It has again been no news from me on the site – sorry people just too busy with other aspects of my life – will try and get into this blog thing a bit more over the next few weeks and don’t be surprised if you see some more controveral topics 
I often read on forums I frequent many requests for designers with specific skill sets that are mainly related to the design side of web design, I guess that is why they call it Web ‘Design’. The problem I have with this is that there are many web designers out there that can whip you up a quick design but lack skills in how to manage the web design process from proposal, concept and all the way through to completion.
I also often read many posts where a company or even an individual has chosen a free lance designer or even a company to design their web site and the end result has been very poor, not so much in the design side but in the functionality, the methodology of the web design project and of course communication misunderstandings… to name a few.
A good designer for anything be that web, print or anything else needs a skill set beyond design or at least have a partner or supervisor that has these skill sets for them to follow, these skills sets consist of, but not limited to;
Project Management: Any web site design project needs to be managed as a project and it needs to follow certain steps from concept through to completion. This will include development of time lines, reporting on progress, detailed scope of the project, time management, expected outcomes, project modifications (that are agreed to or provided by the client) just to name a few.
Communication: Clients love to be involved and kept in the loop of their project, it is their money so they want to be involved in the decision process so you need to keep up contact, it might just be a quick update report every few days or a phone call or online chat to show them progress, whatever it is keep the contact with the client, keep them interested in the project and let them get involved. This obviously means that a web designer needs good communication skills, both in writing and verbally.
User Interface Methods: A good design is only as good as the user functionality of a web site. There is no point having the best looking website if no one can use it or find it difficult to find what they are after. Most users of the web have a short instant desire to find what they want, if they cannot find it quickly they move on. So A good designer will need to know how a site will be used, who will be using it and will test the user interface over and over again with the client and also a group of unrelated people (peers etc) that can test for you.
Knowing what to charge: It would be an interesting exercise to see how many web ‘designers’ have any idea of time management and billing as it is quite amusing to see some of the guess work charges you see on various forums where there is a request for quotes. There are many examples where a project request has gone out and there are prices that will range from $1k to to 20K (or more) for a simple online store. There is suggestion that the $1k quotes are from monkeys and that anything decent will cost the higher end. Buyer beware is what I say as the higher priced ones are usually well over quoted and things can be done far cheaper still with great quality results. The Web ‘Designer’ needs to know what they charge per hour and keep that clear in their mind, whether that is $15 or $150 per hour (or more) will depend on their market and skill sets. Then be realistic and quote with what you are comfortable with getting for your time and effort.
Marketing: A good designer knows about marketing, not marketing themselves but for their clients as this will need to be incorporated into the design of the site and how it functions, this will include Search Engine Optimisation.
Know your limits: A good designer will not take on a project they are not comfortable with or not have the skills to complete. I have taken on quite a number of projects where a previous designer has tried (very hard) to get the client the results they wanted but they lacked the specific skill sets required to get it to work. Know what you know, keep learning and by all means develop some non client websites to test and learn from but don’t take on a project that has work required that you cannot fulfill as this will kill your reputation.
What to out source: Out sourcing some of the project is fine, but you need to project manage that very well and keep that contractor to time lines and ensure they know their work also. Be mindful of other contractor costs and better yet develop a contact list of developers that have skills sets you may require (that you do not have) and use them where needed and ensure your quote if you need them covers that cost as well.
Have an open mind: We all know the expression of ‘Work outside of the box’ but often many designers are not sure how to achieve that. It is not as difficult s it may seem, it is a case of keep your mind open, listen to the client and NEVER say something cannot be done as sure enough they will find someone that can do it. By all means suggest, make comment and provide guidance to the client but keep an open mind about the possibilities of what they are suggesting, is it really not achievable, if you are creative and keep that mind open more times than not you identify a solution that suits the client and along the way the designer will learn.
Be Versatile: This one really bugs me, where a designer uses one or two, or maybe three different platforms or open source solutions to build everyones website…. While this can work well for basic template sites most websites need specific elements that one solution for all cannot really fulfill effectively. Too often I see a simple site being created with a significant Content Management System (CMS) like Joomla, or Drupal etc and the site is small and does not need to be as complex as those CMS systems. Stop trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, develop a solution for the client not the client for the solution.
Ok so the above is a few skill sets I feel a good designer needs, there are others and I will do up a part 2 of this post next chance I get, so if you have comments you think might be useful in a part 2 please suggest away as I am always learning too
Well if your a visitor to my site every now and then your probably thinking I have left the building, well nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is I’m busy – very very busy and as such have little time to do what I really want to do, such as make posts here
But no matter I am still around, just in case you are curious… I have even had a few of my clients ask where I am as my MSN has been offline for a few days… I have been there just my MSN was off (by accident of course).
That brings me to a new topic I am writing and it is about support from freelancers and I mean after completed work support. I pride myself on after project completion support no matter what it is and I know my clients really appreciate it. However I am interested to hear (or read) any views on after web site deign support, to what level (if any) do you provide free support, what support fees you charge (if any), do you have a support fee structure and how well is that received by your current and past clients… so may questions and do little time – so anyway I’ll be back soon with an expanded topic relating to after web site design completion support… so come back soon
Wow pretty much sums it up for Google Chrome. Google Chrome is you guessed it a new Google product, it is a web browser that simply has to be tried to be believed. It is lightweight, fast and very simple to use.
Google Chrome
While still in BETA (as at the date of this post) it is polished enough for every day use, but with the disclaimer that this is a BETA, I would not be using it just yet for secure sites like net banking just yet.
I have been a Firefox fan for as long as Firefox has been around and have been a staunch advocate telling everyone to use Firefox, however that may be soon changing as so far I see no reason not to use this faster more sleeker Google Chrome (GC).
As a developer I use Firefox for a number of tasks that require a few plugins, notable the most used is Firebug. At first I thought that FF will continue to be needed as I need Firebug for my daily work, but then I found the right click inspect element feature of GC – and this is nearly as good as Firebug. Nearly i that Firebug is still better but I am sure GC when it has a final release will be even better if the BETA is anything to go by.
So will this end the continued growth of Firefox and stop Internet Explorer from being so dominant? Who knows but I can say from the many forums and blogs I read there are many already making the switch with GC already taking 1% of the browser market within 24 hours.
When installing it will import almost everything from your Firefox or Internet Explorer settings, pages visited, passwords, favourites/bookmarks and so on. I have read some had trouble with this, if you do un-tick the browser history tick box as that seems to be the problem in most cases. It installs quickly and is setup in next to no time.
Your home page when you start it is a little different in that it is a set of thumbnail views of the pages you have most and last visited. This can be quite helpful to go back to where you were before, or yeterday etc. I however use a home page I made myself and prefer to use that, so in the settings (the little spanner in the top right of the browser) I selected options and then in the home page part selected ‘open this page’ and entered the URL of my home page and then also ticked the show home page button on the toolbar.
Bookmarks access is a little annoying to me, you need to CTRL B each time to show and then hide them, which is fine but the CTRL B can conflict with other editor hot keys. It would be better to allow again a toolbar button for bookmarks (optional activate), but I guess this is part of Goggles attempt to keep GC very simple.
Like any software there are a few bugs to iron out for Google and a few tweaks users can make to make it work for them. But for the most part I am very happy with the BETA and look forward to future releases.
I have been an avid fan of 7-Zip for quite sometime but the only thing that I feel it lacks is a good set of icons as the icons currently built into 7-Zip are very drab and plain and well I like nice icons .
For those that do not know what 7-Zip is, it is a replacement for Winzip, in fact in my view it is better as it is so much faster, has better compression and best of all it is free (donations are appreciated )
So anyway here are a set of icons I created based on a plain zip icon, they are fairly common but slightly different to the base style with the 7z logo (very small) added to them and the compression type across the cabinet in different colours so you can visually see the compression type.
Sorry these are only in ico windows format.
Download Replacement 7-Zip Icons
I edited my 7z.dll file to include them as part of 7-Zip – I used Reshack to do this. Otherwise just use the inbuilt windows icon replacement function via the file type properties.
Yes the title is correct, I have disconnected my mouse as I no longer need it or want it. Why?
Wacom Bamboo Fun 6 x 9
I have a new toy, it is something I wanted for quite a while but the dollars have always held me back, and the fact that I did not know how much fun they would be. So what is it, it is a Wacom Bamboo Fun 6 x 9 graphics tablet (black) and I am just loving it.
I was going to get the intuos3 and while I think that would have been fantastic I think for now my Bamboo has what I need, I actually bought two – one for my better half as well.
It came well packaged and comes with a set of bundled software like Photoshop extended but that was not needed myself as I already have the software I need, but if you don;t well your in for a treat.
I was a little worried how well it would work with my 22″ widescreen LCD but all is really sweet and it works very well. While I could have got the Intuos3 widescreen version I think (for now) it would have been a little over the top.
I got the 6 x 9′s as I thought the 4 x 6 was a little too small, also the ration of 6 x 9 works better with the wider screen. The pen feels good and the ability to set pen flicks is truly awesome, makes browsing the web more fun too. It only took me an hour or so to really get use to the switch from mouse to pen and I can be sure in saying that it will be very difficult if I had to go back to mouse. The precision available with the pen over the mouse is just something you have to experience yourself, it is just remarkable.
I now use the pen for every aspect of my computer work from general ex-mouse clicks and also of course any detailed graphics work. Some might say I over use the pen and that I should use the mouse more (the one that came with the Bamboo) but so far I have not needed to
So may I suggest if you have ever thought of owning a graphics tablet then I can highly recommend the Wacom Bamboo Fun 6 x 9. If you only need it for mouse related work (general use) then I woudl say it is an over the top purchase, but if your involved with any graphic, phot, web or related work then get one – really – go and get one you wil not be sorry. Of course if you can aford the Intuos3 or even the other more expensive ones try them also, just keep also in mind your work space. The 6 x 9 is not much bigger thana regular mouse pad so fits in very nicely.
Just love my Wacom Bamboo Fun – R.I.P. mouse
I am often asked why an application that was running fine on XP will not run on Vista and my reply is it will. Needless to say the person asking the question will get into a flap and say that I am wrong and they have tried to get an application to run in Vista but it will not work.
OK to be clear here in some cases you cannot get it to run ‘in’ Vista but you can get it to run ‘on’ a Vista PC.
There are a number of ways to get any application to run on Vista and to date I have not yet found one that will not run on Vista (please note I am talking about applications that are not older than Windows 98SE). Here are what I have used, I am sure there are others but the first two here have always worked for me.
Running an Application in Compatibility Mode
If you have an application that will not run in Vista the first trick up your sleeve thanks to the good backward compatibility (that every complains it doe snot have) Vista has is the Compatibility mode.
Locate your application in your Windows Menu and right click it (I am assuming the software has installed ok) and select Properties, you will get the following window.
Notice the ‘Run this in compatability mode for’ tick box. Select it and then the drop down menu item will become active.
Here you simply select the version of Windows your application was running in and then select the Apply button.
Try your application, often this is enough to have it running well, however if it is still not able to run there are still a few more tricks up your sleeve
Go back to the Properties window of the application and this time select the other options,
Try a few variations and retest your application and I am sure that nearly all applications will run quite happily.
What happens however if Vista will not allow you to install your application as it is for an older version? This is where a great tool made by Microsoft comes in very handy and since it is a Microsoft application it is going to play nice with Vista. That tool is Virtual PC – I just love it
Virtual PC
Microsoft's Virtual PC Home Page
First of, I need to say that the Microsoft website says that Home Premium is not supported, however I can tell you it will run on Home Premium without any issues (I have not tested on Home Basic) it is simply not supported by Microsoft to run on Home Premium.
Virtual PC can be accessed from the Microsoft website and it is FREE.
Have a read through the information on the Microsoft website for information of what Virtual PC can do. In summary Virtual PC allows you to run multiple operating Systems on the one physical PC.
Once you have downloaded and installed Virtual PC setting it up is a breeze, it even has a setup wizard that is easy to follow.
Here is a quick guide.
Start Virtual PC, once started it will show you a Console Window.
You can see from the above image that I have already setup two different operating systems, those being Windows 98SE and WIndows XP. Ok but how do you do this, well first you must have a valid copy of the other operating systems, from this point on I am going to assume you do have these available.
To setup a new Virtual PC select the New button and then a wizard will start to guide you through the process to creating your Virtual PC. When you get to the options you have three choices, I recommend you choose the ‘Create a Virtual machine’ and then select Next.
Virtual PC OS Choice
Give your new Virtual machine a name – like XPsp3 (for Windows XP Service Pack 3) and then select Next. You will then be provided a drop down list to select the type of virtual machine you want to add.
As you can see from the image to the right (and on your screen if you are using this gudie as you create your VPC) there is quite a few Operating System (OS) choices. For Xp select Windows XP.
To the right it has Memory allocation and hard drive allocation – we will adjust these next. Select the Next button
Select the Adjusting the Ram and then set the ram with the slider to what you want, I recommend minimum of 256MB but 512MB if you have it, then select Next.
Virtual PC Console
The next screen will ask if you already have a Virtual Hard disk, in most cases you will not have one so select the ‘A new virtual hard disk’ and then Next. You will be given the option now to adjust the size of your hard disk, this is totally up to you and depends what you want your XP virtual PC for. I use mine mainly for a few older applications that have little hard disc space required so I have set mine to 6000MB. Select Next and if all is well you wil get the final wizard screen, select Finish and in your Virtual PC box you should see a new entry for XPsp3 (or whatever you called it).
Now you need to install the OS. Select the Virtual disk and click on the Start button.
A dos style window will appear and it will try and boot your new Virtual PC in that window. But before you can do this you need to install your OS. Now for me I had to first select the menu item for CD and select it to ‘Use CD drive’. I had my XP install disc in the CD drive (bootable version) and it then started the XP setup and I simply installed XP as I would have normally if I was creating it on my PC as the main OS. When it says to reboot, it means reboot the Virtual PC not your whole computer – which is kind of neat in itself
Virtual PC opening XP
If all goes well with the install you should now have a fully operational Xp (or any other OS) installed and available for use at the same time as your Vista PC.
Now onec it has all started up and is running you will need to treat your XP as if it was a PC on its own, thsi will inlcude any antivirus software, any spyware software, office applications and so on. It does NOT use your main PC’s virus scanner etc so be warned you need to set them up on the virtual PC.
Installing applications on your Virtual PC is just the same as installing them on your main computers OS. Just make sure you are working ion your virtual PC when you want to install anything on it, i.e. select it by clicking in your virtual PC window. To have your cursor go to your main OS, select your right ALT key and your cursor will now be working in your main OS and not the Virtual PC. To go back to your virtual PC simply select that window to activate it and then click inside the virtual PC screen – easy as that .
Run as Administrator
OK first off this is probably not the best way but it is something I have had to do a few times to get certain applications to run.
There are some applications that will just not run in XP in normal mode, these are always those applications that are not designed for Vista. My two are Homesite and Epson Print CD that I use often.
Run As Admin
To set an application to run in administrator mode is simple enough (and I am assuming you already have administrator rights on your PC, if not then this will not work for you). Simply select the application within your start menu and right click it and sselect ‘Run as Administrator’, you will get a confirmation screen that you will need to confirm to run as administartor and then the application will run as administrator and in most cases will now run on Vista where it did not before.
You can also set the application to always run as Asministrator by again right click the application but this time select Properties. At the bottom of that window wil be a select box to run as administrator. Select OK and it will now always run as Administartor, however the confirm screen will pop up each time you run the application.
Dual Boot PC.
Not for the uneducated but can be very handy if you want to run for example Windows Vista and a Linux OS.
You will have to partition your existing hard disc into two parts and assign one to Vista and the other to the other OS you wish to use. I have not yet had a need for a dual boot PC so I am not going to go through a run down of how this is done, there are plenty of sites on the net that help you, here is one for setting up a dual boot PC with Windows and Ubuntu – https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot.
I have a number of PC’s at my disposal with both Vista Home Premium and XP Professional running on them. My main PC is running Vista with a quad core CPU with 4GB Ram as I do a fair bit of design and graphics work. My PC was built to run Vista among other things.
I frequent a lot of forums and to be honest I for one am sick of reading the ‘should I upgrade to vista threads’. These will continue as most people hate to use a search tool on forums and often make a post like this hoping for the answer they want to hear but often see the one they don’t.
The Operating System (OS) you use be that Windows, Linux or Apple is a personal choice, however it is also a hardware choice. In that I mean you would not try (or should I say you should not) and run Vista for example on a Pentium IV 1.8 ghz PC with 512MB ram (see my note below re minimum requirements). While it might run (or walk) the computer was never designed to run Vista.
I do a small amount of desktop support mainly for relatives and I am often told that the computer shop salesman said that Vista will run on their old machine. Just the other week a relative asks me to come over and have a look at their computer as it is all of a sudden running slow. Well guess what they installed Vista because the salesman told them too.
It would be easy to blame the salesman for saying it should work but I believe it is the user to blame. My reason is that for any purchase you make be it software, hardware, a car or even a house you should do your homework. If your PC was bought with XP stay with XP unless you have made some good hardware upgrades.
I know there are also quite a few places that sell new PC’s with Vista that can hardly run Vista very well, this I believe is the salesman and shops fault but again the buyer should ask to see it running with the applications that the client is going to use. Kind of like taking a car for a test drive. Just ensure that the computer your testing it on in the shop is exactly the same specifications as what they are selling you and get it in writing if you can.
For those that have already bought it, what to do now that you have Vista? Well if its an older machine, uninstall it and reinstall XP or update your hardware – plain and simple.
I often have a chuckle to myself about all the bagging Vista gets and will frequently make an argument for Vista rather than against it. I find Vista far better than XP but again I have a PC that is well above the minimum requirements to run Vista.
Microsoft suggested minimum requirements for Vista
So what are those minimum requirements you say? Well this is where it gets interesting as Microsoft on their own site suggests;
Well I am here to tell you again while it might run (or crawl) it will not run well and really Microsoft needs a slap to the back of the head for those suggested minimums.
So I looked further and they have additional system requirements recommendations;
Microsoft recommended Vista requirements
For Home Basic
For Home Premium / Business / Ultimate
Again in my opinion these are still too low and should not be recommended as minimums.
My suggested minimum is;
If you have those minimums the PC will run very well with Vista. If you do not have anything close to that by all means try Vista but please please don’t complain on your local newsgroup or forums that Vista sucks as you should be using XP.
I am also sure that those that read this post will want to bag MS no matter what they do and that is your choice but please do that elsewhere, I for one am quite happy using MS products such as Vista and will probably continue to do so for a long time…
So does Vista suck? Well no, not in my view. I find it far better than XP and more intuitive once you get use to the few ‘minor’ layout changes and where things are. I also find it handles multi tasking far better with little to no memory issues with many many windows open (remember I have 4GB) whil eon XP I continually had memory issues even with 3GB+ ram.
Crystalxp.net Bricopacks
Visually Vista is nicer than XP but that should not be the only reason to go Vista, if that is your only reason for wanting Vista then there are many sites where you can get a Vista theme for your XP that will turn your XP machine into a virtual Vista one – the best is CrystalXP.
Personally I have never had an issue with Vista and while many are already looking ahead to Windows 7 please bear in mind that when that arrives that too will have its own issues and minimum system requirements and I am sure the same people that are bagging Vista will bag Windows 7.
Thanks for reading and I’ll be interested to read any of your similar stories…
Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is an important (if not vital) part of any website. In fact it is one of those things you need to do before you design your website. If you already have a web site it is not too late to make use of SEO on your website and with a bit of hard work and consistency you will hopefully find your website better used and also able to be found in the major search engines.
So what is SEO and how can you make best use of it for your website…
Before I go further just a note… If you have read my ‘About page’ you may note I am all for open source and the sharing of information, unfortunately with SEO there are many out there charging a heck of a lot of money to do SEO for you. I am not saying it is not worth it as it can be, just be very selective with who you use – no I cannot recommend anyone.
I also believe for the smaller to mid size websites (even some larger ones) you can do much of the SEO yourself, but this can also come down to individual skill levels and knowing what to use.
First what is SEO?
Wikipedia defines SEO as ‘Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.’
So what does that really mean, well you could visit Wikipedia and read through the history, its development and use. You could also do a Google for SEO or Search Engine Optimisation (or Optimization) and you will get a very long list of websites that discuss and even try and help you with SEO, I know I have read many of them ?.
The process of SEO is simply preparing or modifying your website for search engines to read and index your website, that’s it in a nutshell, no more no less. While that sounds simple the process of getting your site ready for SEO can be a lot of hard work and be rather time consuming as you make edits and modifications to best suit your site. So here is a list of what I consider you should think about when looking at SEO for your website.
1. Don’t overuse words or bury hidden keywords.
I recall a comment made by a fellow peer that said trying to cheat the search engines is like playing with fire in that if you think you can fool them into thinking your website is better than someone else’s by embedding repeated keywords, duplicating content, repetitive content and so on to try and cheat the system you better give up now as the major search engines have the knowhow in its systems and its people to outwit you and using any method to try and cheat the system could and most probably will result in your site being delisted and banned.
By cheating I mean where you try and over use keywords or key phrases in a non natural language sense and are only added to try and score ranking only. While use of your main keywords and the like are important don’t abuse them. As to what is the correct balance is really back to your content. If the pages content uses your keywords and key phrases in a logically and natural language way then all should be fine.
2. Don’t use competitors keywords (names)
I have lost count of how many times I have told people and clients of mine you cannot and should not use your competitors names in your content, keywords and the like unless of course you want to advertise for them.
I get the ‘ I did a search for “X” and these five web sites were first listed in Google so I want to use all their words in my keywords list’ – don’t do it…. Find and use keywords that related directly to you not your competitor.
3. Don’t assume you know what people want or are searching for
You know your product, you know your service, you know what you’re about, but do your customers? What you search for to find yourself may not be what the general public will use to find you. On a scrap piece of paper or a white board do a think-tank on words, words that describe what your site is about, what your products are and what you provide. Build yourself up a good list of terms and phrases and test them, do some Google or Yahoo searching for those keywords and key phrases and make notes about the results.
If you can ask an audience about keywords or key phrases about your product or service, get out there it is all networking and it also helps getting your name known.
4. Research your keywords and key phrases
Once you have a set of keywords and key-phrases you need to check for alternatives, do some more research (remember how I said this can be a lot of work). There are some great online resources for this to look at search engine statistics and to see how many people are searching for specific terms. The main two I use are Keyword Discovery and Word Tracker. If you have not yet used these before then you may like to take up their free trial and that might be just enough to get you started. While the monthly or annual costs for these services in my opinion are too high the value you can obtain from them can be invaluable.
5. Decide on your main keywords and key-phrases
Now that you have done all your research and identified all your keywords and key-phrases you will hopefully have noticed some core terms and phrases that are at the top of your lists. These are what I call ‘your main keywords’. It is these keywords you use most in your sites content to draw attention to them and to attract search engine indexing of your site for those keywords. Be careful to only use them in a natural sense, remember point 1 don’t over use them in an unnatural way. By ‘natural way’ I mean using them in titles, use them in sentences as part of site content and so on but do not repeatedly add them as hidden text or meta keywords over and over again.
6. Add good content with your keywords and key-phrases
Content is very important to the major search engines like Google and Yahoo, you may have even come across the phrase ‘Content is King’. This is not far from the truth as it is content that is indexed, especially if it is new and well structured. With your keywords and key-phrases write a series of content articles using those keywords and key-phrases in your titles and links. Remember to use headings correctly in your content and follow the most important first to least important last structure with your content.
7. Use headings correctly
Too often I see websites use heading tags too much, especially the <h1> tag. This tag is important yes but you need to limit its use, it should be reserved for the most important part of your site – know that that is? It is your websites name – or it should be.
The title of the page/article should be using a H2 tag, this is the next level, if you have a few segments on the one page that are of high importance then by all means use H2 in a few places but remember the rule, most important first least important last. Go further down to H3 and H4 tags where necessary, but only use them where necessary don’t use them unnecessarily, like overuse of keywords you can over use headings to your detriment too.
8. Using Images or other media for title names in the header
If you use an image, flash or anything else media rich for your websites name in the header add a H1 tag to it and set a CSS style class for that H1 Tag to display:none. This will assist the search engines to see what the title of your website is. Yes you have it in the title tag but more importantly you need it in a H1 tag. If you’re not sure how to do this then you may need to read up on CSS ?
9. Test your website design for the blind
Everyone that has good eyesight loves to see all the nice colours, flash, sounds and everything else that make a website stand out from the crowd but what does it look like as text only. You need to, and this is really a must, test your site for readability for the blind. Not just for those people that are vision impaired but because search engines are blind. While advances are being made by Google and Yahoo to index Flash and other media rich sites the pure text version is still at this stage the best for indexing.
If you use Firefox (if you don’t why not 
) you can test this very easily using the Web Developer plug-in by turning off css, images and the rest just to see your site in text only.
You should see a good structure of your page(s) with the most important text at the top and the least important last with headings appropriately structured from H1 down to H4 (if needed).
10. Go with the flow
Following on from 9 above the flow of your content is important and cannot be stressed enough. Whether read by you or someone that is vision impaired or by a search engine your page structure should flow from top to bottom as it is meant to. There should be no difference in the flow of information if read in either method of media rich or text only.
11. Keep your code clean
Making your site easy to read is one thing, making your website code readable is another. Please remember to keep your html and CSS code clean and uncluttered. Use comments where needed but not unnecessarily. Make sure you use HTML tags appropriately. If you need a list use UL and LI, for paragraphs use P and so on. Tables should be used as tables not the design structure of your site, however do not over use DIV’s either. I’m not totally against using tables for some layout needs but a good design can (and should) use few DIV’s with good CSS to make a sites layout flexible and easy to follow.
12. Your Home page is your window to the world
Whether you are selling, buying, informing or anything else your home page is your front window to your audience and IS the most important part of your entire website so please don’t waste this opportunity to showcase yourself to the world.
I cringe when a client asks me for an entry page that does nothing more than try and be a showy entry page that adds no content value at all. Don’t get me wrong there are some out there that do this well with SEO built into that page but it is not an easy thing to do or get away with. I have lost count of how many websites I have gone to that starts with some flashy intro and I just go to the next website… ask yourself do you really need it.
Your home page should be about your site, easy to load, easy to read and summarise what your website is about. It should entice any visitor to WANT to visit other pages of your site not drive them away. Your use of your keywords and key-phrases here is important as it is most likely why you have a visitor as it is what they are looking for so use them,
Please don’t take this point as meaning the rest of your site is not important, it is but your home page should be well structured and summarise the rest of your sites content.
13. Give meaningful names to your links
Please do not use ‘Click Here’ or Click Now’ links on your website. Use descriptive content for your links. Give your links some meaning that then goes to the page that obviously is related to that link meaning. This is also a great way to use your keywords and key-phrases as links inside your content for additional indexing based on those keywords and key-phrases, but again don’t overdo it. Ensure your links are relevant to your content and are maintained, especially if the links are to an external site.
14. Link Checking
Having links on your site within your content is important for SEO, however having a series of dead links can be very detrimental. Unfortunately websites come and go on a daily basis and you’re not always informed about those changes, actually your probably never informed. There are a number of resources both free and commercial that allow you to do link checking. Run these at least monthly to check on links within your site and update where necessary.
Also pay close attention to your own internal links, if you remove a page from your site that is probably linked to or indexed have a forwarder as in a redirect to the new page or an alternative page.
15. 404’s are not good but are a necessary evil
We all have them and we need them, and that is a 404 page. A 404 page is a file not found page and these are VERY necessary in case of mistyped URL or heaven forbid you removed a page and forgot to add a redirect for it. The web server 404’s are very plain and not helpful to anyone. We are all use to 404’s but helpful 404’s can be very helpful to your SEO and website visitors. There are many good examples of 404’s on the web – do a Google and have a look at other sites 404’s for examples, some are quite unique, entertaining and funny.
16. Title for each and every page
Every page of your site needs a title and this title should be a title for that page not your entire site. Don’t use the same title on every page, by all means incorporate your website name in the title but don’t leave it at that. There is a 65 character limit (last I checked) for titles so use them all and best of all its free ?
17. Listing in the Major Search Engines is Free
Following on from 16 above and I think we all need to consider this is that listing in Google, Yahoo and the rest does not cost you. You are not charged for Google to index your site and you’re not charged to have your website appear in the search results. The cost however is the time in developing how you will be indexed and appear in the search results. I added this one as I have come across many sites trying to sell to you the number 1 spot on Google or elsewhere… don’t use them.
18. Use of meta tags
This one is really up to you, I use them and have always done so, probably due to my background in managing organisational records. There are many reports that say none of the search engines use them and likewise there are many that say that they are used. I believe point 6 is more important, remember ‘Content is King’, however it does not hurt to use meta tags moderately either. By moderate I mean again do not over use, don’t try and cheat the system and bury inappropriate keywords and key-phrases, only use what is part of and is most important to that pages content.
The basic meta tags I believe that you should include are;
<meta name="Description" content="A 150 character description of your website/page
– don’t abuse it" />
<meta name="Keywords" content="your main content keywords separated by commas, these
should relate to the pages content – don’t abuse it" />
Other options;
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en">
<meta name="Revisit-after" content="XX Days" />
<meta name="Distribution" content="Global" />
19. Give meaning to your navigation menu
If you don’t use them yet then this single point here will improve your SEO very quickly. This is where you give your navigation menu items a descriptive title tag, for example <a href=”yourlink” title=”name of page being linked to”>. Do this for each and every menu item you have in your menu/navigation and very soon you will reap the rewards.
20. Alt tags matter as do title tags
Ensure for every image you use alt tags at least, even better is if you can use both alt and title tags to cover all browsers. This again ensures that your site is seen and readable by the vision impaired and again by the search engines, remember they see the text not the images.
21. File names should be meaningful
Whether your site is static or dynamically generated the file names of your images, directories and other files should be well named. While having any old name will still work having the file and image names with meaning adds value to the search engines, the visitors and most of all yourself. Don’t use spaces ever in your file names, and use a dash ‘-‘ instead of an underscore ‘_’ instead of spaces. Something like ‘my-file-name.ext’ is better than ‘myfilename.ext’ though both can be used.
22. Have a site-map
Each of your websites should have a site map, in fact I recommend two, one for humans and one for Google and the rest. There has been a fair amount of discussion on the worth of site maps and if they need to be easily accessible, my view is that it will not harm you but it will help you and your visitors be that human or others.
Your human readable site map should be just that made for humans to easily read and utilise for navigation, also remember to give your links titles.
Your Search engine site map should be in the format suitable for Google, this is usually xml and must be in the required and best format. There are several generators and software available to do this – the XML-Sitemaps.com Google site map generator is a good one you may find useful.
Oh by the way you can combine your human and Google style site maps into one and only have one sitemap if you wish ?
23. Keep your site fresh
I often have clients ask me why their website is not ranking well by Google and others and I ask them how up to date their website is. I commonly get the it was made for us X years ago and it is still not on Google, I again ask how up to date is it. They will often say it has not changed so why is it not on Google. I then obviously say well that is the problem, it is stale and needs to be updated.
A website is not a book, in that once written it is not set in stone, it needs to be updated, needs to be added to, needs to be freshened up often. Remember ‘Content is King’ but if your content no matter how much, if it is never added to or changed then it is going to get stale very quick. A website needs to remain current, by all means like many blogs have an archive and/or past content but keep adding to your site, let it grow but do it naturally and don’t repeat what everyone else has already got.
24. Design your site for humans as well as SEO
Please do not forget it is humans that will value your site more, while Search engines will help people find you it is humans that will decide if it is of ultimate value/use or not. So when your designing your site don’t place all your eggs in one basket, as much as all the above points are important the site much be well structured and usable by humans that keeps attracting them back to your site long after the search engines have come and gone, and remember keep it fresh.
25. Use of Flash/JavaScript etc
If you like your site being media rich there is nothing wrong with that, however please again ensure you have it structured well enough with alternative text and no script code to allow for anyone accessing your site that has Flash or JavaScript’s etc turned off. Remember that the major search engines will not index flash and JavaScript. Again go back to looking at you site in plain text, can you use the site, is it structured well from important at the top to least important at the bottom, does it flow well for text only readers.
I have been reading that Google and the other search engines are testing methods to index more media rich sites, and while that is a good thing I still believe you need to have your site accessible in a text only format.
26. Network, network network
If you have ever got into the property market you may have heard of the expression ‘location, location, location’. Well for the web my view is that networking, networking, networking, is the equivalent. By this I mean get out there on the web and join forums, blogs and other social networks where you can discuss matters related to your product, service or informational site. Many will allow you to have a link either in a profile, signature or even as part of your entry contents. This not only helps with back linking to your site but helps advertise it as well – so go on get out there
Well there you go, a long post I know and I probably could have broken it up into 3 or 4 parts but thought it looked better complete. I am sure you and others reading this post have some comments to add and I will value each and every one of them.
I love code, that is pretty simple to see and I like it as it can give me full control over every element of the website design. I also like clean code, without it your website may look nice but if you need to come back to the code in a year or two my bet is that it will take you more time to work out what is what in the code instead of simply getting the job done.
Clean code in whatever language you are using and for whatever purpose you need it for is essential. This first post of a series I will do is for CSS (style sheets).
You can go even further by breaking up the CSS into separate style sheets such as Header, Footer, Content and so on, this is totally up to you, the following is my starting point I use for CSS, I hope you find it useful.
/* Site Name: Site URI: http://somedomain.com.au/ Description: Stylesheet for somedomain Version: 1.0 Author: That Net Site Author URI: http://thatnetsite/
Version Comments v1.0 This Style sheet is ......
*/
/*-----------------------------------------------------
Reset all basic browser properties
-----------------------------------------------------*/
* {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: 0;
font-family: sans-serif;
font-size: 1em;
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
text-decoration: none;
}
/*----------------------------------------------------- Basic Page Properties -----------------------------------------------------*/
html {
height: 100%;
margin-bottom: 1px;
}
body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
p {
margin-top: 10px;
margin-bottom: 15px;
}
fieldset {
border: 0;
padding: 5px 0;
}
/*----------------------------------------------------- Font Size Properties -----------------------------------------------------*/
h1 {
font-size: 200%;
}
h2 {
font-size: 170%;
}
h3 {
font-size: 150%;
}
h4 {
font-size: 120%;
}
/*----------------------------------------------------- Padding and Margins -----------------------------------------------------*/
div {
margin: 0;
}
h1 {
}
h2 {
}
h3 {
}
h4 {
}
h5 {
}
/*----------------------------------------------------- Fonts and Font Weights -----------------------------------------------------*/
body {
font-family: "Lucida Grande", Tahoma, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
h1 {
}
h2 {
}
h3 {
}
h4 {
}
h5 {
}
/*----------------------------------------------------- Colours -----------------------------------------------------*/
body {
color: #5B5648;
}
a {
color: #960000;
}
a:hover {
color: #000000;
}
/*----------------------------------------------------- Backgrounds -----------------------------------------------------*/
/*----------------------------------------------------- Text Decorations -----------------------------------------------------*/
a:link,
a:visited {
text-decoration: none;
}
a:hover {
text-decoration: none;
}
/*----------------------------------------------------- Borders -----------------------------------------------------*/
a img {
border: 0;
}
div {
border: 0;
}
/*----------------------------------------------------- Width and Heights -----------------------------------------------------*/
/*----------------------------------------------------- Floats and Alignments -----------------------------------------------------*/
.clear {
clear: both;
}
.right {
float: right;
}
.left {
float: left;
}
.center {
text-align: center;
}
/*----------------------------------------------------- Lists -----------------------------------------------------*/
/*----------------------------------------------------- Displays and Positions -----------------------------------------------------*/
Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments on how the above can be improved or even if you have some alternative methods that work well for you.
