When the the king of search looks to optimize its own content for search results, you know it’s not by going out and buying back links. They get those free of charge by their millions of users who love their resources. So what can Google do to improve their own rankings? They optimize their code on-site. Continue reading »
Mar 042010
Here is an easy example on why you should use more than one type of web browser for testing your site. A special thank you goes to Premium Concert Tickets for allowing me to use one of their pages as an example: Michael Buble Tickets.
The IE Version
Still building websites in IE? There is nothing wrong with that. Still building website in IE, and not testing it with another type like Firefox? Crazy! I test intranet sites that I make for only IE6 users with other types of browsers. I have to, if I want high quality. Besides, there is something wrong with IE. Continue reading »
Mar 032010
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been working with WordPress for many, many years, and have greatly admired people who can create wonderful WordPress themes. The most I can do is log into the WordPress admin area and scroll through the different available themes, download one and click “activate”. Badda Bing. Job done. But the free themes always seemed to require customization which was just beyond my simplistic editing (hacking) know-how. I’ve always wondered how the heck people design wonderful-looking themes… are they graphic-design geniuses, or what? Continue reading »
Feb 252010
Are you suffering from Giant Image Syndrome? The common symptoms are: squished content, wrapped content, horizontal scrolling, super long lines of text, and basic site destruction.
Right now I am working for a Fortune 100 company that has a ton of intranet sites. The IT department was nice enough to create a default template so that anyone can build a site. They even allow them to use their own creativity, by not specifying a style guide. Oops. Continue reading »
Feb 232010
For those of using the TweetMeme plugin for WordPress, they just updated it. For those of you that have never used the plugin, it allows Twitter users to tweet your post by simply clicking the button. Mine is at the bottom of this post on the left. Continue reading »
Go ahead, call me the Justify Cop. I haven’t been pointing fingers too much lately about the use of justify, but after a series of events that have taken place with my work, I think I have the perfect excuse. For this post thank you goes to the developers of San Antonio Air Conditioning Service. They occasionally hire me to review their sites, and were nice enough to let me allow to use this new site as an example.
Besides learning when or when not to justifying text, there is something else that this site needs to justify. It’s the content. Continue reading »
Feb 182010
Yesterday I wrote about the benefits a website visitor experience when a site has been done with valid HTML. Now it’s time for the benefits for the person or persons building the website.
Personal Benefits of Validating HTML
It’s the case of hear me now, believe me later. As I mentioned in the first post of this series, many are very defensive about not validating. The only reason I can guess why is because it just means more work, and they have never tried.
I have two things to say about that. First, it’s easier than you think, and second, once you get in the habit, you won’t see it as extra work. Below are the reasons why.
Feb 172010
If you are learning to build websites, or have been already, know that learning how to validate your HTML could be one of the best things you could do. My next post will be about its benefit for website owners and developers, but today it’s about the user.
They Didn’t Even Notice You Validated
Most web users don’t even know if a website has valid HTML or not. Is there a reason for them to? Not really. They just want the site to work. Do you think visitors notice when your site doesn’t work, appears messed up in their browser, or takes forever to load?
Taking the time to use W3C’s method to validate your HTML is an important step to take when building a website because it can have a huge impact on your users. Continue reading »
Occasionally, I offer free advice on forums where webmasters ask for feedback on there website. When doing so, myself or another experienced webmaster will suggest that the owner asking for the review should validate their code.
The common responses:
- Validating HTML, who cares…
- I can get my site to look and work the way I want without validating. It’s a waste of time.
- It won’t help my SEO
- It takes too long
- Nobody needs to tell me how to build a site
- And the list goes on… Continue reading »
Feb 122010
My writing stinks you say. Eh…you may be right. I check my spelling, and try to make sure everything is correct. Still though, I know I need help.
Good news for me? It looks like I just found some help, and have even put this post to the test. It’s the Document Readability Test. The test reveals the number of characters, sentences, and reading comprehension level. The results also show ways to improve readability of text, and lists the most offending sentences. Continue reading »
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