Rearranging page code & advanced CSS techniques to improve SEO
Sep 8, 02:37 PM | Comment [1]I was conducting a review of some XHTML and CSS templates for a client recently when I came across an interesting SEO concept that I hadn’t heard of before. At first I was skeptical (and I still am a little), but upon closer inspection I started thinking that there could be something it it. Not only in terms of SEO, but accessibility too. The articles I found describing this technique date back to 2004/5 and the fact that I’ve not found anything more recent on the subject just further fuels my skepticism. Anyway – I thought I’d post my discovery here and see what the wider web design world had to comment…
So what is it? Well, the idea is this: Rather than structuring your HTML in the usual order of header/navigation, content and footer, you build the pages such that the main content appears first, with the navigation and footer underneath. Then, using CSS to style the page you pull the navigation/header back up to appear above the content when viewed in a browser.
The articles I found describing the technique promote the idea that doing this will raise the relevance of your page within search engine rankings since it’s believed that some spiders only read the first few characters, or give more weight to content appearing towards the top of a page. You can see the articles here:
Judging the International Web Awards
May 20, 12:51 PM | Comment [3]I’m delighted to announce that I have been asked to be one of the judges in this years’ International Web Marketing Association WebAwards web design competition.
Now in its 12th year, the WebAwards is the premier annual website award competition that names the best Web sites in 96 industries while setting the standard of excellence for all website development.
BTD quiz #2: Usability issues resulting from a staggered web application release
May 14, 12:14 PM | Comment [3]Here’s another little usability conundrum for all you user experience designers out there. This question was asked of me recently while designing an online transactional web application for a company here in Melbourne and I’d like to hear any suggestions you may have about how best to tackle this issue…
The client wanted to release their shiny new web app as soon as possible. The reasons for this from a business point of view were obvious, not least to get to market first ahead of the competition! In order to do this however, the plan meant releasing a basic version of the app with a limited feature-set first, with the intention of releasing updates over time, adding features within various sections of the application.
Google local business listing problems
May 8, 10:56 AM | Comment [2]I recently set up a local business listing for myself in Google to both help my customers find me and improve the SEO of my site.
It works really well and if you do a search for “Web Designer Melbourne” up I pop.
Work update
Mar 25, 12:18 PM | Comment [1]I just realised it’s been a really long time since I updated the portfolio section of this site. Not without good reason though, and it’s not because I’ve been slacking off and enjoying the Melbourne sunshine (the chance would be a fine thing). It’s because most of the projects I’ve worked on of late have either been internal web applications (so not available for public consumption) or have not gone live yet. As such I don’t want to publish anything visual just at the minute, partly because I’m not really allowed to in some cases but also because I don’t want to spoil the launches for my clients.
That said, I’m enormously proud of some of the things I’ve been working on of late so I wanted to share some of the more notable pieces to give some insight on what I’ve been up to:
Target accessibility lawsuit given class action
Oct 9, 01:27 PM CommentThe legal case against Target in the US has been in the headlines again this week as a federal judge in has just granted “class action status” to the lawsuit.
Like many in the web industry, I have been aware of this case since it first came to light back in early 2006 (when a 24-year-old student, along with the American National Federation for the Blind filed the suit, alleging the Target Corporation is breaking the law by failing to make its website accessible and usable for the blind), but I wasn’t too clear on what this recent “class action status” meant, and what the ramifications might be.
BTD quiz: 3 Approaches to the same usability design problem
Sep 2, 09:59 PM | Comment [4]I am currently in the middle of designing a transactional web application that, amongst other things, will enable users to run reports on a number of accounts, and conduct searches of other site users.
In developing the wire-frames and projected work-flow for the site I have encountered a little usability problem that, while I imagine it is a common issue, I have not been able to find any writings regarding it’s best-practice solution anywhere on the web. As such I thought I’d post the problem here in a similar vein to Dan’s simple quiz series. I think I have my answer, but I wanted to share the problem with you to provoke some discussion in an effort to establish the best approach.
Great user experience resources
Jul 11, 10:33 AMBoxes and Arrows has been around for a while and, as we all know it’s a great resource for user experience/interaction designers.
Another great site that had escaped me until yesterday though is UX Magazine. Great content, beautifully designed. Favourite site at the moment for me.