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Recommended RSS to HTML Feed Converters

August 12, 2006

With RSS publishers no longer need to be concerned with email spam “accusations” and stringent privacy guidelines.

If you are a webmaster and are not using RSS to distribute your content to your users and publishers, you are missing out big time.

RSS can now deliver information published on blogs, article directories, forums and so on ….even retail outlets like Amazon.com and digital product download giant ClickBank are now delivering information on their stock via RSS feeds in preference to email.

It is clear that RSS delivery is steadily eating away at the much maligned email delivery method. Nowadays when a marketer delivers information via email there is no guarantee that it will reach your audience because of stringent anti-spam restrictions at ISP and user levels.

What therefore does a Marketer/Webmaster do?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) distribution of your information is the answer….and as RSS implementations are refined, more and more marketers are opting to distribute their content through RSS.

What are the best tools available with which to implement RSS?

Sharon Housley examines some of the best scripts available to you in her article titled: Convert RSS Feeds to Dynamic HTML Web Pages

References:

1. Read more articles on RSS/XML
2. SEO, RSS & ATOM Tools
3. Free Weekly SEO News - Syndicated From An Outside Source using the rss2html php script

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under Authoring, Marketing, Web-Dev-Design | Leave a Comment 

How to use the NOODP tag to influence your search engine listings

August 9, 2006

If your web site is listed in the Open Directory Project (ODP, dmoz.org) then Google and MSN will often use the text that the ODP uses to describe your web site in their own search results.

Unfortunately, the descriptions in the Open Directory Project are often outdated and they don’t reflect the current status of a web site. That means that your web site might be listed with an outdated description in the search results on Google and MSN.

How to get rid of the ODP description

Fortunately, there’s a way to tell Google and MSN not to use the ODP description for your web site. You can direct Google and MSN not to use the ODP as a source by adding a new Meta tag to your web pages.

To prevent all search engines (that support the Meta tag) from using the ODP description for the page’s description, use the following HTML tag:

To specifically prevent Google from using this information for a page’s description, use . If you just want to prevent MSN from using the description, use .

Note that once you add this Meta tag to your pages, it may take some time until a new description of your web page will appear in the search results of Google and MSN.

You might wonder why Yahoo does not support the NOODP tag. Yahoo operates its own directory so it does not need to pull the web page descriptions from the ODP.

There are many more Meta tags that allow you to influence search engines

In addition to the new NOODP tag, there are many more Meta tags that allow you to influence how search engines handle your web pages.

For example, you can tell search engines where your business is located (that’s useful for local search features), you can tell search engines if they should index a web page or not and much more.

We recommend IBP’s Website Optimization Editor to add these tags to your web pages and to optimize the contents of your web pages. IBP’s Website Optimization Editor allows you to quickly edit your web pages:

  • Quickly change the web page title, the Meta tags, the link texts, the IMG ALT attributes etc. with a few mouse clicks. IBP displays the keyword density in real-time so that you can quickly apply the perfect keyword density to all web page elements.
  • Quickly add the new NOODP tag to all of your web pages so that Google, Yahoo and other search engines don’t use the outdated Open Directory Project description of your web site anymore.
  • Quickly create Meta tags for local search to your web pages. IBP supports regional Meta tags, Meta GEO tags and the Meta ICBM tag. Tell search engines the exact position of your business so that customers can find you.

The new NOODP tag is an easy way to tell search engines how to describe your web site in the search results. You should also use the other available Meta tags that are supported by search engines to make sure that your web site gets maximum exposure. If you haven’t done it yet, download the latest IBP version here.

Article - Courtesy Axandra.com Weekly Newsletter. | Free Weekly Search Engine Optimization SEO News |

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under Search Engines | Leave a Comment 

SES 2006: Importance Of Quality Scores

August 9, 2006

Both Google and Yahoo plan to place more emphasis on quality scores when ranking sites, and that topic quickly dominated the Search Algorithm Research session at SES 2006.

Staff writer Doug Caverly of WebProNews filed this exclusive look at the SES 2006 San Jose session on Search Algorithm Research. He also described one of the presenter’s attempts at humor as “falling flat, by and large”; we will refrain from mentioning which one.

If you don’t have a high-quality website right now, the search engines may begin to drop your site in the rankings. Although that was just one of several topics discussed during the session, it was the one that grabbed attention from the attendees.

Jon Glick of Become.com brought up quality during his presentation time at the session. Quality scores as determined by the search engines will have more influence.

“This is something that is being used increasingly,” said Glick, who noted that it is a factor webmasters can control. Both Yahoo and Google have disclosed these will be more important, but there is no hard definition of a quality site.

That caused concern for attendees, who expressed their worries during the question and answer session. Retailers fret that information sites will dominate the premium places at the top of the search engine results.

(An escalating emphasis on quality pages that causes this to happen may increase the demand and competition for paid search ads, and it’s hard to think that isn’t a desirable consequence for Google and Yahoo. - David)

The other speakers looked at the topic of discussion, search algorithms and associated topics. Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz.org, commented on Google Analytics, the freely available website analysis program Google made available. “It’s a fine program,” he said. “You have to consider yourself being watched.”

Fishkin also noted that not all markets are equal when it comes to quality and ranking. “You can spam like it’s 1999″ in some European markets, he said.

Bill Slawski, president, SEO By The Sea, reviewed a few patent applications during his talk; readers of his excellent blog will be familiar with his material. He singled out patent applications for historical data, bookmark manager, and web accelerator to show where some of the developments will take place or continue to proceed in search.

Slawski noted that search engines are working on understanding people better. He gave the many meanings of the word “blues” as an example, and suggested results based on the music definition may receive a higher ranking if a blues festival were taking place at the time of the query.

By David Utter - a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under Search Engines | Leave a Comment 

Web 2.0 - What is it all about?

August 6, 2006

by Roger Riche

There has been a new term thrown around the internet describing the next phase in website development and design. Web 2.0. But what exactly defines a Web 2.0 website? In this article, I will attempt to cover what aspects of design and development would be considered as this second generation of websites.

“The term Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of services available on the World Wide Web that lets people collaborate and share information online. In contrast to the first generation, Web 2.0 gives users an experience closer to desktop applications than the traditional static Web pages. Web 2.0 applications often use a combination of techniques devised in the late 1990s, including public web service APIs (dating from 1998), Ajax (1998), and web syndication (1997). They often allow for mass publishing (web-based social software). ” - Source: Wikipedia

Basically, Web 2.0 websites are simplistic and concise in design and more concentrated on functionality and user experience. Emily Chang, award-winning web and interaction designer, has built a fantastic portal for websites built on Web 2.0 ideals. Check out Emily Chang’s eHub to get a better idea of what the industry would consider a Web 2.0 Application or website.

Pre-made Javascript effects libraries have made building Web 2.0 applications and websites less of a chore. Below, we will show you where to find well-known web 2.0 libraries to apply effects and functionality to your website.

Javascript Effects Libraries - Web 2.0

So now that we have a basic understanding of what a Web 2.0 website or web application is, let’s have a look at the tools that developers use.

Prototype
Prototype is the javascript base code that many effects libraries have been written on. The Prototype framework is intended to simplify development for dynamic web applications. Basically, it reduces many of the repetitive javascript code pieces that you would commonly use for creating dynamic effects and other javascript-based applications.

» Download Prototype
Scriptaculous
The Scriptaculous Javascript Library is the most widely used and distributed of the web 2.0 effects libraries. It contains many cool features and effects such as dragging and dropping, grow/shrink, animate position, highlighting and much more.

» Check out Scriptaculous

Rico
Rico is another very popular web 2.0 effects library. It’s an open-source javascript library providing full ajax support, drag and drop management, cinematic effects and more.

» Get Rico

There are other effects libraries out there, but most of them do nothing beyond what is available in Scriptaculous or Rico. However, once you become familiar with the Prototype library you will find that it may not be that difficult for you to write your own effects library!

Now let’s step onto the next section to see an example of how we can use the libraries to create a cool effect on your website.

Web 2.0 Effect Example — A Growing, Fade-in BoxLet’s get into a hands-on example. Create a new folder called growbox anywhere on your computer. Now create a new blank HTML file called index.html in this folder.

Assuming you have already downloaded the Scriptaculous library, extract the contents of your library into this folder. Your folder contents should now look something like this:

  • scriptaculous-js-1.6.1 (folder)
    • lib (folder)
    • src (folder)
    • test (folder)
    • CHANGELOG (file)
    • MIT-LICENSE (file)
    • README (file)
  • index.html (file)

The HTML
Paste the following code into the index.html file you created:

Basically, the custom function called fadeBox utitlizes the ‘Appear’ effect from the Scriptaculous library. Check out the working example to see this effect in action.

Roger Riche writes for BraveNet.com, a great repository for a ‘Glut’ of web tools. Get free web services & tools, click here. Everything you’ll ever need to build the perfect website!

Written by James Opiko · Filed Under Web-Dev-Design | Leave a Comment 

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