Woes of Page Rank

May 29th, 2008

Once again I have been caught in the perenial quandrary of pagerank. You can find the sites (if you are searching correctly) but Google doesn’t seem to have the sites in its’ cache and related pages can’t be found.

Perhaps I don’t really want to find the related or similar pages - but I would like to know that the site works properly and is being correctly indexed! We could push the payperclick (PPC) somewhat more - or start submitting the website to different search engines and link farms.. but sometimes this costs money - real money - and without a definite ROI - what do we do?

You spend hours on the content and get nothing!

Churchill Retirement is a good example. It is fighting in a very small market worth a lot of money to those who win. Retirement home, flats, and apartments are always going to be at a premium price - senior living and assisted living environments are so important in our society.

On the other hand - our church website at St Marys Ferndown seems to live a life on its own and most of the pages get properly linked.

Aw shucks. Never mind - keep playing the game.

Paul

Trials and Tribulations #1

March 14th, 2007

What trials? What Tribulations? You are using the latest and greatest operating system - and you have trials?

You know jolly well - only a couple of months into a new operating system - bound to be problems.

But that is not all - I thought I was paying month by month for a hosting account - turns out that it is a year - and I wanted to cancel it. Bother! So I was stuck with the account. I guess I may find a use for it eventually.

Anyway - that will be enough for now - more on Vista et al later.

Vista for breakfast anyone?

January 25th, 2007

I wonder how many people are now using Vista
I spend my life using computers and some of them have fairly old versions of operating systems. Nearly up to date now - but some will never become Vista solutions!
Yes - I have taken the plunge - and the main development computer is now running both Vista and Office 2007. Nothing really radical - since I had been using the release candidate installed in a seperate partition so there was no problems with hardware compatibility. However XP and Office 2003 were getting flaky - updates were not always installing properly and I did not want to go for a complete rebuild. So there we are - upgrade worked successfully - and I did not have retype all my passwords etc again!
Do I like the interface?
Yes, I do. But then I like the latest and the best. And I’m different from my neighbours - so I can crow for a little while!
Does it make my computer work better?
Not really - I think it is a much bigger operating system now - and even needs a DVD to do the install and as such there is quite a lot of “bloat”.
So there you are….

Miscellaneous Garbage

August 16th, 2006

Well that’s what my mind feels like right now.

I spend hours trying develop sites that work - and nothing happens. Trouble is, my clients don’t have the money to spend on their web sites - and to pay for back links and advertising - no way! Yes, I know about keyword strategies and good content, and finding links from good sites.

So what do I do?

  1. I build the site well.
    I try to run as many HTML and XHTML validation tests so that no errors, warnings and comments are found
  2. I use CSS for all my formatting - mainly to ensure consistency - and only use the attributes that a cross-browser.
    This can be a real pain - but in the end getting the DOCTYPE right and using consistent CSS does mean that the site is easy to maintain - and can easily be changed if the client has second thoughts about his/her design.
  3. I try to make the site fast loading.
    All graphics (where used) are optimized to load quickly. I do not use graphical menus or tables unless I really have to. All in all, the sites load fast. I also place them with a host that will do the site justice - and seems to be reliable.
  4. I eschew things like Javascript
    Some people dont allow it - and others use versions of Java that we just don’t want to think about! If I do any scripting I tend to do it in PHP. This still leaves me with some problems (like a Back button - but sometimes we just have to let the user use the Browser back button).
  5. I create site maps
    This will be an HTML site map as well as a google site map.
  6. I promote the domain and submit the google site map to google.

So there you have it. And people say that anyone can do it… Well they can - but have you seen some of the websites out there? And I have to say - it’s galling to find that they have got a better ranking than I have.

 Thats all for now… supposed to be doing the Vista bit - but who cares - every one else is doing it at the moment..

 Paul

More on Vista

July 29th, 2006

First Impressions

It’s pretty, and fairly stable - but boy - is it confusing the first time you try to find your way round it.

The “performance rating” is a bit depressing - I use a Pentium IV running at 3.4Mhz - and it tells me my computer is slow - oh well - time to buy the dual core AMD 64 X2 5000 (lust lust lust).

I had to buy the latest type of graphics card just to run the graphics - not particularly what everyone will want to hear.

It seems to work yet there are definitely problems of finding drivers and there is definitely a need to replace legacy equipment.

Watch out for a full review soon!

Be afraid - very afraid

Windows Vista

July 13th, 2006

Starting to use Windows Vista - and there is only one thing to say to those whose lives simply revolves around computers:

Be afraid - very afraid

I know that Vista is not perfect yet (will it ever be) but from what I have seen - it's awesome!

Valid and Top Ranked?

July 10th, 2006

I’m beginning to believe the blurb out there on search engines and now I’m worried. Blurb #1 says that all my code has to be 100% perfect (even Google’s own website recommendation say this) before my site can be top ranked.Blurb #2 says exactly the opposite - be as slapdash as you like - and you can be on a winner. Just look at the pages that the search engines produce - many of them have horrendous errors in their HTML code.

Do I follow Google’s recommendations:

  • Only valid HTML allowed
  • No covert keyword areas
  • No link farms
  • No duplication of pages
  • No overloading of key phrases
  • Every page to be indexed must have a clear link to it
  • Use google meta tags to help promote the correct navigation
  • Include a Robot.txt file

If I do this - will I get a good ranking? Unlikely - but it could well be an easy site to maintain!

I really must get a good book on search engine optimization. Trouble is - the big three have completely different ideas about what makes a good page - and then they keep on moving the goal posts.

I guess I will keep on trying to do my best and see what happens!

Paul

Content is everything

June 22nd, 2006

The new culture of content

The web is no longer about surfing and passive reading, listening, or watching; it’s about creating, sharing, socialising and collaborating. Increasingly, many new websites and services are spawning the creative energy of countless souls cobbling together their own services from customisable sites. By the millions, they’re gathering and disseminating their own news with blogs and podcasts, creating articles and photo feeds from their favorite sites and even annotating them with helpful text tags.

read more of this article…


This is the culture of the web today - yet how can mere mortals produce the right content for everyone to see? Or do we find niche content that a few want to look at/read/utilise? A few people in every country still produces a viable site…

I’m not overly sure about the content of some sites. I prefer targetted content that is easy to get at and view with the least amount of time wastage. I particularly hate websites that are loaded with tables and graphics that take an age to load. I may put up with it if it comes from an amateur site - but not from a business site. Yet I do want content.

If I am operating at 1024×768 I don’t want to see a lot of wasted space around the page - I want content. May be a larger font if you need to fill up the space - but I don’t want a lot of block colour around the place.

And if a site could load in 1 - 2 seconds why put graphics and tables that make it take 30 seconds to load - even on broadband? Lets get serious and use good content. Not lots a pretty advertising blocks - just a good read.

Anyway - read the linked article above and see what you think?

Paul

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WinArchive - Now who owns the name?

June 19th, 2006

It's getting real confusing round here!

I managed a long time ago (somewhere around 7 or 8 years ago) to develop a product called WinArchive - which was a supersession of a product call "DIP System".  I actively stopped developing the product a long time ago (2 or 3 years) and yet a VERY early version seems to still exist out there! (With cracks and serial numbers and all sorts of things like that). That some decided to download it must mean WinArchive may have been an important product.

I also hold 2 versions of the domain name winarchive.com and winarchive.co.uk - I am actually prepared to sell the .com domain - I really don't need it.

I am thinking of redeveloping and finalising the WinArchive product - it's been used by a major company for 10 years (although I think they have finally replaced it) in one form or another.

There is also another version that is worth looking at - WinCMA - and I guess I ought to get that sorted - I reckon I need that myself! Its the Windows Church Music Archive. I've had it running under Windows98 and Windows XP (it prefers the latter of course!)

 Anyway - comments appreciated - Anyone want WinArchive.com??

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What’s this about resolution then?

June 15th, 2006

I have been reading again - and that’s bad news. I will admit it - I hate designing for 800×600. But nevertheless I need to add a link to this blog entry:

Resolution by a Past Majority.

I guess it says everything - but still not sure that I can design all my websites for such a lowly resolution. On the other hand - I rarely maximize my browser window - I prefer to have umpteen windows open on my desktop…

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