it really does look very nice.
Thanks for the thumb-up, guys. What I'm trying to illustrate is the value standards can add to a site. One area I had to visit was browser aperture, either windowed or full screen, with or without sidebars. I while back I was drawn into the designing for x size screen sidetracked argument and spent a while digging out stats on the lowest common denominator -- which, as far as I've researched, appears to be 800 x 600 resolution. It doesn't matter. Make a site fluid (or 'liquid' as the current cool tag goes) and within reason it'll sit happily in whatever size window. But. There are resolutions you can work toward as optimum presentation points: 640 x 480, 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 + (pc rather than Mac screen sizes as I'm a pc bloke), meaning at these fixed window apertures the site will naturally look better and is aesthetically optimised for them. I like fluid sites. What about you guys?
love them. love standards too. so everything you used is a relative size?
Text-wise, yes Edwin. Graphically, no, although I'm experimenting with header image sizes deep enough to accommodate dynamic sizing on [url=http://www.webcleanse.com]Web Cleanse[/url], a work in progress. Also, I've fixed the right column sizing since it will contain only thumbnails and brief links but, more to the point, given this is largely a text-based site, will afford as much copy space as possible to the left and centre columns. As an aside, I've found that setting base font paragraph size to 1em then scaling down to 74/78 percent (font family depenedent) in the body CSS cures a lot of the Explorer font scaling ills and offers a generally acceptable size across screen sizes.
Great work. The image resizing is very interesting to me. Doing it on the fly would be a big plus to some of the work I do on websites. What methods have your tried for re-sizing images on the fly?
Looks like the future, and the present, to me. Its easy to build a framework for an application now that is almost completely seperate from design. And I definitely can appreciate what you mean about making a website with minimal graphic designs. Following the standards should help the site do very well in the search engines too.
very nice site. clean, easy to navigate.. 2 thumbs up!
[quote:616600acb0="Searchey"]What methods have your tried for re-sizing images on the fly?[/quote:616600acb0] Sorry for not responding sooner, Searchey, bit busy. I've looked at scalable graphics served in a similar fashion to Flash but have not found deeper investigation justified -- as yet. Until browsers catch up with SVG (and I know a heck of a lot more about the technology) I'm adopting the path of least resistance where I'll drop an image as CSS behind a dynamic frame, making assumptions on the percentage x and y expansion I need before coherence disintegrates. In other words, I'll build around 2 increment +/- font scaling from base as used in IE and Gecko browsers (which I've forgotten to implement on Enigma :roll: but am attending to). Generally, graphics ad little information value to a site (in my view only, of course) except for graphs and the like - images containing inherent data - but can contribute immensely to the user experience. We all enjoy beauty, sight being our greatest sensory stimulant.
What process do you use to make sure your pages validate? I have had a heck of a problems getting XHTML to validate for me.
Rob, this may sound like a trite answer ... but patience. Doesn't help much. does it :roll: Sorry. I now get a gut feeling. I can feel it because I spent a while fathoming why my bloody sites didn't validate. It takes time and patience. That's the trick. Time to research and patience to skip anger and ask what you're doing wrong. Do you know I've spent 2 years trying to get to grips with a single site I hope to consider decent! I always, without fail, throw my sites at the [url=http://validator.w3.org]W3C validator[/url] and when they break I ask why. Which means: what is it that I am missing. I then realise that I am short of knowledge and then begins the hunt. What I also do is ask my forum mates what I'm doing wrong. Last night, for instance, I was dead tired, but I came across an accessibility issue I felt was wrong and poorly (if at all) resolved. I went to a forum and said Guys I need your help. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to strong wed development is ego. Learn this. It will help. I don't have ego; I have friends on the web whose opinion I hold in high regard. All you have to do is ask.
Good point about ego. Its really not needed when designing a website because there's always so much to learn. I really like the design of your sites because they're streamlined and fast loading. I just recently started experimenting with CSS and XHTML and I think its an amazing advancement. A style sheet makes so much sense. Keeping all of your elements where they can be templatized and changed easily is a real boon for anyone who's trying to run a big site.
[quote:3c79ebc529="BigRob"]... just recently started experimenting with CSS and XHTML.[/quote:3c79ebc529] Rob, I've got a bunch of ideas, code, layouts and stuff like that and, more valuably, time if you want a web friendship. If you're going to make the effort to get into valid code, I'll make the efort to give what I've got. Not a lot but something :)
the more we could all learn about css the better. i have been using it quite a bit and i think i understand most of it okay but other parts baffle me, so its great to have a css expert on board! my biggest problem is i make the areas overlap sometimes and i dont have a good idea of the screen size at times. and i dont know a lot about cross browser support so any info you have on that would be great.
i like your signiture: "You know something: I care about people" that's what it says if you enlarge it by the way. rock on! and again, i like your stuff--you're really going somewhere.
enigmadev, The "website development standards" is not a searchable keyword - only few people will eventually use it... With all the respect, your web site is nicely designed... but your keywords approach is questionable. (I guess you know that you're #1 on this keyword because no one else is optimizing for it).
omamia -- you're quite right, only about half the number who search for the keyphrase 'business website development', about 200 a month. But it's the audience I want, in the market I want. Qualified leads from people and businesses who want that specific service. And website development standards will become more topical as accessibility issues are brought under increasing public scrutiny. Financial sanctions are already in place in the UK and USA and the momentum to impose these under existing legislation is nearly at critical mass. When this happens a heck of a lot of business directors whose sites are clearly inaccessible to physically or cerebrally disabled people will take to the search engines and seek a resolution. Part of good marketing is anticipation - in both senses of the word. Were I targeting 'website development' I would certainly trawl more fish but I'd be landed with the 'Can you do a site for a few hundred quid' prospects, in whom I have no interest. The difference between the two is how much revenue and exposure one well-qualified client will bring to my business and the subsequent business I will fold into my clientèle. I have other sites I built for clients who sell leather sofas (20k searches per month) or hotel accommodation in Cyprus whose prospective customers are checking Cyprus weather (18k per month). These are setup and optimised for a different target audience who often need to sit on a sofa and who may need at least a once-yearly break :) My business site is just more selective. Search engine marketing is not about the number of hits you take, it's the quality of relevant prospects you convert. Oh yeah, here's one for you, omamia : Google for 'mike pepper'. My business site sits at the top. Why? And how did I achieve that? There is no reference to me on the index page of my site.
I see... I guess, this is a smart approach, and I should learn from you. About 'Mike Pepper' on Google... I can see two possibilities here: 1. You used to have it on your main page, and Google hasn't refreshed your main page in Google cache yet. 2. You have it on your Contact Us page, but because you're in Google directory Google rather displays your main page that is referenced in the directory, and with the directory's description. I think it is the second one... did I get it?
omamia, neither -- but the second thought is a good call. We never quite know what Google's up to. Rather than just spell it out, it may be advantageous to see if other forum members offer up some ideas. By way of a clue, it's fundamental to the way Google classifies and ranks sites in its SERPs. You'll notice I don't appear anywhere relevant in MSN for the name phrase. This is peculiar to Google (although Yahoo! are now offering a similar proprietary system) and can be put to great advantage if you want a specific name or, indeed, phrase to rank highly (although it takes time to build multiple phrases). Again, it has very little to do with the target phrase appearing on the elevated page. If information, or learning, is delivered as a puzzle, the resultant answer is far more readily retained and understood than if it were simply learned by rote. Bear with me on this :) infogate at comcast, eh :wink:
the target phrase never has to appear on the page in google. thats something a lot of people don't notice :)
Yup -- so where should it appear and in what format to make the most impact?
My other guess is that your name is referenced in one or several outbound links to your site - in the anchor text of those links...
[quote:5fca97fb30="omamia"]My other guess is that your name is referenced in one or several outbound links to your site - in the anchor text of those links...[/quote:5fca97fb30] Exactly :!: Guess? I'm willing to bet you checked out my backlinks on Google :wink: That's why backlinks are vital. There's no escaping a solid initial build and the necessary tweaking to establish a firm foothold but anchor text is the key. I've got a couple knocking about on PR8 pages. Get a few PR6 or higher inbounds and you'll start moving :D Of course, relevancy helps enormously but any decent inbounds will gradually build you into an authority site ... and so the real PR kicks in and the cycle begins. It takes time, commitment and integrity, and the guts not to spam.
[code:1:3ea0f24b10] <a href="http://www.yourhighrankingdomain.com/">Anchor Text is King</a> [/code:1:3ea0f24b10] but more importantly target your phrases and vary your anchor text from link to link. if they all look identical they may trigger a dampening factor. also vary where the links come from. get as many different ips as possible. diversify the keywords using synonyms sprinkled throughout the text. use indirect recip linking and not direct. and remember: [b:3ea0f24b10] traffic doesn't matter! conversion rate and roi are king![/b:3ea0f24b10]
:D Hey, Edwin, you reckon we should setup a subsection on SEO here :wink: I consider we could drum up quite a bit of business :) Have a good one, chum. <off-topic> I had a great bit of customer experience today. Woke up to find the owner of an out of print book store had debited my plastic for less than the original amount because the hardback was lighter than usual and had written a mail advising such and thanking me personally for my custom. That put a smile on my face. I can just imagine the guy (a sort of J R Hartley type) asking how to switch the computer on then composing the 2-fingered email with a concentrated squint through half-moon glasses :) Today begins well :D </off-topic>
differentiate or die. and it doesn't take much to differentiate. sometimes a personal note is all needed. we've been [url=http://www.web-mastery.net/forum2.html]talking seo[/url] for a while :)
[quote:2524e980ae="Edwin"]we've been talking seo for a while[/quote:2524e980ae] Yeah, I saw but I'm not one to steam in and trample over forums with 'I know this ... ' and 'I know that ...' Not the best way to introduce oneself. I was tempted to repoint the thread to SEO but it's concluded now, anyway. Got a weekend full of code, markup and mockups and Maria's gone out with her daughter for the day. Just me, DJ and my computer ... bliss :D
I think it's all in the magic of the internet. :) lol :)
..but footer text helps for sure..
I really like your site, it has a verry smoth easy to follow layout, good job bro. peace henry m
Respect. That was considerate of you to drop a line. We all need that little boost that suggests we might be doing something right. Thanks :) The 'cool' reskin was my first attempt at not being a boring old fart. Cheers, Henry :) I hope the remainder of your transatlantic day holds a gentle surpise.
feels good to get a compliment! keep up the good work !