The Speciality Chemicals Magazine website is one of the websites managed by The Funk House for DMG World Media. The Funk House was asked to refresh the design for their new online magazine campaign. The website was designed to match their new media pack and to also help create space for their menu as the website evolves.

Visit the Speciality Chemicals Magazine website

Chemspec Middle East is a conference website run by DMG World Media.
The Funk House was tasked with refreshing the header design for the new conference in 2010. The header was matched to the media pack in keeping with their brand.

View the Chemspec Middle East website

A question I get asked regularly is “How do I get to the top of the search engines?” sometimes this is when their website has only just gone live.

If a website has only just gone live then it can take up to 3 months for a website to be picked up by the search engines properly. Once this has happened and you are in the search engine result pages (SERPS) then it will depend on some key factors on your website.

First and foremost before I even mention keywords which is more often than not the first thing I am asked about, you must forget all that and concentrate on the structure of your website.

The structure for your website is the most important part of your website. Depending on how it has been built it can aid accessibility, usability and search engines.

How can structure help search engines?

If you were to read a book that instead of having lots of nice formatted text, nicely separated paragraphs and labeled with titles and so on but had lots of unknown text intermingled into the words on the page would you find it hard to read? Yes!

If we consider a search engine reading your site and your site is not built to be “readable” then you will make it a lot harder for a search engine to list your site.

The first thing I do if it is not one of my own websites that they want to get higher in the SERPS,  is to take a look under the hood and check out the structure of the website.

I usually run the website through a HTML validator and I also run through it manually looking at how each section reads and how clean the code is.

How clean the code is ?

This is referring to the code that is used to create your website, in todays standards it should be written in such a way that only the structure of the site and the content is visible. The styling, the bits that make it look good are contained in a separate file. This is important as it allows the search engines to get to your content and read it without much fuss.

Once you have the structure of the website correct and ready to insert your content you then need to begin to consider the keywords. This doesn’t mean you need to write every other sentence with your favourite keyword as this will be penalised by the search engines. This part will need some research into finding out what words are used in the search engines to find your website. If you have a new website then you will need to look at your competitors. You can look through websites and also ask friends or family to write down some words they think they would type to find your site. It is an art to finding out the correct keywords for you and your website as it will form the basis on which you will create your content.

You will need to consider your domain name, the title that is the top text in the browser, the page title which is like the news title in a paper, the paragraphs of text in the first few lines of content, the links within the page and emphasis on text such as bold text. These are only a few items that need to be looked at, there is a lot to consider so please take your time.

Even when adapting your site to the relevant keyword terms that you have discovered it still doesn’t mean your website will jump to the top of the search results as there is going to be competition especially if your business is in a category with many websites on the same subject. Take a look at your competitor’s websites and see how they are doing are they using the same keywords to make their website findable in the search engines? Do your research and do not rush it, you will reap the rewards later when you know your website search engine strategy inside and out. This will be an ongoing strategy that will change on a daily or weekly basis so be patient and make sure you use something like google analytics to track what is happening on your website.

“I have had two web sites designed by Lee Doel- both for very different purposes and -having no knowledge myself of what is possible-  was extremely delighted that Lee took the time and trouble to explore with me what would work best for my requirements in each case.  This resulted in two very different sites which work well.  Lee was able to explain and assist in practical and clear ways which really made the whole experience enjoyable and productive.  I am recommending him to all my friends and associates” – Shirley Barter citizens 4 change and Grace Community Church

Another WordPress website built for VectorCommand Emergency Command System. They provide products such as the Command Support System (CSS), The CSS is a powerful new technology platform that solves a common operational problems for emergency commanders and managers around the world.

The website makes use of many new features created by The Funk House including some bespoke WordPress plugins. Included in the site is a JQUERY slideshow for the home page and a full slideshow for the owner to use separately on another page.

View the website

“The service from Lee was excellent.  The result of the web design exceeded my expectation.  Lee listened and correctly interpreted my requirements and my market.  The web site is easy to handle and update and that process was simply explained.  I cannot recommend highly enough ‘the funk house’ for your web design needs” Philip Raw – www.philipraw.com

A site built using the benefits of the easy to use content management system that is WordPress (with a few plugins).

By using WordPress templates and the use of a bespoke WordPress plugin the home page was easy to create and also easy for the user to update without any knowledge of HTML.

“The service from Lee was excellent.  The result of the web design exceeded my expectation.  Lee listened and correctly interpreted my requirements and my market.  The web site is easy to handle and update and that process was simply explained.  I cannot recommend highly enough ‘the funk house’ for your web design needs”

Visit the website

After stumbling on a WordPress plugin called Anyvar I found it was extremely useful. However, one thing I really did not like about the plugin was the fact that a user had to use code to type anything in unless it was some simple text.

After some thought I decided to add the same WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that WordPress uses to the plugin to allow everyone to be able to add text and even more useful is the ability to add images. Now a user can add images to the plugin just as you would do when editing a page or a post.

How did I add the WYSIWYG editor to the plugin?

Generally to add a visual editor with the media uploader to a plugin where there is a text area for editing then it is a simple process with just a few lines of code:

/** In plugin file **/

add_action('admin_print_scripts', 'add_thejs' );
add_action('admin_print_styles', 'add_thecss' );

function add_thecss()
{
    wp_enqueue_style('thickbox');
}

function add_thejs()
	{
		if ( user_can_richedit() ){
			wp_enqueue_script('editor');
			wp_enqueue_script('media-upload');
			add_action('admin_head', 'wp_tiny_mce');
		}
	}

/** Then wherever the textarea is replace it with the following **/

    <?php the_editor('Some content here','content'); ?>

It is good to note that if you don’t use the id of content then the visual display will not be selected automatically it will select the HTML view first.

It is quite amazing that all you need are these few lines of code to enable the use of the editor. The code i used was slightly different for the Anyvar plugin as the following needs to be added as an array:

add_action("admin_print_styles-$page", array(&$this,'anyvar_css')); // Add required css file(s)
add_action("admin_print_scripts-$page", array(&$this,'anyvar_head')); // Add required JS file(s)

Hopefully the code above to add the editor is straight forward enough to add to your plugin.
Just to give you a quick overview of what it does here is a quick run down.

The add actions are how the functions are called then in each function the CSS or the Javascript is added in turn.

One thing I added was the:

if ( user_can_richedit() ){

This then allows you to only show the editor if the user has the rights to use one.

I hope this is useful to someone and I hope that Matt from devspace includes it in the next release.

Here is the my updated file for you to download: Anyvar Updated – You may need to right click and save file as.
You will need to change the .txt extension to be .php

*Please note that although I have tested this on a few sites you should make sure you test it and backup before using it on a live website.

After stumbling on the Sitepoint article What’s the Collective Noun for Web Browsers? I left a comment stating I like the sound of a Gaggle of web browsers.

According to Wikipedia:

A gaggle is a term of venery for a flock of geese that isn’t in flight; in flight, the group can be called a skein.

In military slang, a gaggle is an unorganized group doing nothing. In aviation, it is a large, loosely organized tactical formation of aircraft.

I think these statements fit the web browsers of today as they do seem to be all over the place with their ideas rather than all thinking on the same page.

What do you think?

The news module has been added to create an easy way to read the news on the website but using the Flash that mimics the iTunes cover flow it creates something different and in the Aeronautics industry this creates interest. At the request of the company the Flash directly links to a PDF document. Throught the use of the JQUERY plugin Thick Box it enables the document to be read on the same page without refreshing.

As always ease of use is always important and this is not any different, the module was built to work with the Sitekit content management system news module. This allows the user to add news without knowing any HTML.

View the Flash