by WebKeyDesign | Oct 11, 2005 | Google Bits
Here is something which many small businesses probably do not know about, but should probably start using. It is Local Search. Even if your business does not have a website (which it really needs to nowadays), you can still make search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN work for you. Google even makes it easy, so even if you do not have a web site, you can still be one of the local businesses that Google recognizes.
First try out a local search on local.google.com and see for yourself. Type any city or location and then narrow it down further by adding the service you are looking for.
If you are interested in promoting your business with Google, you have to apply at the Google Local Business Center. You can read more about local search in general at http://local.google.com/help/faq_local.html.
by WebKeyDesign | Oct 7, 2005 | Mac OS X
There seems to be this belief that Microsoft is the new IBM. Namely that they are no longer cutting edge and that they have no new ideas anymore. When I say, IBM, I do not mean today’s IBM, but the IBM that could not establish OS/2 as a mainstream operating system, that IBM. So if Microsoft is IBM, then who is Microsoft? Most technews junkies would say any number of companies, but the favorite would have to be Google. There is this desire to see Microsoft fail and to have it toppled by Google, RedHat, or even Apple. Microsoft clearly is seeing a lot of competition these days, and in some markets Microsoft is just another competitor, not even a leading one. However Microsoft’s dominance has always been in operating systems and productivity software, the Windows & Office Suite are what Microsoft has always been about. One look at Windows 2006 and it’s Vista theme is all the reminder I need, to know that Microsoft is not going away any time soon.
I remember that Steve Jobs once said something about how Microsoft is the Wal-mart of the computer industry, meaning that if you want functionality without designer design, you buy Microsoft. At the time Apple was touting Mac OS X and its Aqua interface. It was evident then and it is still is now that Apple knows how to implement and design slick looking user interfaces. Comparing Apple.com to Microsoft.com will immediately tell you that Microsoft is all business and Apple.com is designed by artists.
Which brings me to Vista, a radical new design for Windows which implements vector based graphics, a new Start Menu, and tons of other features that make WindowsXP look down right pedestrian. Vista is Microsoft’s Aqua interface. Some Mac users are probably thinking it is an outright copy of OS X, but it really is not. Microsoft has learned quite a lot about user interface and even though they have made some horrible mistakes like WindowsXP’s Start Menu, they have also made some nice implementations like the the Right-Click Properties option. Mac OS X’s Aqua has been a work in progress and even in 10.4, Apple is still changing it and modifying it here and there. Apple can do this cause it’s user base tends to upgrade OS X rather frequently, but Microsoft cannot have this luxuyry. A Windows release tends to last years, maybe even a decade. Windows95 anyone? Microsoft has to get the new interface just right on the actual release.
Over the coming months as Microsoft gets closer to actual release, Vista will become more well known and accepted as one of the most sweeping changes in interface design since Windows95. Although I am sure Microsoft will borrow and modify some ideas from its competitors, including Mozilla’s Firefox, Mac OS X, and maybe even the Linux distros out there, it will create in the end something which its market audience will find using for many years to come. I for one welcome a change from WindowsXP, the interface which makes me think is in really bad need of a makeover.
Will Vista and a new Internet Explorer look better than Apple’s Safari and Mac OS X, probably not, but they will be much needed improvements to the mainstream platform that millions of businesses use day in and day out, and that’s what matters to Microsoft.
by WebKeyDesign | Oct 4, 2005 | WebKeyDesign
I added a quick Whois Lookup tool to WebKeyDesign today. Although every domain registerar has one, I find them to be all rather slow or hard to find at times. The whois tool uses Sam Whois, which is a nice whois script I found.
To prevent abuse the script requires a code to be entered and all results are cached once a lookup for a specific domain is done.
by WebKeyDesign | Sep 28, 2005 | Web Site Basics
When you start your first web site, one of the most important areas of your site has to be the Links Page. Definitely any personal site or small business site (that does not have a lot of content), really requires it. The main reasoning being that a links page goes ahead and helps search engines rank you and also find your site more relevant.
There are a couple of ways of building a link page, the first one being a manual links page, where you add each and every link yourself into a static page or weblog menu. The automated way is to have a links program that helps you organize the links and may offer some added features like link validation and link submission forms. Large directory sites use commercial scripts to build their links pages, but as far as the search engine is concerned, a links page is a links page. A smaller static links page may in fact be more popular with a search engine than an automated page which has hundreds of links.
Who Should I Link To?
For a personal site, look at what sites you usually bookmark in your browser and pick the most interesting ones. Organize these into a few categories and then setup your links page. If at first you have just a few links, that’s fine. Over time your links page will grow.
Business sites, you probably do not want to link to your competitors, but at the same time you want to keep your links more closely related to your business. The great thing about the Internet is that there are many non-commercial sites that offer advice or information on a variety of topics. Linking to these type of informational sites is usually appreciated by your customers and will make your site more customer friendly. Another way of promoting your business is by promoting your friend’s business. For example Menards does not install the products it sells to home improvement customers, but they can refer you to a local contractor; you can apply this same strategy to your links page.
Once your site is up for a while, you might receive requests from other web site owners to link to their site. This is often referred to as link trading or having a link partner. The idea is for both sites to link to eachother and help promote eachother. The driving force behind this is Google’s Pagerank status. Linking to a highly ranked site usually does not mean anything, but if that highly ranked site links back to you and your pagerank status is lower, chances are your pagerank will improve in the coming months. Beginning sites should concentrate on their content first, and in time the linking requests will come.
Remember To Link To Us or Contact Us
On the bottom of your links page, you should have a note about how other sites can link to your site. Some webmasters are actually pretty friendly still, and if they find your site interesting, they will actually link to you regardless. And if your links page has no link submission form, a simple Contact Us link to your contact page or webmaster email will help those linking partner requests come in.
Eventually you may find that your Links Page may be one of the most visited pages on your site, and one which you hardly have to work at to really maintain.
by WebKeyDesign | Sep 22, 2005 | Web Site Basics
Today, online publishing can be divided into static html pages and dynamic pages. Most weblogs falls into what is referred to as Content Management Systems. In actuallity, most of these programs really fall short of what actual content management is suppose to be, but for individuals and personal publishing, weblogs are the standard. However deciding on which weblog CMS can be quite difficult, seeing as there are many choices available. To make the process easier, consider the following four points.
Cost:
Personal publishing usually involves some type of budget, especially if you are starting from scratch. Consider not only will the CMS be free (as in open source packages like WordPress and Textpattern), but how much domain registration, hosting, installation, and initial design are going to factor in. Even if you are doing most of the work yourself, there will be some costs initially. Once you have some type of budget in mind, review your options and grade them on the other three criteria.
Support:
Sometimes when choosing a free CMS, you tend to forget about the most important criteria for any software program, which is support. How many times do the programmers update the program? Are security patches released in a timely and efficient manner, are they easy to install? Is free support even adequate? Sometime user communities are not very friendly to non-technical users, so always take a look at what the user community is like and how responsive they are to others. Do not forget to look at documentation, a program may be very good, but if there is not a manual or adequate online documentation, you will have a hard time maintaining it. Usually installation documentation is the most essential, so most programs will at least have this down, but if there is not anything beyond a simple readme document, you should consider another CMS.
Expandibility:
A good CMS would have most essential features covered, but plugins and extensions allow room for customized users and also help make a plain CMS appear more personalized to the individual. After all we are talking about personal publishing, so there has to be some personality to it, and the best way to do this is in the form of mods, plugins, and extensions to the main CMS. Some commercial CMS packages might sell such addons, or might have better support for custom changes, so it is important to see just how much addons will cost and how useful they are going to be once your site is up and running. If the CMS programmers have made addons support a goal for their CMS, see just how much third party developers have taken advantage of this.
User Experience:
Lastly how easy is the user experience of your CMS? Is the website that it publishes easy for online vistitors to use, can they navigate, search, and comment easily? For the authoring side, how easy is it to publish new content? For content creation, think about how you can upload images, create drafts, integrate advertisements (if you need to), and how the final html code complies with web standards. But more importantly do you like using the CMS? If you do not like it, chances are you are not going to publish very much.
It’s Your Web Space, Test Drive It:
By now you probably figured that you need to try out a CMS before you can really decide on one, so hopefully, before you buy or make your final decision, make sure you try out any online demos you find. For most open source programs, you can try them out at OpenSourceCMS.com.
