from Google is here
 
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=99170
 
and here
 
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=146897
 
basically, if a rich snippet is in any of the accepted methods then it will be beneficial and perfectly okay. The easiest thing is to choose a method of marking up your snippet and stick to that method rather than chopping or changing else you're just going to give yourself headaches (literal, not metaphorical!)

Indications are that Bing particularly are looking at using it with Google taking it into account. The real power lies if your SEO campaign is
 
1. Local (City/County/State)
2. Needs 'rich snippets' - i.e. pieces of information that search engines may find useful in ranking your site - e.g. menus, business reviews from customers.
 
It doesn't take much to mark up an address to strengthen your local SEO campaign and increase consistency in your business location across websites, Google Places listings etc. So you may as well adopt Schema.org/Micro-formats where it's quick and easy to implement.

Just remember that search engine algorithms change almost constantly and although principles remain steady, the actual techniques do change.
 
Please bear in mind that SEO is, in essence, ranking highly for well-researched keywords in order to drive the right human visitors to the website to make a conversion - whether it's an enquiry or a sale for example.
 
You need to do research on a site-by-site basis, looking at competitors ensuring you're not ranking highly for something that people aren't looking for and providing RELEVANT content useful for your HUMAN visitors.
 
Don't forget link building - quality not necessarily quantity - vital to get quality links to the website that reinforce:-
 
The site's location (if local SEO is important) and/or
What the business does
 
(i.e. a link from a restaurant website for a tiddly winks club may not be useful)
 
Enjoy the ride and experiment with test sites or your own so that when you apply SEO to your clients you can show that you do has a positive effect.
 
And finally - record the results. Launch a site and start a spreadsheet showing rankings for keywords and track the progress over time.
 
Remember - the SEO strategy must be in line with the business/organisation's aims, so really take time to get to know and understand your client.

Francis - you're welcome. If my comments are appreciated, do feel free to push the (+) button, I've only just discovered this on the forum and have started using it for others.
 
Terms and Conditions - you could shorten this to T&C (ensure you use a proper ampersand in your code) or even just 'Terms/Conditions' - that's shorter. And you're using the full word 'and'... 'Terms & Conditions' shortens it by 2 characters, which may be sufficient reduction.
 
Alignment - this is your choice. But if you're left aligning it at least put the site right against the top edge.
 
Background colour - is this grey? If it is then a muted cream sort of colour would be more complimentary. Or even a light textured background.
 
Otherwise I agree with Evu on the padding as well.
 
And for SEO - let me know when you've made all the major changes and then we can look at SEO a bit for free, I can do a brief review for you and lay out a few pointers. I'll need to know where your wife is looking at getting her customers from, i.e. national or local.
 
Keep up the good work :-)

You shouldn't think that your website is terrible, cause it isn't - but I agree with the comments above. The main thing you want to see on a photographers website is a portfolio - without one the website is a bit redundant.
 
The other main thing I don't like about the design is the strong gradients - fading from a colour to almost white. Gradients are much more effective when used subtly - or it is more fashionable to use flat colour or textures these days it seems. Another thing which would improve the feel of the site is to increase the line-height of the paragraphs - this can do a world of good I usually find to increase readability.
 
Sorry for the negative comments, but you clearly take criticism in the manner it was intended so I spoke my mind

The site look alright. It has some amateurish tones to it for example the tabs for the main menu. They seem really out of place. And besides the flash banner, there really is no gallery for a potential client to view (especially since non-flash users get really screwed on this one).
 
For the main content the headers need padding against the side of the container. There is no reason why they need to be touching the edge. I think the headers also need to be toned down a little and left aligned (the background on them is really annoying). I even noticed some of them were not italic while others were. It was confusing why they were that way. You also need more leading with your main text.
 
On your contact form, the arrow for the select a suitable timeframe is really confusing. Also... there is nothing telling the user to actually click on a timeframe. They don't look like they should be clickable.
 
Every page basically looks the same which kinda confused me as to which page I was on. The contact form being on all pages made me think I was on the contact page, when I was really on the home page. Giving the user feed back is really important.
 
Overall, I really don't like it. The page is really hard on the eyes, visually confusing, and the information that is there seems like a chore to read.
 
I don't know if you did the logo as well, but it is really ugly (bevel on the text? seriously?)

Hi Francis- sorry for the delayed reply, I have been away for a long weekend, but am back now. I will do my best to do the SEO review this week, next week at the latest. Hope this suits
 
And given the broad range of websites linking to mine due to being a web designer, a link from your wife's site would be appreciated - so many thanks for that offer.

I like this a lot - emotions and colour have so often been linked, so your data will prove interesting no doubt.
 
The only thing I spotted on my laptop was that when I have completed my answers, the link that says to view the result had slightly unclear and pixellated text - maybe just make that text bigger. Larger text will still be in keeping with the rest of of the site.
 
And good job, I like this.

Just remember that search engine algorithms change almost constantly and although principles remain steady, the actual techniques do change.
 
Please bear in mind that SEO is, in essence, ranking highly for well-researched keywords in order to drive the right human visitors to the website to make a conversion - whether it's an enquiry or a sale for example.
 
You need to do research on a site-by-site basis, looking at competitors ensuring you're not ranking highly for something that people aren't looking for and providing RELEVANT content useful for your HUMAN visitors.
 
Don't forget link building - quality not necessarily quantity - vital to get quality links to the website that reinforce:-
 
The site's location (if local SEO is important) and/or
What the business does
 
(i.e. a link from a restaurant website for a tiddly winks club may not be useful)
 
Enjoy the ride and experiment with test sites or your own so that when you apply SEO to your clients you can show that you do has a positive effect.
 
And finally - record the results. Launch a site and start a spreadsheet showing rankings for keywords and track the progress over time.
 
Remember - the SEO strategy must be in line with the business/organisation's aims, so really take time to get to know and understand your client.

What server type are you on? The answer can differ depending on Windows/Unix (but not necessarily).
 
This may be a .htaccess 301 or a web.config issue.
 
By the way, nice looking site, really liking it. Needs a favicon and the links at the bottom are a bit too dark, but VERY nice site.

IE Bugs and How to Fix them
 
Great tut/article