Archive for the ‘Design’ Category
Google Learns to Crawl Flash Pages
July 6th, 2008 | Author: Jim Hutchinson
Getting flash-based websites indexed by the search engines has always been a challenge. It meant making sure you added plain text to the page so the crawlers had something to read, while trying to incorporate the text so it blended in with the design.
That all changed recently when Google announced it now uses the Adobe Flash Player technology to read Flash. You are now free to design your websites in Flash and still get indexed in Google. This is a major jump in Search Engine Optimization strategies.
All those who have previously put off using Flash to build their websites now have the freedom to let their imaginations loose. While this is just on Google and Yahoo! so far, other search engines are sure to follow soon.
Posted in Design | 
Tags: Adobe Flash 
, Google site indexing , search engine spiders , SEO | 
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Cashing in on 404 Pages
September 5th, 2007 | Author: Jim Hutchinson
We all know that content is king. It is what drives people to our websites. What happens though when a page on your site is not found? I am sure you have seen those ugly error pages, 404 File Not Found. Those are caused by pages that either do not exist, are spelled wrong, have spaces in them, or are simply linked incorrectly.
Websites that still show those error pages are losing visitors and potential sales. You would most most likely not start editing the URL in your address bar to try locating another page on that site. Instead, you would either use your back button, a bookmark, or type a known URL into the address bar. If you do start searching for that page, you are one of the elite who just have to find it.
Chances are real high that once a visitor sees a 404 error page on your site, they will not be back. So what can you do to keep them there?
Read the rest of this entry »
Which is Better to Design Websites – WYSIWYG or Hard Coding?
July 7th, 2006 | Author: Jim Hutchinson
When designing a web page, many newcomers to website design use the
What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) or otherwise known as graphical
interfaces, to design their sites. Even some people who have been designing
for years still use the WYSIWYG programs.
While WYSIWYG is generally a quick way to get a web page designed, is it really the best option? Let’s take a look at both WYSIWYG and hard coding so you can decide for yourself which one will produce the results you want with the level of difficulty you are comfortable with.
The 8 Things You Must Know To Build A Great Website
April 15th, 2006 | Author: Jim Hutchinson
By: Tim Knox ÂÂ
We previously discussed how a bad website can do your business more harm than good. That column brought several emails asking what is the key to building an effective business website. I replied with the same answer I always give: building an effective business website is a simple matter of definition.
Before the first graphic is drawn or the first line of code is written, you must define the website’s budget, purpose, target audience, design, navigation, and content. And when that’s all said and done you must define the marketing that will bring visitors to your site.
It sounds easy, but you’d be amazed at how many really bad business websitesthere are out there. Yours might even be one of them. If so, listen up. For nearly ten years now my company has been building and rebuilding websitesfor every kind of business you can imagine: from mom-and-pops to multinationals. We’ve designed (or redesigned) a couple hundred websites and along the way I have come to the conclusion that most business websites do a pitiful job of working for their owners. Read the rest of this entry »
