HeadsetOptions Web Design, SEO, WordPress, Etcetra

Using images in place of text can be tempting especially since an image can offer you more visually than just text does. However, most of us end up using text for the simple reason that Google and Yahoo’s search engines are not able to read your images effectively (even with alt text?). Here’s a quick, simple, tried and tested SEO friendly CSS only Javascript free fix for one such scenario; replacing your navigation menu text with SEO friendly images:

Let’s start with making our images that will be used in place of menu text, in this example I am using images 30px tall and of varying width. I make two images for each menu item, one for mouse-over or hover and second for all other conditions.

For good SEO, it is preferential to open your comment authors URI in a new page. Why you might ask? Google and other search engines track sites you visit, they can tell what that site contains (obviously), how long you stayed there and where you went next. The intended use of this information is to find if the sites you visited were relevant to your search keyword and/or if all the sites you visit are related. That could also work against you if your site get a lot of spammers commenting on it. Here’s how.

Let’s say you get a comment on your site that look legit, so you want …

I get this question a lot; do you web design or blog design? and I say, is there a difference?

Most new site that I work on are built using free CMS like WordPress and Textpattern so they tend to have a bloggy feel to it, so I see where this question might arise from. But to me, a work done specifically to be published online, irrespective of the site being a blog, is considered “web design”, if it’s on the web and it involves designing, its web design.

With that said, there are many interpretation of what constitutes as web design. Not all web designs are created equal. …

Blogs about Yahoo! Shortcuts plugin is even muffling news about Movable Type OS. Is the plugin that good or is it a hype? To find out, I have activated a beta version of the plugin and thought I will give it a try. This post was one such test. To keep things simple, I decided to write about the plugin itself, what better way to check the magic out. Well, should I say I was disappointed, first the plugin made the whole process of editing a post slow, very slow to be accurate, the plugin itself reloads each time you save the post after a edit. Even more disappointing …

I try not to write such posts, but the frustrations expressed by my clients who host on Yahoo! Small Business compels me to point out the obvious shortcomings. This non-exhaustive list is in no particular order, it’s just the top 4 reasons why I would not recommend/host any site on Yahoo!
One-Click-Install
A client recently used the one click install feature to add WP to her site, within days it was hacked and she lost everything she had moved from another CMS (luckily she had backups). The problem was the defunct version of WP that Yahoo! installs, WP version 2.0.2, which beats …

A YUI grid based design that actually works across all browsers and validates now skins ManadrinMusing. The total design time was less than 12 hours and most were hand coded from scratch (except the YUI grid part that was corrected for validation). Check it out!

I guess folks at WordPress.com start talking about copyright violation only when it hits home. When we cried foul about WordPress themers ripping our work and calling it their own, no one cared except Thomas (and Lorelle).

The reality is, you can’t stop people from stealing content or code, it pinches those of us on the receiving end and it sucks. Google can de-index a few sites, but many more will pop-up.

Although Google is the search engine leader, how many …

Is AOL trying to be the next Yahoo?

Did Google try to be the next Yahoo? Yes and no.
Google has got extraordinary attention in the last two years, most of which could be attributed to the contribution of users. Google’s strategy of becoming bigger and better is by buying everything that has potential for growth, mostly in terms of numbers.
In the Web 2.0 Expo this month in San Francisco, Jeff Weiner, Yahoo’s executive Vice President  listed some significant differences between Google and Yahoo:

1. Yahoo places a value on intellectual properties. Google does not.
2. Media companies are attracted to Yahoo because of it’s capability to program and package quality  content.
3.  Google …