[2003-05-30] Search Engine Basics: The Meta Tag
Now, I know what you are thinking; "surely we don't need to worry about Meta tags, as most search engines ignore them" and for the most part you would be right. The importance of Meta tags has diminished so considerably over the past couple of years, that I fully expect this to be the last article that I will write discussing their optimization. That's not to say that they are already a dead issue, but in the next 6-12 months their importance will be virtually extinguished.
[2003-05-30] Give Your Site A Definition!
On your own website, it's obvious to you what your company does and what your site is all about. However, the odds are high that your visitors won't automatically know that information the first time they come to your site.
[2003-05-29] Design vs Content: Who is King?
I am a firm advocate of good design but most of the time people tend to interpret design as amazing graphics and astounding visuals they tend to forget that design is the culmination of every aspect of good and effective presentation into one (visit Vincent Flander's WebPagesThatSuck.com).
[2003-05-29] PPC Bidding Made Redundant
It has been interesting to observe changing trends on the Internet, particularly in Marketing and especially with search engines. To maintain my business and my clients businesses in competitive mode, it's been necessary to keep one step ahead of changing technologies, keeping up with the Jones's doesn't seem to work well on the Internet.
[2003-05-29] Submitting Your Site To The Open Web Directory: Some Dos And Don’ts
One of the most important steps in any site's publicity campaign is the submission to the Open Web Directory (http://www.dmoz.org) as this directory provides search results for many of the most important search engines and online portals. This directory is not a robot driven spider, but a human edited directory and you must observe a few important points if your submission is to be successful.
[2003-05-28] SEO Corner - JavaScript and Search Engine Visibility
Question: I am using JavaScript on my site, and I am concerned that my site may not being fully seen/indexed by the search engines and the spiders. How can I find out?
[2003-05-28] Create User Friendly Confirmation Pages
Including a form on your website is the best way to get feedback from your visitors.
[2003-05-28] The 5 Toughest Problems Facing Online Retailers
What are the toughest problems facing online retailers in 2003?
[2003-05-28] What Web Developers Can Learn from Retailers
Want to learn how to improve your company web site? Then let's take a trip to the mall.
Most web sites are still designed and developed by IT professionals. Some of the most accepted rules of the road for site design still reflect an IT mindset.
[2003-05-28] The 7 Major Steps For Improving A Web Site
I recently gave a presentation to a group of web designers dealing with what I call the "Seven Steps to Achieving the Next Level" -- getting development teams to a point beyond their current practices. Our research shows that almost every design project we see today can readily apply these seven techniques.
[2003-05-23] The Quiet Death of the Major Re-Launch
"It seems like a such a huge undertaking," the Senior VP of Marketing told me. "Frankly, we're terrified we're going to make things worse than they already are."
The VP was sitting at the conference table with her senior staff. They'd been discussing the state of the web site and their desire to completely redesign it.
[2003-05-21] 10 Website Essentials to Increase Your Sales
If you are a serious Internet Entrepreneur, your top priority must be your website. Your website is a direct reflection of you and your business. Creating a professional website designed to sell will take a great deal of time and effort, as there is much more to take into consideration than design. You must look at a much broader picture and specifically design your website to sell.
[2003-05-21] The Secrets to Building a Successful Website
If you're doing business on the Internet, one of the most important aspects of your success is your web site. If your web site doesn't look professional, no matter what product you're offering your chances of success are minimal.
[2003-05-21] Increase Your Traffic by Recovering Your Lost Visitors
If you spend any time surfing the Internet, you've probably encountered a few error messages.
Error messages have numerous causes, such as misspellings, outdated links or internal server errors. When an error is encountered, your server will display specific generic error pages according to the error. These error pages are not only dead ends, but they are also very frustrating for your potential visitors.
[2003-05-21] The First Fold Makes Your Site (Or Breaks It)
Visitors to your site are not looking to make a new friend. They don't want to chat. And they don't give a darn what you think about anything, least of all your product. They only want to know:
- What's in it for me?
- Why should I believe you?
- Why should I buy from you?
[2003-05-21] Search Engine Optimization and Page Templating
Dear Ross
I wonder if you can advise on how I should set up a menu structure (template) for a new site in a way which is optimal for search engine positioning:
[2003-05-21] Search Engines vs. Database-Driven Websites - Optimizing PHP
Dear Jim
I have a question regarding a e commerce site using PHP extensions vs. html. That is, I have seen at this SEO site that there might be an issue with search engines being able to crawl this kind of a site, since these are javascript sites I think there might be reason to worry, is it true? What should I do?
[2003-05-21] Elevating PageRank and Choosing a Keyword Focus
Dear Ross,
I'm still not too clear on this whole PageRank thing that Google does. From what I can gather, the incoming links have no weight in the PageRank, only links leaving my site and going to other sites (so competitors can't lower your PageRank by linking to you with low-ranked sites). So, all I have to do is find all the highly ranked pages out there, and link to them? Or do they have to be in the same general category as my site? What's to stop me from creating several sites at several different domains, each under a slightly different yet overlapping category, and linking to the top PageRanked sites (to give my sites high PageRanks), then linking each of my sites together to get even higher PageRanks?
[2003-05-21] How do You Optimize a Web Site that Uses Frames and Server-Side-Includes?
Dear Jim,
"When creating things like a text menu with all the main links at the bottom of each page, does it create a problem for the spiders if you use server side includes? Can the spider find the links in that include page? I have a lot of stuff like the menu that are on every page and would like to put it into an SSI page to simplify maintenance."
[2003-05-21] The Other Side of Headlines
Since as many as 80% of visitors will never finish even the headline on a page, it's clear we need to put our best effort into creating them. And the headline on our home page is the one that matters most. Here's why.
[2003-05-21] Basic SEO Questions & Answers
Question 1: Are Internal Page Titles Important?
I enjoyed your article "10 Minute Search Engine Optimization" and found it quite timely as we're about to roll out a new version of our website...and I have next to no promotion budget!
[2003-05-20] Introduction to Relational Database Systems
If you collect and use any kind of data you probably have some kind of organizing system. Whether you use index cards, a filing cabinet, Excel spreadsheets, or some kind of database program, your system should let you add and change data, delete data, and retrieve data, and it should work faster and more efficiently than if you had to do it by hand.
[2003-05-20] Currency Formatting and Putting Commas In Numbers
This article will show you how to do two things:
1. Round numbers to the nearest hundredth, with two digits following the decimal point. This can be useful when displaying prices or the totals of orders.
2. Insert commas between every third digit (right to left) for numbers 1000 and larger. This can make numbers easier to read.
[2003-05-19] Seven Tips To A Top Site
As a web site owner, I spend a lot of time online. I also spend a lot of time at other sites. These are the top seven tips I have discovered make or break a web site other than its design appeal.
[2003-05-19] Design Details: Important Or Not?
When it comes to web development, there is a fine line between worrying too much about details and not worrying about them enough.
[2003-05-19] SQL Errors 101
Many programmers hit a brick wall in their SQL queries, slowing development to a crawl and causing an over abundance of hair loss and coffee consumption. If you have been staring at the screen with a blank look and a pounding heart, wondering what you did to deserve this mess, you have come to the right place. In this article I will unveil the six most common SQL query errors and give you tips on stress prevention.
[2003-05-19] Track And Analyze Your Web Site Traffic
1. Track and analyze your web site traffic.
Most web hosts offer traffic analysis data to their clients, and it is arguably the most important tool at your disposal in measuring the effectiveness of your website. By taking the time to understand this data, you can begin to understand the motivations and interests of your audience. Are many of them leaving on one particular page? Perhaps you should make some changes to keep their interest. Are most of them looking at one particular part of your site? Perhaps you should make it a more featured area. Since this data updates on a regular basis, you are also able to gauge the effectiveness of any changes that you make. These are the most basic examples, as there are many more useful bits of information available- what search terms your visitors are using to find you, what sites are bringing you the most traffic, how long your visitors are staying, etc. Maintaining a successful website is an ongoing process, and visitor data is crucial to getting optimum results.
[2003-05-16] Emerging Methods for Effective Search Engine Ranking
Search Engine traffic has always been and continues to be one of
the best ways to drive qualified traffic to a web site --- it
presents information about goods and services when the interest
level is high and it can be acted on immediately. Up till now
opt-in e-mail marketing has been an effective complement to
search engine ranking campaigns; but the never-ending deluge of
Spam is rapidly ruining the effectiveness of opt-in e-mail and
helping to add luster to the value and cost-effectiveness of
search engine traffic.
[2003-05-15] How to get Free Internet Merchant Accounts
This article will show small businesses how to get free internet merchant accounts. If your business is to grow and succeed, it is essential to accept online credit cards
[2003-05-15] The Web Page Width Dilemma
With so many different resolutions (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, etc.), browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.), and platforms (Windows, Mac, etc.) in use, it is very difficult to design a page that looks good (or at least looks the same) in all configurations.
[2003-05-15] Arrays in PHP: Part 1
What exactly is an array?
An array is a variable type in PHP that allows the programmer to associate one value directly to another value or simply take a set of data and organize it into a list format (much like a table). It can be used in many ways to store and organize data quickly and efficiently. It is one of the more useful data types available to any programming language.
[2003-05-15] Arrays in PHP: Part 2
Today we'll continue our discussion of arrays in PHP including the use of associative and multidimensional arrays.
In my last article, we introduced a new array data type in PHP and covered its fundamentals. Today we'll dive deeper into arrays and introduce a type of array called an associative array and a more complex type of array -- the multidimensional array.
[2003-05-15] Content Thieves
Someone's been stealing your content.
Really.
It's easy to do, too. I'm talking about all the fancy jpgs, gifs, docs and pdfs on your site. Guess what? If I can hit them with a URL, they're mine.
[2003-05-14] Optimizing JavaScript for Execution Speed
JavaScript can benefit from many of the same speed-optimization techniques that are used in other languages, like C1,2 and Java. Algorithms and data structures, caching frequently used values, loop unrolling and hoisting, removing tail recursion, and strength-reduction techniques all have a place in your JavaScript optimization toolbox. However, how you interact with the Document Object Model (DOM) in large part determines how efficiently your code executes.
[2003-05-14] Low Cost Web Site Promotion For Small Businesses
Promoting your small business website in the search engines can be a daunting task. Use of free submissions and link popularity is a good starting point for your website promotion campaign.
[2003-05-14] When Is The Right Time To Start A Discussion Forum?
By now I'm certain that a great number of you have participated in online forums and exchange ideas on just about everything (business, search engine optimization, marketing or doll making). Online communities or discussion forums come in all different flavors and styles. There are some forums that receive tremendous traffic and it seems that everyone is post questions and receiving free advice.
[2003-05-14] The Key to Effective Web Site Design
The key to effective web site design is good planning. Without planning and organisation, you will end up with chaos. Once you have a design plan, content is the next consideration. This applies equally to new and existing web sites.
[2003-05-13] Building Web Sites with Macromedia Studio MX - Book Excerpt
Macromedia's release of the MX Studio essentially turned their entire web product line inside out and rearranged the molecules. Instead of separate products performing specialized tasks, the tight integration of the tools-Freehand, Flash MX, Fireworks MX, Dreamweaver MX, and ColdFusion MX-means an entirely new, more efficient workflow can develop. A major workflow change is how objects created in each of the applications move easily between the applications. Dragging and dropping, importing, copying, and pasting between the applications can accomplish this, but one of the more significant aspects of the new workflow is the use of symbols.
[2003-05-13] Use the HOSTS File to Block Web Sites
When you type a domain name into your Web browser, Internet Protocol contacts a computer that is a domain name server to look up the IP address of the Web site. In the early days, the Internet didn't need domain name servers. Every computer had a file named HOSTS that listed the domain name and IP address of the systems connected to the Internet.
[2003-05-12] Flash And Your SEO Rankings
Hi Dan:
I have recently changed the look of my website of four years, I have added a Flash page that seems to have deleted me from the search engines almost completely ( I was between 10th and 15th on almost all engines) with my URL so unique to the keywords... Hotelphotography.com. and a lot of submitting, I had good positioning.
[2003-05-09] Eight is Not Enough (for usability testing)
One of the most popular questions we hear from web designers and usability professionals is: "How many users is enough when conducting usability tests?" Until recently, we had believed -- and told our clients -- that it wasn't usually necessary to test with more than eight users. We based our recommendation on the widely held theory that eight users will detect almost all of your web site or software usability problems.
[2003-05-09] Should Hyperlinks Always Be Blue?
Question: I am the webmaster for West Salem High School, additionally I run my own web design company (thus my subscription to DevWebPro). I read your article on the importance of underlining links and keeping them blue.
I will start of by admitting that I am one of those people who sometimes takes design and puts it in front of purpose. I try to check myself on that and ensure that visitors to my sites have navigation that doesn't change throughout the website, but I do not stick with blue, underlined links.
[2003-05-09] How To Build a ClickThru Marketing Web-Page Guaranteed To Pull In Tons of Folks
The biggest mistake and the reason most people fail at clickthru marketing is that they just pop in their affiliate link and start sending folks to their affiliate website.
[2003-05-08] The Streaming Of Audio And Video In The Internet
Entertainment is a necessity! And thank god we belong to the digitalage when almost all our needs are readily available right in the comforts of our own home. For this reason, our demands for entertainment nowadays are hardly considered luxury.
[2003-05-06] Liquid Markup
Liquid was created because there was no markup language available to create sophisticated interactive animations that could be displayed in a web browser. * If you don't know anything about scripting, but have a basic understanding of HTML, you will still be able to use Liquid to create both sophisticated presentations and all kinds of 2D games.
[2003-05-06] 3 Tips On Using Contrast
If you have a website, it needs to grab attention. You have to catch a visitor's interest and make him or her want to delve into your site. Otherwise, the site won't do you much good, no matter how much traffic you're getting.
[2003-05-06] 3 Reasons Not To Use Uppercase
Sometimes it's ok to use uppercase. Capital letters can add a touch of class to the apperance of your page. However, they should be used very sparingly. There are three reasons why you should avoid them in most cases:
[2003-05-06] Drop-Down Menus: They Aren't User-Friendly
On many sites, drop-down menus aren't a significant part of the design. However, they appear often enough that they deserve some attention. So exactly how should they be used?
[2003-05-06] Conscious Consistency: The Principle Of Repetition
If you take a look at the marketing materials of most Fortune 500 companies, you'll notice that they all have one thing in common: within each one, all of the company's marketing materials are similar in their appearance.
[2003-05-05] Google Trauma: Dan Thies Rescues Reader's Site
Hi Dan:
So here is the Google problem. My website located at http://www.2linc.com was being reindexed by Google about twice a week. It then stopped being reindexed and has since reverted to an older cache of the site. When I resubmit the website to Google they index the site and then the cache becomes correct. After a few days Google's cache of my website reverts back to the old one again. Any ideas what is happening?
[2003-05-05] 10 Rules Of Writing For The Web
Writing for the Web is not the same as writing for print. People read differently on the Web. They scan read-jumping quickly from one piece of content to the next. People are much more action-orientated on the Web. They get online to get something done. Words should always be driving actions.
[2003-05-02] Ten Ways to Make the Most of IIS
As an IIS administrator it sometimes gets downright annoying having to fend off all the insults from Apache admins I meet claming innate server superiority. Generally the discussion about Web administration starts first with all the various security holes plaguing IIS and the negative press the platform garnered over the last year.
[2003-05-02] Overcome Your Search Engine Fear!
Many do-it-yourself webmasters and online entrepreneurs have been led to believe that search engine optimization is a black art, and that no mere amateur can hope to compete with the "experts." If you are among them, you're missing out on a great opportunity to drive free, targeted traffic to your website.
[2003-05-01] Creating PDF Files in PHP
The PDF (or portable document format) file is an amazingly versatile format for transferring what usually starts as a hard copy version of a document over the Internet.
[2003-05-01] Search Engine Positioning: 3 Key Principles
It's not hard to find good information on search engine positioning... the hard part is telling the good information apart from the bad. Some of it is old, some of it is wrong, and a lot of it is just self-serving propaganda for someone's product or service.
[2003-05-01] Inspecting Your Web Site for Spam
Spam is an overused word. Describing everything from processed luncheon foodstuffs to the flood of advertising Email we all receive each day, the simple, four-letter word is as widely used as many other deceptively descriptive four-letter words are. Suffice it to say that SPAM is not counted amongst the most honorable words in the English language. The IT world has forced the English language to evolve very quickly as old words are applied against new technologies and ideas and thus, the word "Spam" has become synonymous with words such as "junk" and "waste". In the search engine optimization field, the word Spam is used to describe illegal techniques used to try to fool search engine spiders. This section will outline a few of the more frequent Spam techniques used by webmasters or unscrupulous SEO practitioners. Check your websites for any incidents of Spam and do your best to get rid of them as they could seriously damage your search engine rankings.
[2003-05-01] Streamlining Project Management for the Web Designer
The project management of a web design job can make or break the project. If you are a web designer who has to perform your own project management, the following guidelines can help you to stay on budget and hit your deadline.
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