Webpage Designer Blog http://www.webpage-designer.net All about web design, designers and web 2.0 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:30:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 WepageDesignerBloghttp://feedburner.google.com Semantic Markup Tag Reference http://www.webpage-designer.net/semantic-markup-tag-reference/ http://www.webpage-designer.net/semantic-markup-tag-reference/#comments Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:07:22 +0000 admin http://www.webpage-designer.net/?p=144 Semantic MarkupIf you care at all about Search Engine Optimization than you need to know Semantic Markup with your eyes closed!

It is the foundation of good SEO and without it you are doomed to a life of sub-par SERPs. Even if you know everything about SEO, bad semantic markup is enough on its own to kill your rankings. So don’t forget to use it on all your webpages!

Here is a list of some of the most common Semantic tags that you should know:

Heading Tags – <H1>, <H2>, etc.

H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6.

Example: <h1>Our Company</h1> 

Paragraph Tag – <p>

The P tga. Use the P element for paragraphs. Don’t use the element to instead provide paragraph-like breaks.

Example: <p>This is a paragraph of text.</p>

Emphasis Tag – <em>

The EM tag. Use the EM element for emphasis. If you’re after italicized text aside from emphasized text or citations use CSS (font-style:italic) rather than EM or I.

Example: This is <em>important</em>.

Strong Tag – <strong>

The STRONG tag. Use for even stronger emphasis.

Example: This is <strong>even more important</strong>.

Cite Tag – <cite>

The CITE Tag. Contains a citation or a reference to other sources.

Example: <cite>Designing with Web Standards</cite> is an book by Jeff Zeldman.

Blockquote Tag – <blockquote>

The BLOCKQUOTE tag. Don’t use BLOCKQUOTE just for text indenting. If you want to indent text, use CSS margins, padding, or a combination of both. Likewise, if you don’t want to use BLOCKQUOTE because of its block-level characteristics, you can use CSS to change them, too.

Example: <blockquote>This is a paragraph of text I want to indent.</blockquote >

List Tags – <ol>, <ul>, <li>

OL, UL, LI. When you have a list of something, use the list element tags. While there are a few choices of list style types, these can be replaced with images using CSS. It’s also possible to hide bullets completely, change indenting, use lists inline or block, and more.

Example:
<ul>
<li>Red</li>
<li>Blue</li>
<li>Green</li>
</ul>

Definition Tags – <dl>, <dt>, <dd>

DL, DT, DD. Use definition list elements for terms and their corresponding descriptions.
Example:
<dl>
<dt> Absolute link</dt>
<dd> A link which shows the full URL of the page being linked at. Some links only show relative link paths instead of having the entire reference URL within the a href tag.</dd>
<dt> Deep linking</dt>
<dd> Deep linking, on the World Wide Web, is making a hyperlink that points to a specific page or image on another website, instead of that website’s main or home page. Such links are called deep links.</dd>
<dt> Long Tail</dt>
<dd> The word long tail is being used to describe a (niche) longer keyword focus while writing content for search engine optimization.</dd>
</dl>

 Source: SEO Cheat Sheet

Here is a sample of Semantic HTML Markup:

<h1>This is the most important headline</h1>
<p>This is ordinary paragraph text, where certain words and phrases may be <em>emphasized</em> to mark them as
<strong>particularly important</strong>.</p>
<h2>This is a headline of secondary importance to the headline above</h2>
<p>Any time you list related things, the items should be marked up in the form of a list:</p>
<ul>
<li>A list signals that a group of items are conceptually related to each other</li>
<li>Lists may be ordered (numbered or alphabetic) or unordered (bulleted items)</li>
<li>Lists may also be menus or lists of links for navigation </li>
<li>Cascading Style Sheets can make lists look many different ways</li>
</ul>

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]]> http://www.webpage-designer.net/semantic-markup-tag-reference/feed/ 1 Top 10 SEO Blogs for SEOs http://www.webpage-designer.net/top-10-seo-blogs-for-seos/ http://www.webpage-designer.net/top-10-seo-blogs-for-seos/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:07:47 +0000 admin http://www.webpage-designer.net/?p=138 Top 7 Wordpress Plugins for SEO

  1. Graywolf - Always full of information on the search engine optimization and search marketing fields, whitty commentary and in depth articles. You’ll find tons of great insights here.
  2. Seobook.com - Leading SEO blog by Aaron Wall covering the search space. It offers marketing tips, search analysis, and whatever random rants come to mind. Focuses on search engines, search engine optimization tips, and search engine news. Lots of great, solid commentary about the world of search engines and SEO, plus excellent archived and current articles. You could spend a lot of time at this blog and not exhaust all it has to offer.
  3. Seomoz.org - News, tips and highlights from the search marketing industry. I’ll let this blog speak for itself: “Free, open & content-rich. SEOmoz is a search engine optimization resource created to benefit the entire SEO community. My favorite is whiteboard Fridays. Every tool, service & article provided is absolutely free to all users.” I have quite a few articles from SEOmoz saved permanently in my Bloglines subscriptions.
  4. Problogger.net- Great  blog, especially for well… bloggers!
  5. Mattcutts.com- Matt Cutts works for Google and is responsible for search engine quality (i.e. getting rid of spam) and for helping web masters with good SEO practices. This one is a must for anyone that wants to master good, solid, SEO practices.
  6. Searchengineland.com – It will cover the latest news on search engine marketing and promises to be the single most resourceful tool on search engine marketing. Search Engine Land keeps track of the many developments in the search engine world, providing an insider’s view of what works and what doesn’t as far as search engine optimization.
  7. Bluehatseo.com – This blog has a lot of great tips and techniques to help the average webmaster break beyond their barriers. However they are nothing more than skillsets. Skillsets are worthless without direction.
  8. Blog.searchenginewatch.com- Blog founded by Danny Sullivan, internet consultant and journalist. It offers many search engines resources and SEO related news. Consistently updated free search engine optimization information, tips, news, and opinions; as well as the latest search engine and directory news and information. I especially appreciate the writing style at Search Engine Watch, which presents somewhat complicated information in a very accessible, non-threatening sort of way; in other words, a succinct lack of techno-speak.
  9. Seroundtable.com - purpose behind Search Engine Roundtable is to report on the most interesting threads taking place at the SEM forums.
  10. SEOChat.com – Leading SEO blog by Aaron Wall covering the search space. It offers marketing tips, search analysis, and whatever random rants come to mind.

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]]> http://www.webpage-designer.net/top-10-seo-blogs-for-seos/feed/ 0 Top 7 Wordpress Plugins for SEO http://www.webpage-designer.net/top-7-wordpress-plugins-for-seo/ http://www.webpage-designer.net/top-7-wordpress-plugins-for-seo/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:26:02 +0000 admin http://www.webpage-designer.net/?p=130 Wordpress SEO PluginsAizatto’s Related Posts – Adds related post information to posts and feeds. Great for helping your site get indexed fasted.

Cross-Linker– Set up commonly used words to link to posts or redirects. This plugin can also do wonders for affiliate linking.

Google (XML) Sitemaps– Automatically build and ping multiple sitemap services with an XML file.  Highly configurable and easy to configure.

Meta Robots WordPress plugin – Adds meta tags automatically to posts – great for beginners.

HeadSpace 2– A gigantic plugin that lets you rewrite titles, meta data, and tons of other features important to SEO. HeadSpace2 is an all-in-one meta-data manager that allows you to fine-tune the SEO potential of your site.

SEO Title Tag – Don’t need all the power of Headspace2 try SEO title tag, a simple but effective solution.

SEO Slugs– keeps slugs from becoming too long. Very long slugs can have negative impacts on URL keyword relevancy.

Related Blogs


]]> http://www.webpage-designer.net/top-7-wordpress-plugins-for-seo/feed/ 0 65 Wordpress Pinging URLs You Need to Know http://www.webpage-designer.net/65-wordpress-pinging-urls-you-need-to-know/ http://www.webpage-designer.net/65-wordpress-pinging-urls-you-need-to-know/#comments Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:48:01 +0000 admin http://www.webpage-designer.net/?p=95 65 Wordpress Pinging URLs You Need to KnowAdding these ping resources to your wordpress blog is a great way to help your website get indexed faster by search engines; especially niche blog news aggregators specialty search engines like Technorati.

Not to mention is is great for Search Engine Optimization.

Make sure you only use the pinging resources that are relevant to your site. It’s best to run the list through a dedicated pinging service first to see how many result in a successful ping. This should be done to prevent any broken track backs. PLEASE, do not use these for spamming! Enjoy.

WordPress Pinging URLs

  1. http://api.feedster.com/ping
  2. http://1470.net/api/ping
  3. http://api.moreover.com/ping
  4. http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
  5. http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
  6. http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
  7. http://bblog.com/ping.php
  8. http://bitacoras.net/ping
  9. http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
  10. http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php
  11. http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
  12. http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
  13. http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
  14. http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
  15. http://coreblog.org/ping/
  16. http://effbot.org/rpc/ping.cgi
  17. http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
  18. http://ping.amagle.com/
  19. http://ping.bitacoras.com
  20. http://ping.blo.gs/
  21. http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
  22. http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
  23. http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
  24. http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
  25. http://ping.feedburner.com
  26. http://ping.myblog.jp
  27. http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
  28. http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
  29. http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
  30. http://ping.weblogs.se/
  31. http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
  32. http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
  33. http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
  34. http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
  35. http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
  36. http://rpc.newsgator.com/
  37. http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
  38. http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
  39. http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
  40. http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ping.php
  41. http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
  42. http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
  43. http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
  44. http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
  45. http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
  46. http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
  47. http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
  48. http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
  49. http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id1
  50. http://www.blogsdominicanos.com/ping/
  51. http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
  52. http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
  53. http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
  54. http://www.catapings.com/ping.php
  55. http://www.feedsky.com/api/RPC2
  56. http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
  57. http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
  58. http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
  59. http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
  60. http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
  61. http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
  62. http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
  63. http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
  64. http://www.xianguo.com/xmlrpc/ping
  65. http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

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]]> http://www.webpage-designer.net/65-wordpress-pinging-urls-you-need-to-know/feed/ 1 Why You Should Compress Your Javascript http://www.webpage-designer.net/why-you-should-compress-your-javascript/ http://www.webpage-designer.net/why-you-should-compress-your-javascript/#comments Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:00:32 +0000 admin http://www.webpage-designer.net/?p=68 Minify JavascriptDo you write a lot of jQuery, MooTools, Prototype, Dojo (all types of JavaScript) code?

If you do then you should also be compressing (or minify) that code on all your live websites. And not just the large scripts either…

You should Minify every Javascript script that is going to be loaded by any of your webpages, especially the ones that are highly trafficked. Even is the Javascript file is only 2KB in size, you should still compress it! This may sound anal and sure this is a pain in the ass to do, but in the long run your wallet, uptime, servers and clients will all thank you.

Why go to all the trouble of compressing Javascript?

Well first of all it’s easy to compress javascript and even CSS code, plus there are tons of options out there – to make your life easier here is our list of the Top 10 Free Javascript Compressors on the web. All compressors listed in the latter hyperlink make it a snap to compress code on-demand 24/7.

Reasons to Compress Javascript:

  • Reduced data load and server processing load when browsers request pages (due to smaller file sizes.)
  • Obfuscation (or encoding) of potentially sensitive script logic and algorithms which although can be reverse engineered at least makes it harder for people to rip off your code.
  • $$ Money savings can be significant especially when talking about sites that get large volumes in traffic and also have many web 2.0 components.
  • Most-importantly you can increase website load time up to 80%!

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]]> http://www.webpage-designer.net/why-you-should-compress-your-javascript/feed/ 1 How to Pick a Great Web Designer http://www.webpage-designer.net/how-to-pick-a-web-great-designer/ http://www.webpage-designer.net/how-to-pick-a-web-great-designer/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 07:37:09 +0000 admin http://www.webpage-designer.net/?p=3 Webpage Designer

Choosing a web designer isn’t as simple as one would think. The first experience many customers will have with your business is when they visit your website. It sets the tone for their entire online experience. This first impression is critical – a poorly designed website will cause visitors to leave or lose buying confidence. After all, when they visit your website do you want them to feel as if they have just walked into a high end Gucci store… or a disheveled rundown Walmart in the bad part of town?

Step 1

Determine the quality that the web designer or web design firm is able to offer you. Are they a one man show, living off income site to site; OR are they a seasoned professional with the resources at their disposal to make your dream website come true. Because your website reflects many of your personal attributes and the values of your company, you will want to choose a web designer that is able to produce the type of website you want to present to your customers. The more professional your website looks the more your visitors will enjoy using the site and ultimately this will give them confidence in doing business with you. But don’t get to fancy – website usability, functionalism and ease of navigation are much more important that looks – at least in the overall sense.

Step 2

Evaluate the experience the web design company has. The first question you should ask them is “Do you have a list of reference sites I can look at as well as the contact information of previous clients?”

IMPORTANT – don’t just ask for a list of previous websites the company has designer. Why? The answer should be obvious; they could just lie and send you a bunch of cool looking websites that they claim to have designed. Make sure you ask for references to validate the sample websites they send you.

Although a web designer who is new to the industry may be able to do a good or even great job, someone who has experience working on similar websites will be able to do an outstanding job.

Example – If you run a restaurant ask your website designer if they have experience in designing websites for the food service industry; if they say yes then ask for references of that work. Again, just having a great looking website doesn’t do you any good; it must also be functional and easy to use. So if the designer has previous experience in designing websites for companies in your same industry – this is a huge plus!

You want your website to be perfect, so you shouldn’t settle for anything less than a fully qualified and experienced web designer, if your budget permits of course.

Step 3

Assess the projected costs of the job and if the web designer bills at a fixed or hourly rate. Is the price their charging worth it? Compare their experience, industry knowledge and the overall quality they are able to offer with the other companies you are having bid on your website. Learn the differences between a Web Design Firm vs. just a Web Designer?

Of course, you don’t want to spend more than you need to and if you do pay more, you want to make sure that you are getting added benefits for your money. Compare several web designers of similar skill and experience and see if you can get one for a little less than the others. Make the designers compete for your business by leveraging estimates from the competition. The last thing you want is to be over charged.

Source: Web-Design-Reviews.com


]]> http://www.webpage-designer.net/how-to-pick-a-web-great-designer/feed/ 4 Top 10 Free Javascript Compressors http://www.webpage-designer.net/top-10-free-javascript-compressors/ http://www.webpage-designer.net/top-10-free-javascript-compressors/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:08:01 +0000 admin http://www.webpage-designer.net/?p=63 Top 10 Free Javascript Compressor ToolsIf you don’t already, you really should get in the habit of compressing your Javascript.

In a survey of ten top U.S. web sites, minification achieved a 21% file size reduction.

This can allow your website to load up to 80% faster! Save bandwidth, hosting fees and decrease load time all at once.

Here is a list of the top 10 free Javascript compressors:

  1. MinifyJS.com Javascript Compressor – Really cool and easy to use to minify Javascript. The interface is well laid out and intuitive to use for even the beginner programmer; additionally there is a drop down selector where you can choose advanced compression options for your code, such as: Char sets, fast/slow mode, numeric compression, high ASCII compression and whether or not to use Javascript obfuscation.
  2. JSCompress.com – This cool utility lets you choose between two very different forms of compressing, JSMin or Packer by Dean Edwards; thus allowing you to compare which method has the smallest file size.
  3. JavascriptCompressor.com – One of the more popular tools used by programmers plus it has forums where you can discuss all your compression desires!
  4. MinifyJavascript.com Javascript Compressor – A simple and straight forward utility with great compression tutorials and optional advanced compression settings.
  5. Yahoo! YUI Compressor – Since Yahoo! basically coined the term “minify,” it is only proper that have their own utility, beware though, intermediate programming knowledge required.
  6. Google Minify – Just because Google out its name on it, doesn’t make it easy to use or understand; this application if for expert users only. Also works with CSS.
  7. ShrinkSafe– The Dojo Toolkit, a different and interesting approach to code compression.
  8. Huffman Javascript Compression – Another very basic Javascript compressor, no bells and whistles just straight minifying.
  9. Code and Coffee – Great compressor for beginners; Select from 3 levels of compression (high, medium and low) then click compress and you’re on your way to a faster website.
  10. Creativyst JS Compressor – Sure it is a bare bones utility, but hey it does what it advertises.

Related Blogs


]]> http://www.webpage-designer.net/top-10-free-javascript-compressors/feed/ 3 Web Design Firm vs. just a Web Designer? http://www.webpage-designer.net/web-design-firm-vs-just-a-web-designer/ http://www.webpage-designer.net/web-design-firm-vs-just-a-web-designer/#comments Sun, 22 Mar 2009 08:06:38 +0000 admin http://www.webpage-designer.net/?p=11 untitled-1Generally web design firms will cost more than just a one person web design company. This is for good reason and if you can afford it you should choose a design firm over just a single designer, here’s why: With a web design firm you have many experts that collaborate together to better guarantee the perfectly crafted website. No one individual can possibly master all aspects of website design, and remember a good looking is useless if it’s not functional and coded properly for search engine optimization.

With a web design company you have many people simultaneously working on your website, example:

  • The graphic designers make it look great
  • The marketing staff makes sure the branding is top notch
  • The copywriters make sure your content sounds great and has the proper keyword density to rank well in search engine results
  • Search engine optimization specialists(SEOs) code in compliant semantic markup
  • Programmers make sure that any dynamic functionality is working as it should
  • Database administrators (DBAs) design and optimize your databases for performance – if applicable
  • Multimedia Flash engineers create the perfect jaw-dropping Flash animations
  • Web developers code in XHTML 1.0 Strict format so as to be cross-browser and W3C compliant
  • And finally web hosting technicians make sure your site goes live on the right type of web server as required by your projected traffic load

If you were to go with a single web designer they would need to do all of the above themselves; and as the old saying goes “no one person is good at everything.”

Source: Web-Design-Reviews.com


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]]> http://www.webpage-designer.net/web-design-firm-vs-just-a-web-designer/feed/ 3 Best Way To Send Large Files For Free http://www.webpage-designer.net/sending-large-files-for-free/ http://www.webpage-designer.net/sending-large-files-for-free/#comments Sun, 04 Jan 2009 11:29:41 +0000 admin http://www.webpage-designer.net/?p=108 Best Way To Send Large Files For Free So… You want to send an email attachment from your Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail account but it says you are exceeding the attachment size limit.

This often used to happen to me when I would try to send clients all their website files and scripts in a ZIP file.

You can send any file as an attachment to anybody via email, true. But only as long as it meets the size restrictions of your email provider; and if you haven’t already noticed that size limit is practically nothing, 25MB at most! 25MBs, are you kidding me?

What’s up with only allowing 25MBs of attachments?

What the heck can I send with only 25MB of attachment storage – Maybe 2 pictures taken with my Sony DSLR camera, and that’s IF I’m lucky – What a joke! Not to mention that as a web designer that works with WordPress, my site files, plugins, wp-content/uploads and MySQL databases are almost always over 25MB. This used to make my life a total suck fest because everytime a client wanted a backup of their site I would need to burn the files to a CD-R/DVD and run to the local FedEx… try doing that 3 times a week and you’ll understand why I’m so psyched about what I’m about to share with you.

If you have wrestled in frustration with transferring large files, you are in luck. Because I have the solution that makes sending GB-large files via email not only convenient and easy but also fast and secure.

Sizable Send is my choice to send large files!

SizableSend.com is my file transfer service of choice for many many reasons but here is a list of my favorites among others:

  • Sizable Send is 100% FREE
  • Send 2.5GB’s at a time; need to send more? Don’t worry, just open up another browser window and send another 2.5GB’s, and so on, and so on – there is NO upload limit
  • You never have to log in, or sign up for some gimmicky trial offer or trial registration
  • Select and send multiple files at once by crtl+clicking with your mouse – even my Grandma can do this
  • Of the 100+ file transfer services I have tried, it is the only one that allows you to send unlimited data for free and download unlimited data for free
  • I have been using it for over 2 years, it is always working and available – other file upload services I have used cannot say the same, I assure you
  • Lightning fast – whilst other services like MegaUpload throttle your bandwidth – making small files take forever to upload unless you use their “paid” version – Sizable Send allows completely unrestricted upload and download speeds. In fact I have regularly uploaded/downloaded files at 15+ MBps on my office internet
  • Did I already mention all of this is free, easy and oh yea FREE!

In the 2 years and over 1,000,000+ GB’s of MP3’s I have sent with Sizable Send it has always worked, been fast and not filled with any type of spam. If you are paying for file transfer service you are seriously mental!

Start uploading files now and enjoy!

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]]> http://www.webpage-designer.net/sending-large-files-for-free/feed/ 2