The design and development of a new custom website can be an enormous effort for some clients, especially the process of pulling together the website assets and content. So its no surprise that when the site goes live many clients want nothing more than to be done and get back to their regular business tasks.  Unfortunately, even after the website is completed and posted there are additional actions that can be taken to increase the website’s visibility on the Internet. And it is advisable to complete these tasks as soon as possible after launch for maximum benefits.

Following is a short list of the highest priority tasks for optimizing website traffic after your site has gone live.

1. Install and configure Google Analytics. Google Analytics allows you to view in detail the Internet traffic coming to your website, its source URL’s, number of pages visited and duration of time before bouncing off site.  The sooner you begin collecting this data the better you will be able to analyze your website traffic.
2. Submit your completed website to the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, and MSN.  Getting found on the Internet will be expedited by correctly notifying these major search engines that your website is posted live.
3. Submit your website address (URL) to all relevant industry directories and major Internet directories including DMOZ and Yahoo.  The respective links are: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html and https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro . Being listed in these directories will definitely contribute to your search engine optimization success.
4. List your website on the Internet wherever appropriate. You can write and submit articles to relevant blogs and include your URL wherever permissible to create “back-links” to your website. Create a Facebook “Fan Page” for your business and use social networking directories such as Linkedin at http://www.linkedin.com to spread the word about you website.

In closing, remember that once you’ve got a great website make sure your potential clients and customers will find you in search engines by following the steps above. Organic (no-paid) search engine optimization is an ongoing effort that should ideally begin as soon as your new website is posted live.

drobertson Blog Articles Search Engine Optimization, Website Design

Google as well as all of the other major search engines frown upon duplicate content. What is duplicate content? It’s basically a situation where the same page of content can be accessed from different URLs. For example:  http://YourDomain.com and http://www.YourDomain.com. Let’s assume the both of these URLs link to the same page. Most web hosting services will allow both forms of the URL. However, this “duplicate content” on your website can significantly decrease your search engine ranking.

The solution is to force the ‘www’ sub-domain to be inserted into the URL. This can be done by adding a few lines of code in your .htaccess file and uploading it. If you don’t already have an .htaccess file then you can create one using a simple text editor. Save the file as “.htaccess”. You must include the preceeding period. It should be placed in the root directory for your website. This particular process is called “mod_rewrite” and is actually a function of the Apache Server where it literally rewrite the URLs to the correct form.

Insert this code into your .htaccess file. Replace ‘example’ with your domain name.

# force www in url
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# END force www in url


Save the .htaccess file, upload into root directory and test. Your done! Now it won’t matter what sub-domain of if any sub-domain is used to access your website. This script will automatically rewrite the URL to include the ‘www’ sub-domain.

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SoCal WebWorx is pleased to announce the official launch of the AST Enzymes new Drupal CMS Shopping Cart website. This Drupal site is completely custom designed to fit the client’s needs. We’ve also added the addition of a “Doctor’s” and “Wholesaler’s” portal registration form and login pages. These logins will allow user’s with these privileges to view additional content the public is not allowed to see as well as purchase product at a discounted price. The shopping cart itself is built-out using the UberCart shopping cart module for Drupal. This shopping cart module is very powerful and has many payment and shipping plug-ins available. Checkout our CMS portfolio page to view this website along with the rest of our Content Management Website samples.

VISIT OUR CMS WEBSITE PORTFOLIO HERE

drobertson Blog Articles CMS, Drupal, ubercart

One way to increase Internet traffic to your webpage, resulting in more potential business, is to introduce landing pages, also known as lead capture pages. These pages, which appear when a potential customer clicks on a link or advertisement, are specifically designed to address a target audience and get them to perform a desired action. They can be optimized to encourage several actions including clicking (which will lead the visitor to another page on your website), purchasing, providing information, telling a friend, learning something, and leaving a comment or post. Landing pages are optimized to display keywords which correspond with terms entered into search engines.  
 
Landing pages improve the visitor’s experience on the website.  They are useful in boosting efficiency by establishing target keywords and in converting visitors.  Rather than leaving visitors confused and unable to find the services and information they’re interested in, landing pages provide an easily identifiable link to direct users to the most useful page raising the chances of conversion.
 
Aside from a higher conversion rate, landing pages are useful in increasing overall traffic. By creating several landing pages which cover specific topics and locations, you increase the number of keywords that link to your website.  Once you have established these niche pages you can increase traffic by adding content to your page.  Adding more keyword headings, keyword text, and keyword links caters to potential customers’ subject interests and captures a wider selection of searches. By combining keyword headings and keyword links you can multiply the number of search-phrases your site will capture.    
 
In summary, landing pages are optimized content pages on your site. They are designed to improve the visitor’s experience through efficiency and increase traffic by broadening the number of search-phrases that will link to your site.  Once you have established your landing pages you can track their results and focus on search-phrases that will capture the most traffic.  

drobertson Blog Articles Lead Capture Pages, Optimized Landing Pages

Websites are the cells that keep the organism known as the Internet functioning. If you and your business want to be part of the information age, then you need a website. It’s as simple as that. Creating a website, however, may not seem quite as simple to those who have not done it before. In reality, though, it’s not hard to create your own website and start using it to generate business. You just have to take things step-by-step.

Starting a Website Step One: Coming up with a Domain Name

The domain name is essentially your website’s address and your brand. It tells potential customers what your site is and where to find it. You should take your time to create the right name that really gets your point across. A good domain name is succinct, unique and to the point. Avoid double letters or words that are tough to spell, or phrases that are tough to remember. Hingesswingsplendiferously.com may seem like a clever name for your door-selling website, but it’ll be tough for traffic to get there. WeSellDoors.com is much better.

Starting a Website Step Two: Getting a Hosting Plan

Hosting plans come in a number of varieties, and different hosts offer their own features. You’ll be interested in a plan with plenty of bandwidth and disk space, of course, but if you’re just starting out, then your main concern will probably be price. A budget hosting plan will only run you a few dollars a month, and it’s probably your best bet in the beginning. More expensive hosting plans mean that you rent the entire server, or the server is partitioned so that your portion of the server functions as its own distinct server. In most cases, you don’t really need these things for your first website.

Starting a Website Step Three: Creating a Great Web Design

Once you’ve got the hosting and domain name web hosting out of the way, it’s time to design your website. You can do this on your own using a program like DreamWeaver, which doesn’t require specialized programming knowledge to use, or you can get a professional web designer.

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Proper SEO HTML coding is crucial for maximum search engine optimization results. Of course, building backlinks and using Social Networking sites will also boost your SEO efforts however they will not always get you to the top of the search results and keep you there without proper page coding.

Search engines looks for specific tags and keywords within an HTML page and uses the contents of these tags to evaluate page importance and relevance. Your keywords need to be present in ALL of these tags so that Google or other search engines can index and catalog your page correctly. For instance, let’s say you wanted to optimize an HTML page for the keywords “Custom Website Design”. This EXACT term must appear in the following tags: Title <title>, Description <meta name="description">, Keywords <meta name="keywords"> and the First Heading <h1> on the page. In addition, the keyword string must also appear in the first fifty words on the page and also needs to be spattered throughout the page content. It also helps to close the page with the keywords. An example would be to add it to the end of the copyright line and place it as the last, flush right, item on the page like this: “© 2009 ABC Company  All Rights Reserved | Custom Website Design”.

Now that you have a basic idea of what is necessary to optimize an HTML page for specific keywords, I’d like to now offer more detail about how to work with each tag individually.       

The Title Tag <title>:

The <title> tag designates what gets displayed in the top “windows-bar” of the browser window. This is also the text that search engines will pick-up for the search listing title. This tag is the most important part of your page in terms of Search Engine Optimization. For proper SEO, you must include your most important keyword phrases in this tag. However, there is a limit to how much you can squeeze in. Your page title should not be longer than 80 character including the spaces. This means you’ll need to choose your words wisely to get the best results.

In addition to important keyword strings, you should also include your geographic location in this tag. Many searchers will include a geographic location in their search queries. This will help offer an additional relevancy to help move you closer to the top of the search results. It is also recommended to NOT use your personal or company name in the title unless it contains your important keywords. Vanity doesn’t amount to anything when it comes to search engine optimization. Here are examples of GOOD and BAD <title> tags.

Example of a GOOD <title> tag:
<title>Video Production Services | Video Special Effects | Hollywood | California</title>

This title tag is SEO rich. It contains two strong keyword strings as well as the geographic location of this business. Notice the usage of the “|” character or also known as a “pipe”. By using this character instead of a comma or a dash, it makes the keyword strings easier to read in the search results.

 Example of a BAD <title> tag:
<title>CreativeVids, Ltd. - Established 2009</title>

The above title tag offers no SEO value what-so-ever. The only way a searcher would find you is if they already knew the name of your company. You won’t pick-up any new traffic this way.

Read more…

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I often get asked, “Where is the homepage in Zen-Cart?” All my client’s want to do is add or change something simple to their homepage but they just can’t find the file. Is it hidden? Well, the answer is technically no but it might as well be.  I hope this article will help newbies to Zen-Cart find their way.

Zen-Cart is a dynamically generated, PHP shopping cart software. This to say that each segment or “module” of the home page is separated into individual files. The Header, Body, and Footer are all separate files that get assembled at the time the page gets called by the browser. And it doesn’t stop there. Just about every element on the homepage is a separate file such as the Shopping Cart, Categories and Manufacturers boxes. Why would they do that? Doesn’t that just totally complicate everything? Yes, this does increase the difficulty factor of editing individual elements in your Zen-Cart template, but does offer many advantages and flexibility for the store manager.

Zen-Cart allows the store manager to not only select what infomation boxes that will appear on the homepage but also choose their sort order. This call be done by changing simple settings in the Admin Control Panel. If the store manager decides he wants to run a special, he can activate the “Specials” box to apper on the homepage. Then, deactivate it when the specail is over. You can even create Custom User Pages with whatever content you want using the “EZ-Page” function. This type of versatility and fluidity would not be possible with traditionally coded HTML pages. So, there is a reason behind the madness. Zen-Cart is fragmented into small pieces intentionally so it can have more freedom to dynamically assemble it’s pages based on  parameters set by the store manager. These settings will alter the carts apperance and content all from completely within the Admin Panel.

Read more…

drobertson Blog Articles e-commerce, Zen-Cart

osCommerce (“open source Commerce”) is an e-commerce and online store-management software program. It can be used on any web server that has PHP and MySQL installed. It is available as free software under the GNU General Public License.

osCommerce MS2.2 provides a basic set of functionality that meets the common needs of online businesses. By taking this approach osCommerce has avoided the pitfalls from which many applications (including its own forks) historically suffer; too much functionality, requiring an overly complex implementation.

Beyond the basic functionality, osCommerce is able to be augmented, via either community-supplied add-ons or custom code, meaning that it can be customized to meet the specific needs of any business.

The following is a list of key features of osCommerce MS2.2 as stated on the osCommerce site:

• Compatible with PHP 4 and MySQL – easily portable to version 5.
• Compatible with all major browsers.
• Multi-lingual English, German and Spanish by default.
• Automatic web-based installation.
• Unlimited number of products and categories.
• Automatic setup of e-commerce payment systems: Authorize.net, 2Checkout.com, iPayment.de, PayPal.com, PsiGate.com, SECPay.com, and TrustCommerce.com; Many other add-on ecommerce payment systems, off-line (manual) credit card payments) and on-line payment processing.
• Multi-currency support via manual update from exchange rate server.
• Support for dynamic images (one image per product).
• Supports physical products as well as product downloads.
• Web-based administration module.
• Database backup and restore.
• Temporary and permanent shopping carts.
• Secure transactions with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) support.
• Many shipping options including by weight, price, or destination.
• Real-time shipping quote integration with UPS, USPS.
• Zone-based shipping options as well as a free shipping option as part of Order Totals Module.
• Full tax functionality, included compounded taxes, different zones for different products.

In implementing an osCommerce-based site one key decision is how to integrate the design. Unlike its forks, osCommerce MS2.2 does not come with a template system, though third party osCommerce templates are available. This has been seen as a negative for some. However it does mean that designs can be hand-coded or a template system installed. There are several well-known template systems, including STS, BTS and SMARTY.

drobertson Blog Articles osCommerce

A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one that consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.^[1] With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.

drobertson Blog Articles Blogging

The term video editing can refer to:

• non-linear editing system, using computers with video editing software
• linear video editing, using videotape
• vision mixing, when working with live video signals

Video editing is the process of re-arranging or modifying segments of video to form another piece of video. The goals of video editing are the same as in film editing — the removal of unwanted footage, or parts of video, the isolation of desired footage, and the arrangement of footage in time to synthesize a new piece of footage. Read more…

drobertson Blog Articles Video