• SEO Part 1: The Simple Stuff
• SEO Part 2: The Technical Stuff
• SEO Part 3: Webpage Structure
• SEO Part 4: Other Resources

If this is not a SEO how-to guide for web developers, then why bother write about the technical stuff? The answer is easy: to give you an idea of some of the technical SEO issues your hired web developer needs to be addressing. Since you are presumably not a web developer, you are paying for someone else to not only write web code for you, but to guide you through the process of developing your website and basic SEO. Here is your head-start on that process. Use this guide as a checklist, if you like, to make sure the basic technical SEO points are being addressed.

The URL, Part 2

Picking back up where we left off, it is time to discuss the second (right) half of the URL, and its relation to SEO. Essentially, the right half of the URL is the name (not to be confused with the title) of the page being displayed in your browser. In the case of this page, http://melissaoyler.com/website/seo-technical-stuff/, we are discussing the /website/seo-technical-stuff/ part of the URL. The one basic SEO concept for this part of the URL is to keep the highest concentration of keywords possible.

To explain, the URL could easily have been /website/seo-part-1-the-technical-stuff/ if I had left it up to the automatic URL generation of WordPress (which is used as the CMS for this website.) The problem with leaving in all those words is that many of them are of no use in SEO, therefore they dilute the other words that I do want to highlight. Within WordPress, as well as many other CMS, you are able to edit the URL before the page is published, so that is what I did. I simply took out the extra words, leaving a higher concentration of the words that matter.

If this is so simple, and can be controlled by the website owner, why did this make it into the technical section of this SEO introduction? Because even though this is a simple process, it works differently for every CMS out there. This means you are going to have to dive into the instruction manual for whatever CMS your website uses, or if you do not use a CMS, this will have to be done by hand by your developer. The specifics of the how-to is beyond the scope of this blog, but make sure to familiarize yourself with how to do this. The easy way is to just ask your developer.

But the second half of the URL on my website looks like http://melissaoyler.com/?p=250, so where do the words go? The answer to this is that your CMS is using a query string to display the page, and  it has not been configured to use words in the URL. Again, the specific how-to on adjusting your CMS is beyond the scope of this blog, but it is just a setting, and a good setting it is. Set it. Just be sure to use page redirects, when needed, if you are making changes to a live website.

Page Redirects

It is likely that in your time on the world wide web, you have come across a 404 Not Found error message. This is not uncommon. You are visiting one website, and you click on a link, and instead of the page you were hoping to see, you get a 404 Not Found error. Now imagine the link was to your website. Incoming links are important to SEO; the more inbound links your website has, the better the SEO. (As a side note, the better SEO ranking of the website that contains your inbound link, the better your SEO.) However, when the inbound link returns a 404 Not Found error instead of a webpage, you do not get the SEO credit. This is where the 301 Moved Permanently redirect comes in.

Be it a website overhaul or even an entirely new website design, you do not want to loose the SEO benefits that you could inherit from your old webpage or website. The trick to this is a 301 Moved Permanently redirect. A 301 redirect does two things. First, it redirects the browser to the new page without any user interaction. Second, it informs search engines that the page has been moved, and it gives the search engine the URL of the new page so that the search engine can update its records. 301 Moved Permanently redirect are SEO friendly, so everyone wins.

When might I have this problem, so I can be on the lookout? A simple example is that you used to have a URL http://melissaoyler.com/contact_business.php but after a site redesign your contact form is now located at http://melissaoyler.com/contact/so you setup a 301 redirect for anyone accessing the original page to be redirected to the new page. To test this, all you have to do is go into your preferred web browser and type in the old URL. If you get the new page, it is working. If you get a 404 Not Found error, it is not.

Page Validation

Page validation is a simple test to see if a particular webpage is compliant with current web standardsand structure. To be sure, not all browsers display pages the same way, but we are going to move past the “which browser is more compliant” debate and address the simple fact that as a business owner, you want your website to reach the largest number of potential customers, and you want it to look and act correctly when it does. Having a webpage pass a validation test will go a long way to insuring this.

A trick that web browsers can do is to try to ignore page errors. That is to say, if a webpage has a coding error, the browser will do its best to display the page, instead of just giving the end user an error. The browser will do this by ignoring the coding errors, but this trick will sacrifice page structure, and this is where we get to the part about SEO. If the webpage has a broken structure due to a coding error, then the keywords in your content that a search engine is looking for may now be in the wrong place. If the keywords are in the wrong place, then a search engine might rank them incorrectly. If those keywords are not ranked correectly then they are not being used to rank your website correctly. Your potential customers never find you.

So how do you validate the integrity of a webpage? Use Unicorn – W3C’s Unified Validator to test your individual pages. If there are errors to be found in the structure, this free tool will find them. Now this tool is not infallible. There may be a programming technique that your page needs that is not yet part of the W3C standards, and because of this your page will not validate. This is not necessarily a problem. Just talk with your website developer about the errors, and find out why the errors are showing up on the test.

Sitemaps

“Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. In its simplest form, a Sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.” – Sitemaps.org That is as good a definition as it is going to get.

When it comes to sitemaps, there are two you need to know:

1. The major search engines support sitemaps, but the search engines do need to be informed of the existence of the sitemap.xml file.
2. Many content management systems (CMS) such as Drupal or WordPress have module or plugins to support automatic sitemap generation and submission.

Quick and easy. The best part is that when done right, this piece of technology will do all the work for you.

Next up is webpage structure.

• SEO Part 1: The Simple Stuff
• SEO Part 2: The Technical Stuff
• SEO Part 3: Webpage Structure
• SEO Part 4: Other Resources

So, to kick things off, let’s start with some topics that relate to SEO, but are not really technical in nature. For example, if you are a business that hires an outside agency to design your website, these are the items that can be taken care of both before and after the outside agency does its thing. Truthfully, these are also some of the biggest factors in SEO, and they will take some work on the part of the website owner, but they also have some of the biggest rewards:

The Keyword Meta Tag is not the Key

Just as an experiment, I asked some technical friends (but not web developers) what will result in good SEO. The keyword meta tag was often the first thing out of their mouths. Because of this trend, I want to get this out of the way first: The keyword meta tag has little to no influence on SEO. In fact, Google stopped using the keywords meta tag years ago, as it has been widely abused. Now, I am not saying that there are not some uses for the keyword meta tag, but it is a very low priority, so just get it out of your mind for now.

Now, Bing, Yahoo and others may still have some use for it, but on the SEO priority list, this is still at the bottom. Leave it there. In fact, if you leave your keywords meta tag blank, no search engine will care. Did you just tell me to leave it blank? Yes I did. If you do want to use this feature, keep it simple. Remember that if you were to put your best keywords in this section of your website, you competition can see them, too.

Keywords are a Different Thing all Together

Now, keywords have always equalled the words people are searching for, and although the meta tag “keywords” does not play a big role in SEO anymore, keywords, and keyword density, still do. The difference is, the keywords need to be in the content of your website. As for the density (or frequency) of a keyword, the more times a word appears in your content, the better chance it will rank your page higher in a search for that word. In a lot of ways, this is going to be a natural process. Just look at the number of times I have written “SEO” on this page. Hard to avoid it, if I wanted to. Also remember to cut out the fluff. The more words on the page, the less concentrated each word is.

Finally, avoid anything unethical. Keyword stuffing and similar strategies rarely get results, as the search engines are actively looking for these techniques. Once you are discovered by a search engine, it will not be good for your site. At best unethical techniques will get your page ranked low. At worst, it will get your site banned from the search engine.

Content is King

The more fresh content on your site, the better your rankings. Period. This could be the single most important thing on your website, and it is often the most neglected.

The problem is that the average business owner is very busy and writing a business blog or sharing industry news on a website is just one more item on the to-do list. Additionally, not all business owners are comfortable writing in general, so they will end up organizing the sock drawer before typing out a few words. The real catch is that it can be very difficult to find someone else who can do this for you. You know your business better than anyone. You are the expert, so the best person to add the content is you.

Website content is also the cheapest marketing space around. In fact, after your initial investment of getting the website running, there is no additional cost of content, except your time, and the payoff will be the difference between a website that brings in more customers, or one that collects proverbial dust. Content is not only descriptions of your services or wares, but about establishing your mastery of your field – the same thing you do every time you talk to a potential customer.

By the way, if you are looking for a social media strategy, good content is the key to that, as well…but that discussion is for another time.

Frequency is Good, but Quality is More

Question: You are looking for home lawn care, who do you call first?
Answer: the next person to put a flyer in your mailbox.

Or maybe the phone number on the side of the pickup truck you pass on the way to work. The point is, having your information in front of someone when they need it is the key. This is where frequency comes into play. And not just frequency, but tempo, as well. Not too much that it is overwhelming. Not so little that your site becomes stale. This part is for the readers. Feel free to establish a schedule, and stick to it. After a short period, it will become easy, and it will keep your customers coming back.

Now, when you have an idea for content (say, a blog post,) go ahead and get it ready. Having a few blogs “in the bag” is a great way to keep your site fresh when you otherwise do not have the time. Many articles you write will not be time sensitive, so save them for when you run out of current information to share. This allows you to take your time, and this is where the quality comes in. This is for the SEO. Search engines are ranking your site based on the quality of the content being updated. Quality trumps speed. Take your time, get it right, and queue up what you can to keep customers interested.

The URL, Part 1

Finally, we come to the URL. The first part of any URL is simply the domain name that you have purchased, and it is how your customers identify your website. Often this is simply the name of your business, and there is nothing wrong with that, as this allows current people already familiar with your company to find you easily. Now, if a keyword for your industry also happens to be in your domain name, than even better. That is to say, jane-doe-photography.com is better than simply jane-doe.com if a potential customer is searching for photography. Simple, but true.

And with that, I will leave it. We’ll pick it back up soon with a slightly more technical angle in The URL, Part 2.

Now, back to Joe. It seems he found himself with some time on his hands, and decided to finally write a guide to writing, publishing, and selling a book. This is of particular interest, as Joe has many talents, including writing, website design, and the “Art of Akira.” In fact, I just got done reading his second book “Mentally Incontinent” and it rocked. This book hit so close to home that I have started to consider writing down some of my own stories. Make no mistake now, because if I do, I will only be the copy. Joe is the original. Here is Joe’s guide:

The Absolute No-Bulls**t Guide To Writing, Publishing And Selling A Book, by Joe “the” Peacock

• Introduction and Chapter 1: 90% Of What You Need To Know, In One Chapter
• Chapter 2: Writing Your Book
• Chapter 3: Publishing Your Book, Part 1: Traditional Publishing
• Chapter 4: Publishing Your Book, Part 2: Self Publishing
• Chapter 5: Selling Your Book (coming soon)

Now go read. Then write.

As if having Zack Arias teach a workshop at creativeLIVE wasn’t cool enough, you can join him live, for free. OK, so you already know that you can watch creativeLIVE for free, and yes it is a live video stream. What I mean to say is join him, for free, in person. OK, this is not free airfare, etc. You have to get to Seattle on your own, and you may need to couch surf, but the class is free.

For the dates, details, and whatnot, go over to Zack Arias’ website. I hope you are not camera shy.

We all know that stepping inside someone’s home will elicit a certain feeling. What does your home say about you? Is it clean and simple, with a clear theme or message? Or is it cluttered and unkempt, making your guests feel as if they don’t even know where to look, much less where to sit? Is it cold and uninviting or do your guests look forward to an afternoon there?

The basic rules of creating an effective design are no different for logos or living rooms.

•  Keep it simple. This isn’t just visually. Think about the smells of your home. Do you have cinnamon candles mixed with ocean-scented air fresheners? Pick a “theme” – one or two scents at the most, and make sure they compliment each other. My house is scented with lavender and eucalyptus (cleaning supplies and essential oils) - two scents I know work well together because that is what the Grove Park Inn chooses to use in their spa – and it’s heavenly.
• Speaking of, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Keep your nose – and your eyes and ears – peeled for what you like that the experts are doing. Check out magazine spreads, hotel room suites, and furniture showrooms. These people have hired interior designers to create spaces that are inviting, clean and livable. Use them for inspiration.
• Clean doesn’t just mean run the vacuum cleaner every once in a while (but do that too.) In graphic-design speak, clean refers to an image or design that is fresh, simple and not over embellished. Look around your house. Is it over decorated? Are there so many pictures in frames that guests don’t know where to look? If so, do your memories justice and select just a few for display. Another bonus: Fewer picture frames means less dusting!
• Don’t be afraid to make a statement. Just make sure it is that: A statement. Meaning one. If you’ve always wanted a Salvador Dali-themed room, go for it. Just make sure there are no Monet’s in there.
• Contrast makes a statement. Too much of a good thing is just that – too much. Personally, I’ve always thought having black walls in a master bedroom would be really nice – the dark walls are conducive to sleeping, which is what the bedroom is supposed to be used for. However, a project like that walks a fine line – go too dark, and the bedroom appears goth-like. Black walls in a bedroom need to be offset with light – white comforter, toile patterns, silver accessories. Feminine touches. Maybe even a spot of lime green or another bright color.

C L E A N . B R I G H T . B O L D . E F F E C T I V E . D E L I B E R A T E .

Is that what your home says about you?

Now we are back online…

So, not a comprehensive list, but some of my favorites are:

• Site definition overhaul: much easier and faster to get a new site ready for editing.
• Multiple FTP servers: read, live server / test server / review server, etc.
• Improved templates: I do not really use these, but nice to have.
• Live web pages inside the application: this rocks! This is a great way to study other sites and layouts, pick apart the HTML and CSS. I have used Firebug in the past for this (and there is F12 in Internet Explorer) but by the looks of it, this built in functionality is going to be nice.
• Inspect mode, seeing the box model: again like Firebug and F12, but without having to publish the code and then view online first. Great addition. I use this all the time to help visualize the padding and margin settings in the page.
• Toggle CSS properties on/off: testing the CSS interactions (cascades) are going to be much easier. Basically, Dreamweaver will just comment out parts of the CSS for your testing. Nice.
• Adobe CS Live Browser Lab: Free for now, but they will charge once we are hooked. Where have I heard this business model before? Anyway, you can preview your page in the Adobe Live Browser Lab (online) and you can view it rendered in various browsers on various operating systems. this is really a killer service for cross-platform testing of sites. I have found a few other alternatives (browsershots.org; spoon.net) but this is integrated and FAST. Also, the onionskin feature is freakin’ sweet.
• Better PHP support: I love me some PHP, so again a great add (for selfish reasons.) improved code hints and references, but not working in the demo today. Could just be the pre-release code. Update: they got it to work by ‘telling’ Dreamweaver it is a PHP page. Looks like there is PHP syntax checking, too.
• CMS support: WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal support right out of the box. Oh, hell yes. You need a test server to make it work, but a simple local one will work. Live rendering of the CMS code from within Dreamweaver. Up until now, I always have a couple of browser windows open to view the changes I am making, uploading to the web server after each little change. This could save a ton of time. Love it.

Overall, some really nice additions to the Dreamweaver package. It is almost like someone was reading my mind when they added these features. What are your favorites?

Now time to go back to finishing this website…

Today I will talk about InDesign’s CS5 features. I use InDesign, followed by Illustrator, for most of my design work, since my focus is on print design. Jeff uses more web-based programs. So, being a print girl, I perked up at the InDesign webinar. And of course laughed at all the folks in the chat room yesterday stating “Who cares about InDesign anyway?” The answer is me!

Features that I’m looking forward to:

• Ability to package fonts with the InDesign file – so that fonts are never missing. Genius! The webinar had a snafu while they were showing this feature during today’s session, so hopefully the real version will be flaw-free.
• Can create files for print or web during document selection. If you choose web, you can also select pixels as measurements.
• Can begin with page numbers other than 1.
• Can create multiple page sizes within a document. Business cards, brochures, letterhead all in one document … how great is that? I’m so used to creating multiple files for one client’s print products – this will be really organized.
• Ability to edit corners on the page without going through the menu – and can change just one corner if you want.
• Fill/stroke options in toolbar – easier access.
• Drag/drop from color options to object that you want filled.
• Create multiple shapes by using arrow keys (right arrow adds shapes to the right, left takes away, up adds rows, down takes away rows)
• New gap tool which will help to change placement of the gap between objects.
• Holding shift and moving selected object boxes allows the space between objects to change shape rather than the objects themselves.
•  New “grabber” allows movement of object within a box without having to use indirect selection tool.
• Static/live captions. I’m drooling over this one. Will make magazine designing so much more streamlined. The captions written in Lightroom and are attached to the files when placed in InDesign.
• Vertical align text even on non-square objects.
• Ahhhh. Balance of columns now exists. No more uneven text.
• Preview automatically checked now, instead of automatically unchecked. A small move, but will take away that previous annoyance!
• Span columns and split columns. Columns within columns. Really great for a list within an article.
• Animations in InDesign? Interesting. Wow, can import movies/sound. This will be great when creating ePubs or iPad documents. Jason and Steve say we can export as print PDF or interactive PDF. Also eps files or as Flash files.

We’re certainly moving away from old-school print, aren’t we, folks? “Print is not dead, but it’s not alone,” Jason and Steve said.

• Mini bridge – that’s pretty cool.

Given all the new features, the webinar guys suggest we all have 3 monitors to make everything look perfect.  One for document, one for panels, one for mini bridge. Cheers to that one – let’s all go monitor shopping!

Great new features. Lots of 64 bit code, even for the Mac. Lots and lots of goodness. Out of all the new features that have been demonstrated today, many stand out, including Content-Aware Fill and Puppet Warp. I see these tools speeding up workflow by doing a lot of heavy lifting on what used to be very tedious grunt work.

Here is a video demonstrating 5 of the new features in Adobe Photoshop CS5. If this does not invoke some creative thinking, I do not know what will.

The issue shows up once a user goes into the Sync Center and clicks on “Sync All” button. Now, the offline files do seem to be syncing OK, but it was still bothering me.

Here is what it looks like when you open the Windows Vista Sync Center:

Here is what happens after you hit the “Sync All” button:

So, I searched around a bit on the Internet to try to find a solution to the problem, and I was quickly reminded of two things. First, computer people can be snobs. I found people asking the same question I had, and the first response is criticizing the person seeking help because they used the term ‘My Documents’ instead of the Vista version of just ‘Documents.’ People, if you are not being helpful, just keep it to yourself, as it had nothing to do with the question, and you knew what the asker really means. Second, it is hard to fully understand some problems without seeing them first hand. I found various references to GPO settings and NTFS settings as possible answers, but these missed the mark by a wide margin. You see, every time the question was asked, sync seemed to setup fine, and only occasionally did it hang.

I never did find anything during my searches, but by chance, I stumbled upon a fix:

• While logged on as the user, click on the start button
• Right-click on Documents and select Properties
• Click on the Offline Files tab
• Click on the Sync now button

Sync now:

Sync completed:

I’ll be damned, but not only does it sync the Documents folder, but you can instantly view the progress and completion in the Sync Center. Now, please do not beat me up for calling it the start button. I know Vista’s button does not say Start like XP did, but you know what I mean.