WeBlogged

Why Move?

Bad Neighborhood Links are Bad News
It is no secret that linking to and from a bad Internet neighborhood can seriously slow, halt or even reverse your SEO progress. However, now, I have first hand knowledge of what can happen when even a single source has cross links with a site in a good neighborhood.

We recently moved my personal blog to my company site - which is where you are reading this. Initially, we thought it might be a great way to get some inbound links with linking text being exactly what we wanted it to be.

We soon found that in actuality, cross links from XPRT Creative to http://jpoyer.wordpress.com began a slow descent of XPRT Creative ranking in Google, Yahoo and MSN SERPs. (more…)

Pretty much every web page you look at falls into one of two very broad categories: Dynamic or Static.

What is a dynamic web page?

Dynamic refers to a page being created “on the fly.” This means that the content from that page doesn’t actually come together until someone clicks on a link to that page. When someone views a dynamic page, some or all of the information on that page is pulled into the page from another location, like a database. (more…)

Have you ever attempted to transfer your domain and it seems like there are so many hoops to jump through that it’s not even worth the effort? Does it seem like it’s a confusing ball of knotted string that you just can’t unravel? As a member of a web development team, I have had the opportunity to transfer many domains (and as a result have taken my fair share of Ibuprofin). When you are transferring your domain, having a good checklist will help tremendously to take the knots out of the process.

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If you didn’t read Take Control of Your Domain Part I, it has important information you need to understand regarding your domain. Go read that first and then come back to this one. This post, Take Control of Your Domain Part II deals specifically with the hosting aspect of your website owner experience. Some of this can get pretty technical (so put your nerd cap on and pay attention - heh heh), but it is important to understand when taking control of your domain and your website. (more…)

When you have a website, there are actually three different major parts that you need to know about and understand. Especially if you are working with an awesome creative firm like XPRT Creative to develop a superb, problem solving, useful, effective and aesthetically pleasing website. (plug? what plug?) Your web developer will need you to understand these things, so if you are considering getting a new domain, or hiring a new company to host or build your site, this is important stuff. Read on, read on. (more…)

You know what would be so great? We could have a form on our site, and we’ll collect people’s information and then we’ll build up our contact lists and leads, because we’ll be sending out important information, specials and discounts through email, and people will come to our site from across the Internet to sign up and we’ll be able to email them regularly and keep in touch and increase our sales and customer interaction!

WON’T THAT BE GREAT?!!! Yes, it would be great IF:

… we didn’t get hundreds of bogus emails from random addresses that don’t exist.

… we get e-mails that contain characters we don’t recognize — like someone is submitting scripts or trying to hack our forms or something.

… people would fill out the information I really need, like mailing address or phone number.

… people would fill out the information in a useable format. (more…)

Have you lost months or even worse, years worth of blog in a server crash and you don’t have a back up? There are many ways to back up your site, but if you’re like me, and life gets in the way of intentions at times, it’s nice to have a BACK UP PLAN to your BACK UP PLAN.

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What kind of team would you want to build your website? The battle wages on about the importance of content versus look versus usability. Does it taste great or is it really just less filling?

I recently stumbled upon a post arguing the importance and definitions of the roles involved in the web development process. I feel compelled to weigh in here because I think many are still trying to stand on ground that has already shifted.

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Now that people’s page ranks have dropped for the update in Google’s algorithm, the SEO community in general is speculating that PageRank will be no more. Are the rumors true?

Yes, there are a million different examples of “real good sites” that have dropped in SERPs dramatically, but I guess I’m just having more trouble seeing this as a negative thing in the long run. When you are in the business of manipulating the system, it’s only a matter of course that eventually, the system will manipulate you. As Elton John sang, “times are changing, now the poor get fat, but the fever’s gonna catch you when the [expletive deleted by author] gets back.”

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Well, as I have been writing, you may have noticed (or not), that my blog tagline is missing. It is not that I think a tagline is not needed, in fact, I feel quite the contrary. Of course you can’t be all things to all people and chances are, if you try to, you will fail miserably in all aspects.

It wasn’t until last night that I put serious thought into the goal — the focus of my blog. My 7-year-old son was impressed with my recent post about Seth Godin and Shane Dundas of The Upside Down Show (Just have to say that his reaction was pretty cool) . We were talking about blogs and he became very interested in starting his own blog. (more…)