Soupy’s TAFE Tidbits

SQL backup file

First we had a quick review on PHP and created a simple PHP file.
We worked on REVISION XHTML & CSS
Simple form
Simple form & CSS

What

Everyone wants their site to be found easily in search engine and the way to do this is SEO (search engine optimization). There are many different strategies to approaching SEO. There is no clear cut, absolute way of doing SEO and testing it.

The main features of SEO are:

• Links
• Meta tags
• Content
• Site maps

Why

• Site can be found easily in search engines
• Find files/content relevant to search
• More users when high on search list
• Wide exposure

As to testing SEO, there is really nothing you can do except make the site live and test the rankings in several serach engines. Testing SEO Strategies is a post explaining in a little more detail about testing a live site.

• 5 steps to a perfectly optimized web page posted by Rob Sullivan is a good starting point for performing SEO.
• My guide to SEO and success by Jim Westergren is a good compliation of basic SEO ideas.
• The post Search Engine Optimization lists several posts/articles dealing with SEO and strategies.
• If you want to concentrate on optimizing only for Google then follow their guidelines as closely as possible.
• SEO Consultants provides a directory to SEO companies in several countries. The SEO tips is a short list of links to information relative to SEO and SEM (search engine marketing).

—

Response to Web site testing – WHAT, HOW, WHY? discussion.

The IA has different types of structures: All-in-one, Flat, Index, Daisy, Strict hierarchy, Multi-dimensional hierarchy & Search. Web pages can be defined under several of these.

There is no right way of arranging content. The aim of marketing the site to the user and common sense underlines how the content is laid out.
A good article about IA is Web Design From Scratch

Examples:

All-in-one
- Hard to find one these days
Flat
- golflink.com, neopets.com

Index
- digg.com, ebay, usbugcafe.com
Daisy
- hotmail
Strict hierarchy
- hoyts.com, games.ii.net

Multi-dimensional hierarchy
- LiveJournal, amazon
Search
- Google, AskJeeves, Yahoo, Wombat, Sensis, AskTed, Wikipedia