SEO Friendly Redirects
When moving pages or changing around your web site you need to make sure you redirect your visitors if they hit one of the old pages/folders. This is often because Google still holds a cache of the previous page(s) and can take a while to update. The best way to take care of this problem is using an SEO friendly 301 redirect via .htaccess.
Redirect a single page
Add the following line to your .htaccess file
redirect 301 /old/old.htm http://www.you.com/new.htm
Note: Don’t add the initial “http://www” to the first part of the statement, instead place the path from the top level of your site to the page. Please also ensure that you leave a single space between these elements
redirect 301 (tells the server/browser that the page has moved)
/old/old.htm (the original file)
http://www.you.com/new.htm (path to the new file)
There are hundreds of useful tasks that .htaccess can perform and i highly recommend reading up and doing some research. I will be posting more on .htaccess so keep us in your bookmarks!
8 Reasons Why You Need To Dump Internet Explorer
Ever since i started developing web sites, Internet Explorer has been the single biggest pain in the backside i have ever encountered. Microsoft’s web browser is insecure, not fully compliant with the W3C web standards and just lives a complete life of its own. All of the popular free browsers available are adhering to the same standard platforms, Internet Explorer uses its own illogical way of thinking. Obviously Microsoft think they are better than the rest, being that they could have easily adopted an open source platform that runs inline with today’s web standards and saved themselves a lot of embarrassment (like ending up on the news for security issues). Anyway there’s my rant, here are the 10 reasons i would advise anyone to stop using Internet Explorer.
Security - Do you want to enter your passwords into a browser that’s constantly in the media for being insecure?
Quality - IE does not render web pages correctly so you cannot get the best out of the web
Compatibility - IE is for Windows only (surprise surprise) so if your on a Mac or Linux machine it wont work
Extendability - You cannot personalize Internet explorer or use ad-dons like you can with Firefox or Chrome
Its Microsoft! - Microsoft is a money driven business without your surfing experience in mind, other browser developers are free, open source and built for your enjoyment and usability.
Its Slow – Internet Explorer isn’t optimized for the latest technology, other browsers are so they are much faster.
Upgrades - Internet Explorer isn’t developed at anywhere near the same rate as its free alternatives.
Be nice to developers – Because Internet Explorer isn’t up to date, coders and web designers are constantly having to keep up with its bugs. We are actually backwards coding sites just for internet explorer which causes a lot of needless work.
Alternatives Available
As usual, this post is open to debate so if you would like to stand up for IE feel free to comment!
Become a Hosted Web editor and get Free Hosting
We want you to be able to share your knowledge and experience with other members, so the blog is now open for user contributions! If you would like to submit content for any of our blog categories please send your article to us using our contact form. We are looking for well written, informative articles so we may ask you to make changes to your submission before publishing it. If your article is published you will receive a credit for one month of free hosting just to say thankyou. There is no limit to the amount of articles you can publish so if you publish one a month you’ll never pay for hosting again!
What can i write about?
Anything internet related! We’re looking for;
- Web Design Tutorials
- Programming Tutorials
- Photoshop Tutorials
- IPhone App Reviews
- Webmaster Resources (Review your favorite sources of info)
- SEO Tutorials
- Your Own Web Site (Send us a full write up explaining why people should use your site!)
If there’s anything else you feel is worth knowing about feel free to send us your suggestions, if its useful we’ll blog it.
Best Keyword Research/Selector Tool
Keyword research can be a very boring task, but using the correct tools can produce some great results as part of your SEO program. Using the wrong tools can produce some highly unrewarding results. I find that Google are becoming more and more helpful towards webmasters and searching the webmaster tools sections can reveal some very handy information regarding most SEO subjects, including keyword research!
Google Search-Based Keyword Tool
Google has its own keyword research tool which you can narrow down to UK or US searches as well as various other metrics, making it a much more accurate research tool. You can also export reports, view keyword competition and lots more. Although this tool is developed mainly for PPC, it still shows the searches made.
Other useful links/info
- Wordtracker Keyword Expert Newsletter which publishes like clockwork and offers a wealth of knowledge with every publication. Its a free resource so you might as well use it.
- SEOMoz provide lots of SEO advice and tools, you can get some extra info on your keyword research in the blog.
- SEOBook offer a keyword research tool which provides some in depth information for US based searches.
Site Link Popularity & Increasing Link Popularity
Everyone wants there web site to be popular, and your sites popularity heavily depends on inbound links coming from popular web sites. If your currently working hard to increase your websites inbound links you’ll need a tool to keep track of your progress. I would recommend something like Link Popularity Checker which you can download here. This tool scours the major search engines for your site and any competitors sites to provide you with an overall comparison.
Increasing Link Popularity
Increasing link popularity is no simple task, well its not rocket science but it takes time and effort. You need to find web sites with a Google page rank of 3 plus that are within your niche. For example, if you sell DVD’s you would link with movie review sites. A great way to check a web sites page rank in seconds is to use the Firefox Swoosty SEO Tools plug-in which displays the Google page rank and Alexa rank of every site you visit in the bottom right corner of your screen.. I’m all for these plug-ins as they save a lot of time.
Increasing Link Popularity through blogs
Yes, commenting on other peoples blogs will contribute to your linking strategy. Bookmark a load of blogs that have high Google page rank and take a few minutes each day to see whats being posted and leave a useful comment. To help you get started, take a look at this list of high page rank blogs that DOFOLLOW below..
- http://dag.wieers.com PR6
- http://www.bumpzee.com PR6
- http://www.figby.com/archives/2004/11/29/more-skepticism-
- on-blogging-for-dollars/ PR 6
- http://www.universalhub.com/node/12757 Domain PR 6
- http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/good-news-and-bad-news PR 6
- http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/off-on-holiday PR 6
- http://heiseidemocracy.com PR 5
- http://www.expertcruiser.com PR 5
- http://www.shandyking.com PR 5
- http://www.dotsauce.com PR 5
- http://sphinn.com PR 5
- http://randaclay.com/blog/i-follow/ PR 5
- http://www.thedigeratilife.com/blog/index.php/2008/01/
- 21/are-you-depressed-today-youre-not-alone/ PR 4
- http://blogs.speech-writers.com PR4
- //www.searchenginepeople.com/blog PR4
- http://freeadblogger.blogspot.com PR4
- http://allrealestateproperty.blogspot.com PR4
- http://www.ptank.com/catsynth PR4
- http://endangeredspaces.blogspot.com PR4
- http://www.planetsaedel.com/2007/11/02/why-you-
- should-not-avoid-negative-people.php PR3
- http://www.wordpressmax.com PR3
- http://www.rosshetherington.com PR3
- http://www.howtospoter.com P3
- http://blogs.speech-writers.com PR3
- http://www.dollarsblog.com PR3
- http://www.fabiozanet.com PR3
- http://www.blogsthatfollow.com PR3
- http://shannonxj.blogspot.com PR3
- http://advertising-for-success.blogspot.com PR3
- http://cooladzine.blogspot.com PR3
- http://pixietail.com PR2
- ttp://tiptail.com PR2
- http://mythoughtsideasandramblings.com PR2
- http://davedragon.rilysi.com PR2
- http://www.fatmanunleashed.com PR2
Increasing Link Popularity through forums
Another great way to increase link popularity is through forum contributions. Why not sign up with a few forums and get some free advice at the same time as you build your links? I have listed a few DOFOLLOW forums below for you to get started with..
- Warrior Forum – A Very useful internet marketing forum with a great community.
- 5Star Affiliate Forum – There Administrator’s are especially helpful. You can learn a lot from them.
- Ableton – Music an Audio Forum
- Abestweb – Affiliate Marketing forum, which is actually good for both begineer and pro internet marketers
- Abundance – Free advertising forum – An easy way to plug your site.
- Addicsports - A big sports forum.
- Affiliateseeking.com – A really good affiliate and webmaster forum.
- Acorn Domains – A Domain Name Trading Forum, this one is fairly new but growing well.
- Admin Zone Forums – Info for webmaster Administrator’s.
- Affiliates4U – The UK’s biggest Affiliate and Marketing Fourm available.
- Allcoolforums - Online discussion forum, lot’s of variation going on here.
- AMD Forums – The Official Athlon Processor Support.
- Baseballtalkpro – Sports Forum – Mainly Baseball.
- Blogger Forum – Mainly on Blogging, you can learn a lot here worthwhile to any blogger.
- Business Forum – business forums
- BZ Image – Web Design Forum, also dabbles into SEO and Webmaster.
- Clickbank Success – A forum specific to clickbank users
- Clicks Forum – Business Forum For Internet Marketing
- Cnet Forums – Tech Forum
- Code4gold – Webmaster Resources, most of which are free.
- Comic Book Resources – As the name suggest, this is all comic book talk.
- Deviantart – Biggest Art Forum in the world.
- Digitalppoint – One of my personal favorites – SEO, SEM and anything else Internet Marketing related.
- DirectoryJunction – A recently started but great webmaster forum
- Discuss Names – Domain Sales and Discussion
- DN Forum – Domain Sales and Discussion
- DN Lodge – Domain Sales and Discussion
- DN Scoop – Domain Sales and Discussion
- Dreamteam Money Forum – Moneymaking forums. One of the vest money making boards offering dofollow forum signature.
- Ecauldron – Religon Forum
- Ewealth.com – Internet Marketing and webmaster forum.
- Filesharingtalk – All about sharing files.
- Free Ad Forum – Dofollow free advertising forum
- Geek Village – Large make money online board
- Gento Forum – programming board.
- Golden Talk – High ROC forums
- Googlecommunity – About the mothership “google”.
- GPT Boycott Forums – Get-paid-to forums and ratings.
- Harmony Central – Musicians Community Forums
- Hotsurfs – Autosurfing and how you can make money with it.
- HTML Forums Webmaster advice. Very useful.
- HYIPs Talk – High ROC Programs forums.
- IDN Forums – International domain names forums, sales, appraisals, and general discussion.
- Intel Forums – Intel Board
- Internet Marketing for Business – Internet Marketing and SEO Webmaster Forums
- IQ 69 – Webmaster
- Iwebtool – Offers preview of site in signatures.
- Live Journal – Community forum.
- Microsoft Forum – The Microsoft support forum.
- Money Maker Group – A board regarding HYIPs.
- Movie Lists - Movies
- Moneyfanclub – focusing on HYIPs and autosurfs.
- Mygamebuilder – Games Board
- MySQL Forum – programming and database forums
- Namepros.com – Domain Name Trades
- Online Books Club As the name suggests, Books and Reading (Boooring…hehe just kidding)
- Oracle Forums – Oracle Support
- Payment Processing – Ecommerce forum.
- PhpBB Forum – Support forum for PhpBB users.
- PokerBRB Forum – Poker and other gambling board
- Search Engine Roundtabe – SE Board
- SEO Chat – Programming and development forum online.
- SEOForum – Australian SEO Forum (they seem to talk about Fosters quite a bit…)
- SEO.com Forum – SEO
- Sidetalks – Anything and everything.
- Simplemachines – SMF support forum.
- Siteowners – Webmasters forums
- Sitepoint – Webmaster and programming forums.
- Small Business Forum – A “dofollow” business forum for small entrepreneurs and startup.
- Startups – Business start-up
- Static-Subs – anime forums
- Submitexpress – SE forum
- Talkfreelance.com – Freelance webmasters, webdesign, and seo community.
- Textpattern – Textpattern Help Board
- The Free Ad Forum – Largest free advertising board and it also has a “dofollow” signature.
- The V7 – Webmaster Board
- TheHYIPforum – Another “dofollow” forum. Best if you are promoting a HYIP site.
- TriPHP Webmaster Forums – TriPHP Webmaster Board
- Ubuntu Technical Forum – PC and tech related Forum
- Webdegity - Webmaster Forum, I have used this one quite a bit, has a great community
- Web Design Forums – Web design
- Web Developer – programming and scripting websites and other money related topics.
- Webicy – Webmaster
- Web Life – A HYIP forum.
- Webhosting Canada – Industry Discussion, Webmaster Forum.
- Webhosting Talk – Geared towards hosting resellers
- Webmaster Forums Online – News and Discussion Forums for Webmasters about SEO, Internet Marketing and Advertising.
- Webmaster-talk – Programming and webmaster forums. Big Forum
- Webproworld – Ebusiness professionals board.
- Webtalkforums – Webmaster Forum is a revenue sharing
- Windows Forum – Microsoft Windows Forum
- Winamp – Official winamp forum.
- Work at Home Moms – Moneymaking forum for Mums.
- Work-at-Home Moms – Internet marketing message boards for mums.
- World of Warcraft – MMORPG Forum
- Xandros – Web Design.
- Vuju – Classifieds
- AllcoolForum – Anything and everything
Domain Extension Meanings
So you need a domain name, but what are these extensions all about? What do they all mean? Which domain extension is right for you? First of all, registering a domain name is a very simple and straight forward process, as is transferring existing domains. Some extensions require extra steps and are slightly more difficult to transfer but i’ll go into this shortly.
In this article I’m going to explain the basics of the most popular domain extensions.
Domain Extension Meanings
Below i have summarized the most commonly used domain extensions, i’m sure you will be familiar with one or two of them as we all use them on a daily basis when surfing the web.
.COM (Commercial) - This is a commercial domain extension generally used for commercial sites. This has become the most well known extension.
.NET (Network) – Generally used for network organizations e.g internet service providers etc.. But this has become a common extension used by commercial organizations if the .COM domain is not available.
.ORG (Organization) – Originally intended for non-profit or trade organizations.
.BIZ (Business) – This is generally registered to classify your website as a business.
.US (United States) – This generally refers to US based companies.
.INFO (Informational) - This gTLD is generally used as an extension for informational websites. I believe that other than .COM, .NET & .ORG, it’s the most popular domain extension used. If you are developing an informational website it’s definitely a domain extension that I’d register.
.MOBI (Mobile) – This domain extension, as of this writing, is fairly new. Although majority of the domain name owners registered their domain name with the .MOBI domain name to protect their brand, it is primarily reserved for website built for displaying on mobile devices.
.TV (Television) – In my opinion it’s used primarily for media, primarily video, related websites.
.WS (Website) – This is actually a ccTLD for Western Samoa but was converted to a domain extension commonly used as an acronym for ‘website’. Although it seems that it would be a great extension I don’t feel that it really ever took off and you can find very good domains available with the .WS extension.
.ME (ME) – This is the newest domain, as of this writing. It was originally the ccTLD of Montenegro but would generally be used for personal related websites such as family websites or blogs another option would be to pose your resume or even artwork that you may have done. The other use would be to create a very memorable personal email address.
.NAME (NAME) – This is a gTLD that’s intended for personal use. You’ll find that this extension is used for personal / family websites or simply used for name related email addresses.
.CA (Canada) – This is a ccTLD that is generally reserved for Canadian based businesses.
.CO.UK (United Kingdom) – This country code domain is generally reserved for commercial related websites based in the United Kingdom. Although it’s not restricted to just UK based business, I see very little value in registering the domain extension unless you plan on doing some sort of business in the UK.
.CN (China) – This is the ccTLD for China. This domain is not restricted to companies based in China and can basically be registered by anyone that would like a .CN extension.
A Final Word On Domain Extension Meanings
I have only covered a few of the most commonly used domain extensions but there are many more for you to chose from. If you would like to see if your domain name is available for registration go to our domain checker.
Add your Blog to Google Blog Search
Ok, so you are a new blogger finding out ways to increase your traffic? You need to have good content and equally good patience to get some good traffic going to your blog.
I personally feel that search engines are one of the best ways to get visitors to your site. And what better site than google?
You might be aware of Google’s Blog Search . You can search up whats being churned out all over the blogosphere at Google Blog search. Do a search for your site and if it doesn’t turn up then click here to add your site to Google Blog Search.
Free Domain & Hosting Transfer Assistance
If your looking around for web hosting the chances are you already have a web site or domain name with another hosting provider that you need to move. We often receive emails from potential customers who are don’t know how to move websites or domains. As a direct response to this we now offer a completely free domain and hosting transfer service.
Also, where possible we will also re-install your web sites software applications e.g blogs, forums etc and re-create MYSQL databases using data from your previous provider.
To take advantage of this service just sign up and then raise a support request telling us what you need us to do, we will then advise on the best possible transfer options with minimum downtime.
Security Captcha Added
As part of our ongoing security improvement plan we recently added captcha to the hosting control panel log in screen. This is to prevent any automated attacks on your account. We realize that it’s an extra step that you may find inconvenient at first but I’m sure you all agree that system security is top priority. If you experience any problems with this feature or you have any ideas in how we can improve it please get in touch.
New Feature! FTP Locking
As an added security measure we have now added an FTP locking feature for all shared hosting accounts. This enables our customers to lock FTP access to there account when it’s not in use, making it more difficult for hackers to gain access. You can unlock your FTP for a given time or by IP address so you can access your files from your home pc even when FTP is locked.
