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| QuiskStart Guide For New Web Designers - Page 3 |
QuickStart for Newbie Web Developers - A Timely Guide for New Web Designers, Page 3
Webmaster and SEO Forums Forums Are a Great Source for Staying Updated One of the best ways to stay updated on the latest web design techniques, best practices and the ever changing Search Engines is to review and participate in different Webmaster and Search Engine Forums. Most are free to join and some even still allow your website link in your signature. Forum Signatures Note that most Search Engines seem to resolve multiple links on different pages to the same Site from one Site as one link. Google definitely divides the PR (Page Ranking) between all links under one main URL. This means that it does no good for you to contribute uselessly and prolifically thinking that each posting will net another recognized IBL (inbound link). The forums are intended to provide valuable and timely information, as well as help others resolve immediate and daunting problems. When you participate from that perspective, you attract visitors to your site. Participation in Forums Participating in Forums has a number of advantages covering thousands of topics. Many offer direct help in answering questions and solving problems. They also help bring in qualified visitors. We advise all our clients to participate in Industry Related Forums. Almost every Industry has topic specific forums that you and your clients can participate in. WebProWorld offers several good places to start (for Web Design): Submit
Your Website for Review by Peers Recommended Forums The list goes on and on. There are many topics on each Forum Site you visit. Below you will find a list of some of our favorites: Web Development Communities WebProWorld Search Engine Optimization Forums Marketing Forums Marketing
Forum Watch - Offers FREE, searchable, headlines from over 65 of
your favorite internet marketing and search engine discussion forums
and message boards, updated every 5 minutes. Plagiarism - How to Detect if Someone Has Plagiarized Your Site Plagiarism has grown to be a serious problem on the Internet. Many resources are now available to detect and fight it. When GOOGLE detects duplicate content the latter pages are usually not Page Ranked at a minimum, incurring the "Duplicate Content Penalty". When extremely blatant they can also be non-listed or de-listed. It's really not worth the risk! Here are some great plagiarism resources that can help you find if anyone is using your "copywrite" anywhere: www.plagiarism.org Website Hosting Different Sites require different hosting features. The topic has grown quite complex. Better hosting companies provide a large variant of features including more than one statistical package. Our Website Hosting Recommendation We have dealt with many hosting companies in our tenure as web developers and can say with definite affirmation that the one we use currently is by far the best we have seen. Make sure and check out their "Extreme Webmaster" and "Super Webmaster" Plans. They are headquartered in New Zealand, but have server banks in several locations in the US and other countries: Hosting Forums Web
Hosting Talk Current Web Development Trends CSS Design (Cascading Style Sheets) Many web designers are advocating going to all CSS Website Design, eliminating tables all together. Obviously, deprecated fonts have been a problem for a while. It is very easy to control fonts and many "look and feel" features on a Site, including interactive navigation systems with CSS. This can be accomplished with a nice blend of tables for positioning and a valid CSS mix. There are still some maturity and browser comparability issues that make us believe that CSS positioning has not matured quite enough to design using CSS for positioning yet. We will be adding more about CSS on our Webmaster Resources Pages in the future. In fact they use viewer selectable Color schemes driven by CSS files. CSS Sites do not have to be boring and plain. There are a growing number of good CSS Web Designers out there now designing appealing and interactive Sites. Here are some Sites that showcase CSS Sites and discuss them: CSS
Zen Garden - The Beauty in CSS Design CSS design resources: Webmaster
Toolkit's CSS Menu Generator - Great Interactive CSS menus made
easy with this code generator. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) XML is a powerful somewhat "universal" language used mostly to convey information across platforms. Commercial applications include Supply Chain Management Systems, news feeds and web blogs. Practical usage demands certain standards be adapted for use by any industry. The language is robust enough to be applied almost universally, however it's caveat has been that exacting standards have to be established within individual industries for accurate cross communication. There have been many notorious multi-million dollar failures associated with early attempts at such industry specific standards, especially in the Oil and Gas Industry. RSS appears to have been one of the first to ascertain a more global appeal through such standardization. Although still in it's infancy, as you will see from the links provided, we expect that enough critical mass support is behind it for RSS commercialization to explode and be commercialized in the future. Hopefully it won't be exploited by spammers as the e-mail system has. Currently, RSS is used primarily for News Feeds and Web Blogs. Indications are Web Blogs are already attracting some disfavor in the Search Engines due to abuse. Subsequently the SE algorithms have been and are being changed to meet these new challenges. As you fight your way through available RSS information you will find that most of it comes up short. RSS-aware programs called news aggregators are popular in the WebBlogging community. Many Web Blogs make content available in RSS. You can approach your personal knowledge base from different perspectives as you review the links we have provided below. Applications include the casual user (news freak, researcher, etc) that wants a "desktop reader". Many integrate smoothly into PC OS applications such as Windows IE, Outlook and Outlook Express, playing on your desktop. Many free "Desktop Newsreaders" are available for download. Webmasters who want to augment their Site with the latest topic specific information. Another valuable webmaster perspective is to provide syndicated newsfeeds to promote their Site by publishing articles and more. Whatever your purpose and perspective we believe you will find the RSS resources provided below will help you wade through the waters of another "developing technology": What
is RSS?", by Mike Pilgrim - A great article at XML.com that
explains what it is, the different versions (7 in total) the history
of RSS and much more. A Few Notes About SERPS, Linking Programs and the Golden Rule; (Content Depth). What it all comes down to is; "Providing Value for the Internet Community". It takes a great deal of effort to provide an effective value level that will be recognized and promoted by the Search Engines these days. This is the Internet's "Golden Rule" with two elements; "High ranking and numerous links and content (Depth and Uniqueness)"! This fact not only will not change but will be reinforced as competition grows more fierce every day! There is really no way around it. If you are not prepared to go there for yourself and your clients, don't expect success. Do not engage in shady "Black Hat" SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practices. Know that the Search Engines including GOOGLE are in a "love-hate" relationship! GOOGLE has even publicly admitted that they use the new "work around" technologies to modify their algorithms. The energy and expense that "Black Hat" endeavors consume are transferred to GOOGLE and the other SE's in form of R&D savings! In fact, there is considerable debate in the "Webmaster Forums" that indicate "Link Exchange Programs" may be on the way out. Many experienced Web Developers and Search Engine Optimizers are indicating that there may be a Search Engine Algorithm shift in progress that values "Organic" Links more than "Exchanged" links. "Organic" Links being IBLs (inbound Links) that are picked up because of value provided, and do not contain a reciprocal link. Already, schemers are developing "linking triangles" and other "Grey Hat" techniques to beat these Search Engine trends, but we also recommend staying away from those as we do all schemes that in any way proport to beat the ever growing sophistication of SE algorithms. Several Ways to Launch a New Site With Good PR and SERPs:
Note that when practicing these methods there is really no need to submit your Site to the Major Search Engines, they will pick up your link from other Sites and sources. Do not engage in the "Submit Your to Thousands of Search Engines" scams. Never engage the services of "Linkfarms" for any reason. Do not even link to them! If you dabble in "shady" practices that there is a good chance a competitor will report you to Search Engines. If you need to report a competitor for Website Spamming do it, they shouldn't have "gone there". It's your livelihood and your responsibility to your clients they are challenging!. GOOGLE encourages Website Spam Reporting. There should be no hesitation if you are sure of mal intent. In fact, we believe that it is a Webmasters duty to help purge the Internet of this malfeasance, making it a better place for everyone. It's always a good practice to review your server stats and see where your incoming traffic is coming from. It is a good practice to reward other Webmasters or Sites that send traffic your way by reciprocating, without them asking for a link. Linking to us It certainly does not hurt to ask for links, so we are asking for yours now. We endure considerable expense providing timely and valuable webmaster and web design resources at different levels. If you find this information useful and want to link to our "Newbie Guide for Web Designers", please copy and use the code below when linking to this page: <p><a href="http://www.mountaineagleweb.com/Newbie-Guide/Newbie-Guide.htm" target="_blank">Newbie It will appear as: Newbie Web Design Guide - Timely information, advice and resources for new Web Designers and Developers. Other Pages of Interest Make sure and visit our Tutorial Mini-Series on Website Preparation, Design, Maintenance and Marketing for more detailed information. We are in the process of adding around 100 Topic Specific Pages to our Webmaster Resources Section. We believe you will find them quite useful.We wish you the very best in your Web Development endeavors. Sincerely, Mountain Eagle Marketing P.S. - Make sure and save us as a favorite so you can find these resources easily again.
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