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Posts Tagged ‘search engine’
25
Jun
2009
Jun
2009
How to quickly design a quality web site
The first thing that you have to know about building a great looking website is that it’s super easy, super cheap and takes almost no time at all. The basics are already stored on your computer, and those basics can be easily put together like a sandwich to build a great website quickly.
Defining your layout
Step one, let’s decide what your new website is going to look like. Surprisingly, most website designs can be boiled down to just a few basic layouts.
Of course there are plenty more than the few I’ve laid out here but for the purpose of our project, I want to keep this simple and selected the first option, a traditional website layout with a header, footer and two columns.
The HTML used to create this basic web page layout is:
[source lang="html"]
<body>
<div id=’page’>
<div id=’header’>Page Header</div>
<div id=’content’>Content</div>
<div id=’sidebar’>Sidebar</div>
<div id=’footer’>Page Footer</div>
</div>
</body>
[/source]
To format the page properly we also need to add some basic CSS:
[source lang="css"]body {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
text-align: center;
}
#page {
width: 800px;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
text-align: left;
}
#header {
background-color: #CCCCCC;
clear: both;
height: 100px;
}
#footer {
background-color:#00FFFF;
clear: both;
height: 100px;
}
#sidebar {
background-color:#FFFFCC;
clear: left;
float: left;
width: 200px;
}
#content {
background-color:#ffffff;
clear: right;
float: right;
width: 600px;
}[/source]
As you will now see, the page content is placed in the appropriate areas for our website. For those of you who are clever with CSS, you can change to the second layout by changing the flipping the content and sidebar’s clear/float values. Technically, if you look at the HTML for this page, the sidebar appears to the right of the HTML but is formated with CSS to appear on the left, this is a Search Engine Optimization trick to move our content closer to the top of the page.
Designing the Web Page
The Header
Now that we have a basic layout for our website, we need to add a little bit of flare, to do this we need some color and some texture. The best place to get it? Flickr or other online photo database. In this case, I’m going to use a macro focus pair of blue sneakers from Fey the Ferocious.
What I want to do is use the sneaker photo as both the header and the color scheme for the website, this is make fairly easy since the photo has such rich colors. Let’s get started with the header by adding a title as well as a menu in the code as such:
[source lang="html"]<div id=’header’>
<div id=’logo’><strong>Website Name</strong></div>
<div id=’menu’>
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Item 1</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Item 2</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Item 3</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Item 4</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
[/source]
By adding this simple header structure, we’ve given the HTML everything it needs to build our header. The next step is to add some basic CSS to the file in order to format and structure the piece.
[source lang="css"]#page {
width: 800px;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
text-align: left;
font-family: "Lucida Sans", Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;
}
#header {
background-color: #CCCCCC;
clear: both;
}
#logo {
background-image: url(3031455100_f5450c9645_b.jpg);
padding-top: 50px;
padding-bottom: 50px;
padding-left: 50px;
background-position: -200px;
font-size: 24px;
color: #FFFFFF;
}
#menu ul {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
list-style-type: none;
}
#menu li {
display: inline;
padding-right: 10px;
}
#menu a {
font-size: 12px;
color: #FFFFFF;
text-decoration: none;
}
[/source]
Take care to note that I’ve altered the #header and #page format a little to account for the new items, including the fonts I would like to use.
Here’s what my new header will look like:
The Footer
Once the header is completed, I like to work on the footer next. I’m not entirely sure why I do it this way but I find the footer equally important as the header and sometimes it seems to be an after thought on web pages, so I like to address it while I’m still fresh.
The footer has to contain some basic elements such as copyright and links, to accomplish this here’s the HTML code that I’ll use:
[source lang="html"]<div id=’footer’>
<div id=’footermenu’>
<ul>
<li><a href="#">Item 1</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Item 2</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Item 3</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Item 4</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>© Copyright 2009, Website Name. All rights reserved.<br />
Header photography by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/renneville/3031455100/">Ferocious Feyrannosaur</a>, <a href="http://www.thisismyurl.com">website design by Christopher Ross.</a><br />
</p>
</div>
[/source]
The CSS for the footer is equally simple:
[source lang="css"]#footer {
clear: both;
height: 100px;
font-size: 10px;
color: #666666;
margin-top: 5px;
padding-top: 5px;
border-top-width: 1px;
border-top-style: solid;
border-top-color: #000000;
}
#footermenu ul {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
list-style-type: none;
}
#footermenu li {
display: inline;
padding-right: 10px;
}
#footer a {
color: #666666;
text-decoration: none;
}[/source]
Since a footer is the technical, ‘legal’ notes for a website, I make it slightly smaller and lighter as to not distract from the rest of the page. Make note of the changes to the original #footer code as well.
Formating the Sidebar
Before we get into formating the sidebar we need to make sure there is some space to the right of it so that the content doesn’t butt right up against the sidebar content. To do this, we need to add a padding area inside the sidebar along with our new content. To do this, I will add a margin to the boxes we add but first we have to change the basic HTML of the sidebar.
First, let’s add a new division element with the box class and add a level two heading for each, along with a paragraph of test (for now I’ll use Lorem Ipsum) along with the link.
[source lang="html"]<div id=’sidebar’>
<div class="box">
<h2>Item 1</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent orci lectus, iaculis ut ullamcorper id, porttitor ut dui. <a href="#">Item 1</a></p>
</div>
<div class="box">
<h2>Item 2</h2>
<p>Sed eget placerat elit. Curabitur sit amet ullamcorper massa. Donec id viverra dui. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. <a href="#">Item 2</a></p>
</div>
<div class="box">
<h2>Item 3</h2>
<p>Suspendisse in quam ac magna condimentum fringilla sit amet sed orci. Fusce interdum ligula eget mauris imperdiet iaculis. Donec eu auctor turpis. Donec ullamcorper hendrerit urna quis malesuada. <a href="#">Item 3</a></p>
</div>
<div class="box">
<h2>Item 4</h2>
<p>Quisque blandit, ante eu tempus tempus, massa lectus dignissim ipsum, id interdum dolor mauris non mi. Ut in orci turpis, non tincidunt nunc. In placerat diam in sem cursus dictum. Morbi ac urna urna. Ut nulla tellus, gravida a iaculis ut, tempus et odio. <a href="#">Item 4</a></p>
</div>
</div>[/source]
Trust me, this looks a lot more complicated than it really is! Take a look …
Now we have to add some CSS to format this content:
[source lang="css"]#sidebar {
clear: left;
float: left;
width: 200px;
font-size: 10px;
color: #666666;
padding-bottom: 20px;
}
.box {
border-bottom-width: 5px;
border-bottom-style: solid;
border-bottom-color: #CCCCCC;
padding-right: 10px;
margin-right: 10px;
}
.box h2 {
color: #3B4A88;
font-weight: normal;
margin-top: 10px;
margin-bottom: 0px;
padding-top: 10px;
padding-bottom: 0px;
}
.box p {
padding-top: 0px;
padding-bottom: 10px;
margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
}
.box a {
font-weight: bolder;
color: #3B4A88;
text-decoration: none;
}[/source]
The Content
Finally, to complete the webpage we have to add some content. Again, I’ll rely on Lorem Ipsum for the purpose of putting some quick content into the website, you can add your own text later.
There are not a lot of major changes to the content in this design, if it was a client project I’d add a sizable number of CSS modifications in order to format the pages but as a demo of how to quickly design a quality website I think it’s pretty good.
You can look at the website with CSS as well as a version with no CSS to give you an idea of the changes. You’re also welcome to download the source code and use this website template as a basis for your own website.
You might also want to check out a couple simple variations to this theme:
14
May
2009
May
2009
How do I get to the top of Google?
So what’s the secret to getting to the top of Google’s search engine? Nothing. There is no secret and there’s no reason to pay an SEO firm or consultant to get you there, honestly … you can do it yourself if you have the time to learn and implement the basic advice of people who know what they’re talking about.
First, let’s establish that one simple fact … there are no secrets. In fact, everything you need to know is online at the Webmaster Guidelines at Google and for those of you need even more help, there is plenty of places here on my site to read about what Google wants.
Now, I should point out that I’m not a Google expert or even an SEO specialist (although I do offer similar services). I’m an organic marketing specialist if that title even exists … in order to do that I believe a website must meet three basic guidelines:
Technical
A web page is a computer document, much the same as a document produced by Microsoft Word and just like word processing documents it has to be opened and read by other computers. Now, we’ve all tried opening a WordPerfect document in Word or an OpenOffice resume in Pages and it always ends the same right? …. it doesn’t work. Why not?
The reason it doesn’t work is simple, the basic structure of how the documents are written are not compatible with the software trying to open them. The web works the exact same way. Web browsers from Lynx to Internet Explorer open your web page documents and read the content. If they can’t read the content, they can’t display the document … makes sense right? OK so here’s the kicker … Google uses a tool called a web spider to crawl your website in order to read the content and add it to their index. If your web page is poorly written, Google can’t open it and has to move onto another website.
So rule number one to getting to the top of Google? Make sure that Google can read your website.
Design
There’s a catch-22 when it comes to Google, Google doesn’t care about design but Google cares how your web content is designed. Technically, it couldn’t care less about your websites looks but it does care about how your website is structured, how the content is organized and how the overall site appears to both spiders and people visiting your web page.
In order to make sure that your website ranks well with Google, you’ll have to ensure that your documents are properly structures, the content is readable and that it appears the same to search engines as it does to people. Often times, I have clients ask if they can upload Flash version of their website but hide Google friendly text in a hidden layer somewhere on the page … sure you can but that’s not being very honest is it?
Rule number two to getting your website at the top of Google? Design content for people, not robots.
Content
Rule number three, have great content.
Honestly, I can’t make it more clear than what I’ve written here. Take a moment to stop thinking about Google as a company or a website to beat and start thinking about it as a group of people who are working towards a common goal, as I’ve written before … they’re very smart people and they spend a lot of time trying to make the Internet a better place, so when they catch people trying to scam them by breaking these simple rules … don’t be surprised to find your website banned.
28
Apr
2009
Apr
2009
How do I get more people to find and visit my web site?
First and foremost, write better content more often.
Then, stop asking how to get people to find your website and start asking yourself why would people want to find your website. The trick to the Internet is that it focusses the marketing drive on the consumer, not the company so get out of the ’90s and start trying to make it about the end user instead of your business.
How to make it about the end user
When I was with the US Beer Drinking Team I came up with a marketing concept called Me Marketing, at its core was the simple belief that everybody was (in their own mind at least) special, so if you wanted to market to them all you needed to do was ensure that your business or product solved a problem that they believed they had.
I wrote an article a while back called 25 Things to Do to Increase Your Website Traffic Right Now, which offers some advice for people just starting out as well as a recent post entitled 25 simple ways to make WordPress SEO friendly which talks about some of the things you can do to make your website more Search Engine Friendly but remember the best way to build readers isn’t to create SEO friendly content, it’s to create content people actually want to read and share with their friends.
26
Apr
2009
Apr
2009
25 simple ways to make WordPress SEO friendly
Making a website (especially a WordPress website) search engine friendly should be the focus of every webmaster but many independent website owners get it all wrong, so let’s take a quick look at 25 things every website owner should do to make sure their website is making the most of free marketing tools.
The title tag
In HTML there are two tags that can make a website sink or swim. The first is your title tag. Located in the <head> section of your websites HTML the <title> tag controls what search engines think your sites name is. This title commonly includes both the name of your website and the name of the article that is stored on a specific page but which is more important?
To search engines the answer is easy, it’s the name of the page that people are on … not the name of your website, so placing the content in the right order is critical! Instead of placing My Site Name || My Post, I can instantly improve my ranking by posting My Post || My Site Name. To do this in WordPress, simply open your header.php file and make the required changes.
The H1 tag
No tag is more misunderstood or more poorly used than the poor H1 tag. It’s the most critical tag in the entire body of a post, yet people waste it on their website title! It’s not really you’re fault … WordPress themes often mistakenly use the <h1> tag as the title of a website.
To fix this, open your header.php file and remove the <h1> from around your site name. Replace it with a <div> tag such as <div id=’logo’> so that you can format your title to look how you’d like.
The H1 tag is meant to encompass the page title, so next you’ll have to open and edit your single.php and page.php files to ensure your title is using an <h1>. Remember, there should only be one <h1> on an entire page!
H2 … H6 tags
Document structure guidelines dictate how these tags should be used. They’re mean for headings, not formating! If your document has multiple depths, use <h2> .. <h6> tags to structure your document depth, for example an <h3> tag should only ever follow an <h2> tag. Remember, search engine robots are looking for consistent order and logic in a page.
W3C Validation
There’s a little debate over how important it is to validate your pages, my opinion on the subject is simply that if a robot (which is all search engines are) can’t read your page … how can they index it? Run your page through the validator at The W3C Markup Validation Service.
Images
When naming images, use descriptive keywords in the filenames as well as the ALT tags. ALT tags are used to “display” the images to people who can’t see but they’re also hand for companies like Google to understand what the image contains.
Friendly URL’s
Does Google really care if your URL’s include keywords? Wow, great question. According to Matt Cutts (Googler Prime) … no but it’s more attractive and it’s one of those simple SEO things that helps make our websites feel more friendly.
Anchor Tags
Remember to add titles and rel values to your anchor tags! The title can be added through the WordPress WYSIWYG editor but rel tags? You’ll have to delve into the HTML if you want to use them effectively.
Meta Descriptions
Like the <title> tag, Meta description tags are found in the header.php file for WordPress and instruct web search engines what your website is about. These description tags should be updated for every page and remember, it should reflect the content … not the site!
Meta Keywords
Meta keywords are also stored in your <head> section and summarize the article for search engines. Want a clever trick? Use the post tags as your comma separated list of keywords! That way, you’ll be sure to get rich, descriptive tags to match your content.
Content Placement
Remember that the content for your website is the most important part! Make sure it’s as close to the top of your HTML as possible or else search engines might not be able to find it.
HTML Clutter
One great way to keep HTML clutter to a minimum is to link as much as your code as possible to external files. This keeps your document as empty as possible so Google (and other robots) know that your content is key.
Fresh Content Matters!
Websites are like restaurants, people want fresh content and Google knows it. One great way to optimize your content for Google is to ensure your content is always fresh, using a blog or a forum is a great way to keep fresh content online.
Link to Quality Content
Search engines love links so if you have a favorite website that helps your audience, link to it (remember to use the title tag as well!), this will not only increase your standing with search engines but it’ll help build a great community
Avoid Flash
Flash is a great tool, we all love it and it sure is sexy but … no matter what anybody tells you it can not be read properly be search engines and if search engine robots can’t see your site, your website is worthless. It’s just that simple, I’m sorry.
Include a Sitemap File
Robots search for content on your website by crawling (literally traveling from link to link) this is a painful long process so help them out by posting a sitemap.xml file for them to read! This file orders your content and helps robots to understand where fresh content is located on your site.
Include a Sitemap Page
Sitemaps aren’t just for robots anymore! Help people find everything on your site by including a comprensive page with all your links in a single place. This also ensures that SEO robots can find all your links.
Build a better footer
Footers are an easy way to help both people and robots easily find important content on your website.
Use Tags and Categories
WordPress has some wonderful SEO features build right in, so use them! Every one of your posts should use categories to help optimize them but they should also link to each other! By linking your article to list of other articles which use those keywords, you’re helping index your content.
Deep link your articles
If you’re writing an article that could benefit from another article on your website, include a hyperlink to the supporting piece! It’s called deep linking but I like to think of it as common sense, after all if you’re not willing to cite your own articles why should others?
Keyword your titles
What words do you want people to use to find your site? Use those words in your title! Don’t push your luck though, nobody likes a keyword spammer so make sure your article title is natural but try to use the words that you’d search Google in hopes of finding your article with.
Keyword your page content
Don’t be shy to sprinkle your article with your keywords either, especially your header links! Make sure that whenever you have a chance you’ve used the words and phrases that you feel people would search for in Google.
Know your competition
Search for your competion in Google, what terms are they using? Should you be using the same to compete with them in search engines? You can optimize your website for your community, your industry or your products … make sure you’re doing the best job you can.
Don’t duplicate your content
Content should only appear once on your website and only on your website! Don’t fall into the habit of posting other peoples recycled posts on your site and be careful that WordPress isn’t duplicating content on your site. If you’ve posted your content to two categories, chances are that Google is penalizing you for it so make sure you’re only allowing it to be indexed once!
Format your text
We touched on this with regards to using headers but your website should also use tags to format your text! Search engines respect tags such as <cite>, <strong> (<b>), <em> (<i>) and <blockquote> so why not use the to help robots understand your content?
Write better content
I’ve said it before … but here’s tip #25 … write better content. Well written, formatted and structured content is still the best SEO value you’ll ever earn.
23
Apr
2009
Apr
2009
Is Web 2.0 going broke?
There was an interesting article on Slate.com (which I can’t seem to find using their search engine) which got reprinted on the Global website entitled Everybody’s surfing. No one’s paying “User-generated content may have changed the Internet. But ‘Web 2.0′ sites such as YouTube are suffocating under the costs of storing it” which talks about the state of the Internet and how big companies such as Facebook and YouTube are essentially going broke offering access to content. Now I’m not entirely sure that I believe they’re going bust but here’s a few interesting tid bits:
- Google will lose $470-million on YouTube this year alone
- YouTube spent about $250-million to acquire licenses this year
- Yahoo’s investment in Flickr is equally unprofitable
- Facebook spends $1-million a month on electricity
This of course is not good news for Web 2.0 but it reaffirms the questions I’ve raised in posts like Could somebody explain Twitter to me, please?, simply put … if the purpose of a business is to generate a revenue, what is their Revenue Model?
20
Feb
2009
Feb
2009
How to build a free website
There’s a secret that many web designers don’t want you to know, it’s that there’s no cost to building a website. In fact, you don’t even need special software to do it, everything you need is already installed on the most basic computer available today. In order to build a website, here’s all that you need:
- On a Windows computer – NotePad
- On an Apple Macintosh – TextEdit
Now that you have all the tools that you’ll need to build a web page, you need to understand a few things about building web pages.
How to Format a Web Page
Web pages are divided into two specific areas, the <head> and the <body>, each of these two areas does something specific and before you can build a web page, you need to understand the basic purpose of each section.
Setting up Your First Web Page
For a web page to be recognized by a web browser (the software application used to view a web page) we first need to tell the browser that our document is an HTML document. To accomplish this, all we need to do is place the code <html> on the first line of our document followed by </html> on the very last line of our document.
Once those tags are in place, most web browsers will understand that the content being displayed is an HTML document. I say most because technically, there is a bit more that you should put in there if you want to ensure the site is 100% compatible with all modern web browsers, but explaining the fine details of DOCTYPE structure is a little beyond the scope of today’s tutorial. Needless to say, placing the tags <html> and </html> will tell web browsers what your document is but if you’d like to technically perfect, place the following code instead:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”>
</html>
Once that’s done, remember that all other code must be placed between the two <html> tags to be recognized as valid HTML.
The <head> Section
The <head> tag of a web page is the reserved for things which other computers and software applications require to understand your web page properly. For example, when a web browser loads your web page there are specific things that it looks for in order to understand what language your site is in, what your web page is about and the name of your page. Within the head section, we want to include details such as:
- Links to alternative content such as RSS feeds, XML site maps and mobile interface files
- Javascript links and or content to help the functionality of our page
- META data for robots to read including a page description, keywords and generator
- Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) details or links
- The document content type
- Codes and robot commands for foreign applications
- Pingback processing directives
- The web page icon file location
- Canonical labels for search engine optimization
- Base directory directives
- The title of your document
Sounds like a lot right? Well it is, and it’s all very important stuff. Essentially, the <head> section of your web page stores all the mechanical and client side information required to properly index, label, categorize and distribute your web page as well as the information needed to successfully display your web page in a users browser. I could write a whole post on each of the items above but for now, it’s simply important for you to know that the <head> is used to store those pieces of information and you can add them at a later date.
Adding data to the <head> of the document is done the same way as all elements of an HTML document, by opening and closing an HTML tag. In this case, the <head> tag must be opened and later closed </head> in order to store the appropriate content. Between those tags, you may store a series of HTML or xHTML (we’ll talk another day about the differences) data devices for use in rendering your pages. For example, here is a basic <head> element for a common web page:
<head>
<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=UTF-8″ />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
You will notice that in this basic example we only store the basic information required to make a web page work, the http-equiv which tells web browsers that the document being served is in text/html format (as opposed to text/rtf which is a Rich Text document or text/javascript which would be a JavaScript file) so that the web browser looking at this document understands it is an HTML page. 
Additionally, the <head> contains the <title> tag which closes (</title>) after labeling the document Untitled Document. If you loaded the source code into a web browser, you would now see a blank document with no content displayed to the user but a new title at the top of your browser, labeled Untitled Document. This document title is the label being fed to the web browser from the <title> tag contained within the <head> of this document.
Additionally, the <head> contains the <title> tag which closes (</title>) after labeling the document Untitled Document. If you loaded the source code into a web browser, you would now see a blank document with no content displayed to the user but a new title at the top of your browser, labeled Untitled Document. This document title is the label being fed to the web browser from the <title> tag contained within the <head> of this document.The <body> Section
If the <head> of a web page is the content being presented to other computers, then the <body> is the content being displayed to human eyes (or text readers) visiting your web page. Creating content on a web page is wonderfully simple. If you’d like to have a web page say hello, simply add the code:
<body>
hello
</body>
Presto! You now have a fully functional web page, albeit a little dull. The <body> section works by displaying exactly what you type as content, so anything (and everything) you add between the two <body> tags will appear on your web page but you have to be careful, HTML needs the content marked up (labeled) to be properly viewed in a web browser. Just in case you didn’t know, HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, a Markup Language is simply text that’s been formated to be read by computers. For example I can create my own Markup Language right now called Chris Ross’s Markup Language (CRML) that looks like this:[-open-]Hello World![-close-]
Now I have my own Markup Language but since nobody uses it, it’s pretty much useless. On the other hand, everybody with a web browser uses the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) so let’s look at it. HTML has a handful of common codes used to display content effectively, they are:
- <p>, always followed by </p> which displays text in paragraph format
- <br>, which never has a </br> but instead is written <br/> in xHTML and represents a line break (where a paragraph is often displayed as two line breaks to separate content)
- <ol>, which always needs a </ol> for ordered lists (numbered lists) and <ul> with a </ul> for unordered list (bullets), both also require <li></li> tags for each list item in the list to work
- <b></b> or <strong></strong> tags mark text as important. The <b> tag was replaced with the <strong> tag a few years back since not all languages bold words to make them more important
- <i></i> makes a word italics but like the <b> tag, was also replaced. These days, you can use <em></em> to place emphases on a word or phrase
- <h#> tags are special and always need an corresponding </h#> tag where the # symbol can be replaced with the numbers 1 through 6 (<h1>,<h2>,<h3>,<h4>,<h5>,<h6>) which represents the level of a header in your document
- <img /> will allow you to place images in your document but requires special parameters we’ll talk about another time
- <a> followed by a </a> tag will hyperlink the text between the tags to another document but also requires special parameters.
- <table> tags can be used to display tabular data (like charts) on a web page. It needs to end in a </table> tag and can include headers (<th></th>), rows (<tr></tr>) and columns (<td></td>). Why columns are <td> is beyond me, but that’s what they are.
- <div> tags use a closing tag of </div> to divide content into various areas of a page, much like the <span> tag, the <div> tag has no visual effect on content but is used by programmers and designers to affect content.
Essentially, the ten tag structures above represent the HTML code found in every single web page on the planet. There are other tags, but have either been replaced or are simply bad tags. For example the <u></u> tag will underline content and the <blink></blink> tag is simply wrong … even the creator of the tag, Lou Montulli (it’s odd to think somebody actually invented a tag eh?) appears to wish it would simply die.
When put together, the <html> document label tells a web browser the information is a web page, the <head> indicates content reserved for other computer systems to read, while the <body> shows content to the end user.
In total, the 26 tags here represent the whole of the content required to build your own web site for free. If you’ve found this post at all useful, please feel free to leave me a comment below, thanks for reading.
01
Feb
2009
Feb
2009
How make money online?
So you want to make money online and you don’t know how? Don’t worry you’re not alone. Most people dream of how make money online but don’t do anything about it, you’re already on the right road because you’ve taken the time to search for how. Let me show you some of the tricks that I use to make money online and you’ll see how easy it really is.
First, you need to read my article called Are You Online to Make Money?, which will tell you how to setup a Google AdSense account and begin selling ads for your website. Next you need a website, if you don’t already have a website, I build great websites with WordPress for people at good rates.
Secondly, as good as AdSense is at making people money online you will also want to look at various affiliate programs to help increase your revenue stream. Honestly, I have not had very much luck with affiliate programs in the past so I can’t recommend any good ones but there are a lot of great articles if you search Google.
Finally, you can setup your own ad server using OpenX. This will allow you to sell ads directly to people you know and make money. It allows you to sell ads per click, per 1,000 visitors or for a specific amount of time. This is a great way for you to increase revenue from your website very easily.
Now that you know how to sell ads and how to make money online, you need to know What Makes a Successful Web Site? and How to Create a Successful Web Site and don’t forget to read my article called How to make a website for free to help you understand how to put together an HTML website for free.
If you don’t have time to do a lot of reading yourself (everything you need to know to make money online is here on my website and free for you to read), you can always hire me to build you a great website or to help make your website more search engine friendly.
28
Nov
2008
Nov
2008
Free WordPress Theme – Pink Flowers
Pink Flower Theme
I’ve just wrapped up another free WordPress theme for you guys, it’s a clean and simple traditional blog theme using a lot of pink. Some people have previously commented that some of my themes are a little bit less manly than they could be but there’s a reason I choose to do these themes in pinks and blues … because there are not a lot of themes out there in pink and blue.
As with all my themes, this one is setup to be Search Engine Optimized and makes use of proper title tags, document hierarchy and W3C compatible xHTML / CSS so even if you don’t know a thing about making cool websites, this theme is already designed for you.
Speaking of design, a special thanks to designious.com for creating the awesome flower pattern and to Smashing Magazine for making it available for free.
One other note, this theme makes use of my really cool WordPress technique for showing both icons and text in your WordPress links.
The theme is 100% free, I designed it with an ad on the left hand sidebar but you can easily remove it in the sidebar.php file (it’s even commented) all that I ask is that you don’t change the footer, but even that’s optional. If you’re using it, I’d love to hear from you.
15
Nov
2008
Nov
2008
Yorkville University
Yorkville University
The result, a dynamic and professional website that can updated quickly and results in high search engine positioning.
Working with Christopher Bavota, I recently wrapped up work on the Yorkville University website. The website makes extensive use of WordPress to power a search engine optimized publishing system as well as Google Analytics to ensure near real time reporting for marketing and web statistics.
The artwork offers an expandable framework to accommodate the projected growth of the school while the site itself is built to be W3C compliant and work on browsers ranging from a Nintendo Wii and various handhelds to traditional web browsers. The site was fully tested across mobile platforms using Adobe Device Central and three operating systems.
19
Oct
2004
Oct
2004
Who Owns Your Web Site?
Pretty simple question really, but do you know the answer? See, according to the regulators who run the Internet, your website is owned entirely by the person who’s name is on your domain name record.
To find out who owns your domain name, all you have to do is a simple whois records check by visiting a free web service such as http://www.whois.net/ and typing your domain name into the search engine.
My own domain name for example is registered to me and my company (click here to see) but if you didn’t buy your domain name yourself, the chances are the company who built your website owns your domain name and can keep it unless you win a costly court battle.
There are simple ways for business owners to protect themselves, the first is to call your web designer or the company you build your website with and ask them to transfer the domain name to your name, address and billing details.
Once your domain name is registered in your name (and your email address) you should move your domain name to a private account which only you have access to. This will ensure your internet presence is never stolen or tampered with.
Some unscrupulous web designers will tell you that it’s difficult to manage your web domain name, or that it’s better for them to handle it for you but in truth, managing a domain name takes a few moments a year and companies such as GoDaddy.com make the whole process painless, as easy as ordering pizza.
Remember, your domain name is an important part of your business identity and nobody should be able to take it from you.
