Blogging for SEO

If you want to keep your content flowing, try to avoid disorganization.  The best way to do this is to focus on one or two keywords in each one (a primary, which you can use 3-5 times in that paragraph, and a secondary that you can use 1-2 times).  If you want, you can select two or three back-up keywords for the paragraph.

This forces you to keep your paragraph on a certain point rather than trying to fit as many keywords as possible, and makes your content sound and look a lot cleaner.  You’ll like it, your client will like it and his or her clients will be filled with “oohs” and “ahhs”.

Well, maybe not, but they’ll definitely noticed how clear and concise your writing is!

That is why working on this website was so much fun. Because I love golfing in Las Vegas. I got to check out, in depth all of the great golf courses that I will never be able to visit. Who, in the heck, would ever even consider paying more than $70 for a round of 18 holes. I mean come on. What are you rich people thinking? Come over to my backyard, I will charge half as much to hit balls into our neighbors windows. And that, in my opinion, is much more worth the money.

Nothing really all that major to talk about I would think. So instead I’ll cover something I’ve been doing for quite a bit but I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about in my recent designs. A negative header image margin. Using a somewhat oversized header image, I can use the code:

#mainhead {
height: 290px;
text-align: center;
margin-left: -32px;
margin-top: -7px;
}

To margin the header image to match it up with the main div. An example of which can be found at a site concerning AIG insurance in Mesa which uses the same principle. With this you can make it look as though there are things coming out of the div and have the look to be jumping at you.

Thank god its friday, good week I feel like I was productive. The more you do the more banner templates you have and content to pull from, still tweaking the css code a little to get the look and feel that I want.

Thats right. Read carefully.

Their are several mistakes in what I wrote.

Now the question, is can you point them all out?

If you cant, than you’re content may not look right either. Some of the mistakes is blatantly obvious. Some ain’t. But there all mistakes that should be avoided if you want to write, technically sound content.

So always make sure your proof reading you’re work too make sure you dont make mistakes like these.

Learning a lot about SEO and getting a chance to work on my photo-shop skills and really sharpen my CSS. I suggest setting up templates of the different types of sites because although I’ve only been here 3 weeks but I can tell that a lot of sites especially the MLM that are repetitive.

I started working on a website today, its all about keyless entry locks. I started with an idea of having a lock on the page, and then got a little excited. I wanted to make the lock open up, so that the viewer understands that this page is about locks, and not sides of a door or wood. I decided to use Jquery which is like JavaScript’s Dom on steroids.The entire rollover was made with just one image found here

The code I used looks something like this:

$(document).ready(function(){var Header = {
addFade : function(selector){
$(”").css(”display”, “none”).prependTo($(selector));
$(selector+” a”).bind(”mouseenter”,function(){
$(selector+” .fake-hover”).fadeIn(5000);
});
$(selector+” a”).bind(”mouseleave”,function(){
$(selector+” .fake-hover”).fadeOut(14000);
});

}
};

$(function(){
Header.addFade(”#header_roll”);
});

});

The first snip of code makes sure that the document has finished loading before we start the JavaScript process.

$(document).ready(function(){

The second part creates the local variable “Header” and loads it with a fading function.

And finally the last part puts this fading variable into the CSS style #header_roll.

Now to implement the JavaScript into the CSS. This code simply moves the image up replacing the old image with the new. However they are both the same image, just one on top of the other.

#header_roll {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
text-indent: -9999px;
width: 869px;
height: 300px;
position: relative;
margin-left: 0em;
background: url(/images/header.jpg) no-repeat;
}
#header_roll .fake-hover {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
width: 869px;
height: 300px;
display: block;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
background: url(/images/header.jpg) no-repeat 0 -300px;
}
#header_roll a {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 869px;
height: 300px;
display: block;
border: 0;
background: transparent;
overflow: hidden;
}


The best way to concentrate when writing content for a webpage is by eating altoids. I have found that about three altoids, while being curiously strong, will seriously improve your ability to write.

However, I found that having more than a half can of altoids a day, will cause bruising to the tongue/pallet. So beware. And happy content writing.

A little off topic, but I was surfing the web today and found a great way to get rich quick.

One thing you may want to get started on if you haven’t already is to start up a blog on a reputable source such as Blogger which is directly offered by Google. I keep my recent works as well as some old ones on there to help with their ranking while posting some of the things that happen in the day to day life as an SEO Tech. If you haven’t started one, I suggest you start one up soon.

My job is about making a good landing page for potential customers of our clients. While I do have rather limited control of this, I do however have full control of the banner, at the very least.  Thus I practically spend all my time doing this, since after all it is the look that interests people, not what goes into it. On top of that, I have been doing webpage/site/application design for many years now, which definitely helps with the creativity. For this post I will only focus on the banner aspect of a page. Since this is the case, the reset of the example page should be taken for face value as it is all pretty standard. Here is the link to the example page:

http://www.newmexicohomesforsalenow.com/

The FIRST thing to remember about a banner is that it needs to convey a message of some sort. Typically speaking, this message is the company logo and usually some additional elements that have some meaning to the business. For instance in the example, the example is a site of a Realtor. What do Realtors do? They buy and sell homes for people… so what does the example banner say to you? most would probably say big houses. This is the message.

When attempting to determine what the message is, ask yourself, what does this company do? Who is the target audience? What product/service do they offer? Where are they located? What areas do they service? Questions like these generally give you an idea of things to look for to include in your banner.

Another good source for finding the message, or an idea thereof, is their main site. Look at their current banner. If it was designed professionally, chances are that the creator knew the message and incorporated it in the banner. Your goal is to have an unparalleled understanding of the message, such that your banner is better in every aspect. Additionally the content that is provided on the current site is generally a good indicator to the message to convey.

SECOND, any text incorporated in the banner absolutely must be readable. Text that is not readable is defeating the point of including it. If you are following the first rule, you are only including elements that have relevance to the message. If that element happens to be text, like a slogan or business name, then if this is not properly communicated, then you have some scribble on your banner and are not portraying your clear concise message.

If you use PhotoShop or PSP they both give you sample text named to the font in the font selection screen, to sort of stream-line the font selection process. Just a side note, in graphic design there is actually a field dedicated to typological design. It is a very important aspect of all fields of design not only in banners.

THRID, use your tools, and use them as effectively as possible. What do I mean? For the PhotoShop users, you have a very powerful program at your finger tips. However, statistically, you will only use about 3-5% of it’s true capabilities. Thus what I mean is learn it. Get a book. Get tutorials from the NET. Find a real tutor. Take a class. Know your trade. Simple.

I love using metaphor speaking so here goes. Working in graphic design, at any skill level, with powerful tools you have no idea how to use, is like being in a grand master mechanic’s garage with every tool imaginable and expecting your car to fix itself, even though you have no idea what 95% of these tools do. Experiment. Most people have a specific learning facilitation that aides them more than others. For me, it is a technique called Kinesthetic Learning. What that means is that I learn best through doing. I learn less through Audio Learning (like lectures) types and Written Learning (like textbooks) types.  Find your nitch, then find some source to learn from, and then practice. Practice makes perfect.

I hope this blog helped you.

Loushou.