Archive for May, 2008
CAN-SPAM Requirements
By Kyle Henrie | May 30, 2008
What the CAN-SPAM Law Requires
Here’s a rundown of the law’s main provisions:
- It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
- It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
- It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a “menu” of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor’s email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it’s illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.
- It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.
Topics: Email Marketing, Marketing Strategies | No Comments »
Search Engine Spider Simulator
By Kyle Henrie | May 29, 2008
Sometimes you put a lot of work into your website and then find out that the search engines can’t see the content (i.e. Flash). The problem usually occurs because everything rendered on the client-side may not be visible to search engines (i.e. JavaScript).
This tool simulates the search engines spider by displaying the contents of a web page exactly how a search engine spider would see it. Give it try!
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Topics: SEO Tools, Spiders, Website Strategies | No Comments »
Bookmark this page JavaScript
By Kyle Henrie | May 27, 2008
Here is a handy “Bookmark this page” JavaScript I wrote that will work in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and most of the major web browser. The script will prompt the user to bookmark the page they are on. Here is what you need to use this script on your website.
Put the following code between the <head></head> tags of your webpage -
<script>
function bookmark(title,url){
if(window.sidebar)
window.sidebar.addPanel(title,url,”");
else if(window.opera && window.print){
var elem = document.createElement(’a');
elem.setAttribute(’href’,url);
elem.setAttribute(’title’,title);
elem.setAttribute(’rel’,’sidebar’);
elem.click();
}
else if(window.external)
window.external.AddFavorite(url,title);}
</script>
Put the following script in your Bookmark this page link (this can be a text or image link) -
<a href=”javascript:bookmark(’Henrie Media Inc.’,’http://www.henriemedia/’);”>Bookmark this page</a>
Make sure you change the parameters (’title’, ‘url’) to the ‘url’ you want to bookmark and the ‘title’ you want the bookmark to say. In my example the ‘url’ is “http://www.Henriemedia.com” and the ‘title’ is “Henrie Media Inc.”
That’s it! Your are off and bookmarking. Please leave a comment if you find this post to be helpful.
Topics: Code Library, Technical Support | 3 Comments »
ICS : Plant Specialists
By Kyle Henrie | May 23, 2008
Welcome to ICS Online!
ICS, Independent Contractor Services, is an independently owned and operated company dedicated to servicing live good products for a major home improvement garden center retailer in over one hundred and sixty stores from Maine to New York.
In partnership with over 30 nurseries, they act as their eyes and ears while merchandising their tropical, perennial, and landscape products to maximum appeal to provide the consumer with the best and most informed shopping experience.
Henrie Media Inc. was happy to help them improve their branding identity and provide design services for their website.
Topics: Design Services, Our Work | No Comments »
32 Search Engine Optimization Tips
By Kyle Henrie | May 23, 2008
- Repeat information throughout your page. Make sure your title tag, meta content, headers, and content all match up.
- Have a strong text to code ratio. If 95% of your page is made up of code the search engines are going to have a harder time reading the content.
- Add keywords to your page names. A page with the name of purina_dog_treats.html is more likely to boost search results than treats.html.
- Bold keywords in your content. Many search engines give more relevance to bolded terms.
- Don’t create a Flash website. Maybe someday in the future search engines will be able to make sense of Flash, but for now, you won’t get ranked under more than one page if you build your entire site in Flash.
- Promote your website on blogs, forums, and other websites you webmaster. Backlinks are important for seo, but traffic can be too. If your link is in a relevant place and it draws a steady stream of traffic, search engines will give it more relevance.
- Make sure you use your keywords in your alt tags. But avoid keyword stuffing.
- Practice only ethical seo. Unethical seo practices could get your site banned from Google.
- Use <h1>, <h2> etc. in your headers. Search engines place more relevance on header tags.
- More content is typically better. A page with more content will have a better text to code ratio meaning the search engines won’t have to wade through as much code. This also allows for more opportunities to use your relevant keywords.
- Make sure to research your keywords. Choosing keywords that merely represent the company or services your website offers isn’t always the best route to take. Instead, look for relevant search strings and alter your content to reflect what is actually being searched. For example, if your company sells all sorts of posters and frames, but gold framed posters are getting a high search volume, target those keywords instead of being general.
- Put some thought into your description meta. This is the text that people will typically see on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). If the description is not enticing or relevant, users will not click.
- Track which pages get hits and find out what is working. Using software like Visitorville lets you see very detailed statistics about which pages are getting hit and what site directed them there. If you are getting a lot of traffic from a certain keyword, considering writing more content for that term.
- Avoid using text colors that are similar to their background colors. Google may interpret your text as being cloaked- meaning a possibility that you will be taken off of their list. Contrasting text is not only search engine friendly, you will be doing a service to your readers.
- Move away from tables in your designs. Tables create code bloat which makes it more difficult for search engines to find the relevant content on your page. Use css positioning whenever possible.
- Install Firefox developer toolbar and poke around competitor sites that have high ranking. If you want to compete with the big companies, find out what they’re doing right and try to emulate them. Seo techniques aren’t copyrighted.
- Pay a blogger to review your website.Not only will you get backlinked, you may also generate some decent traffic.
- Target appropriate backlinks. Quality backlinks are great for your site’s organic relevance and will also drive traffic.
- Create a facebook, myspace or moli page for your site. All of these are indexed by Google.
- Add keywords to your image names. Sometimes people will find your site on a Google images search. Image names will also be read by search engines and give the page more relevance.
- Create a text document called robots.txt in the site root.
- A frequently updated sitemap is vital. Whether you use an xml or html sitemap, it’s important that search engines can easily find every page that you want indexed. Make sure to update the sitemap every time you add a new page.
- Create a 404 page. In some cases you will have to fight against Internet Explorer which likes to hijack your 404 functionality, so Google a tutorial if you’re having trouble. 404 pages are an excellent way to capture any misspelled links or broken anchors that would anger your users and throw off search engines.
- Use external styles and javascript.Don’t clutter your page with in-line styles or heavy handed javascript statements. This is more code that search engines have to wade through to get to your content.
- Don’t add too many conditions to dynamic urls. A url of only one or two conditions will do much better on the SERPs than a url with 5 conditions (all other things being equal).
- Rewrite dynamic urls if possible. It’s an advanced technique- but if you have access to a knowledgeable developer it is advantageous to rewrite dynamic urls to contain keywords from the page content.
- Submit your site to DMOZ. But don’t hold your breath. DMOZ chooses which sites they want to add to their directory- and the waiting list is typically very long. It’s worth it to submit to their list- but definitely not essential.
- Clean up your code. Programs like Visual Studio and Dreamweaver allow you to automatically clean up your code for readability. This will help you trim the fat and eliminate as much code as possible.
- Don’t duplicate content in your site. Search engines are looking for unique content that can only be found on any given page. If you duplicate large portions of content from one page to another you will be creating competition within your own site for top ranking on the SERPs.
- Write a blog. Many webmasters, seo specialists, etc. have created blogs that they update 2-3 times a week. The more popular the blog gets, the more value the backlinks you’ve created will be to the search engines.
- Create a Youtube channel. If you don’t have video content relating to your website, buy a webcam and start filming some. Even if your videos are only moderately successful, they can provide a fair amount of regular traffic to your site- as well as provide backlinks.
- Create microsites.Many companies have created microsites that have gimmicks in them such as flash games- and backlinked to their main website. This not only produced more interest in the company services and products, but improved seo results.
Topics: Website Strategies | 1 Comment »
Fix for WordPress protected directory returning a 404 error
By Kyle Henrie | May 23, 2008
I just installed WordPress as my default Content Management System (CMS) on Henriemedia.com. WordPress is an awesome open-source web application the provides an easy to use - yet extremely robust - interface and set of tools. I highly recommend using it for your next blog or CMS needs (shameless plug).
Anyways, I installed WordPress in the root of my website and kept an administrative subdirectory from my previous website design, which is protected with a password using the “Protected Directory” function of Apache. For the sake of this article, we will say that subdirectory is called “travel” (there is no such directory on my website so please do not try and find it).
I then configured the WordPress settings for “Permalinks” to help with the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) value of my website. Everything was going along great. I started adding content and I was on my way - until I tried accessing the “travel” protected directory I setup. Every time I tried to access this folder I would get a 404 error. The reason the 404 error was displaying is because the .htaccess file, which was automatically created by the Permalinks settings, was causing the problem.
WordPress created .htaccess file looks like this -
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
What it does is check to see if the requested filename is a regular file or a real directory. If it’s neither of the two then redirect to /index.php, which is a WordPress entry. So Apache will load the file or directory instead of WordPress index.php. However, the fact that the requested directory is password protected with its own directory .htaccess file seems to cause Apache to think it’s not really a directory or file, thus satisfying the 2 tests and invoking WordPress’s index.php - and thus the 404 error.
After days (and I do mean days) of searching the forums on WordPress.org and many other forums, boards and blogs, I found two solutions to this problem.
Please use one OR the other, do not implement both!
First, the .htaccess solution. NOTE: If you are not comfortable editing the .htaccess file, please scroll down and use the PHP solution. You need to added the following two lines of code to your .htaccess file:
ErrorDocument 401 /[path_to_file]/[file_name].html
ErrorDocument 403 /[path_to_file]/[file_name].html
Remember to change the [path_to_file] and {file_name].html values to the location of your custom error documents. So your the root .htaccess file should now look like this -
ErrorDocument 401 /[path_to_file]/[file_name].html
ErrorDocument 403 /[path_to_file]/[file_name].html
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
Upload the .htaccess file and you should be up and running. Now I have seen some instances where this solution does not work, for whatever reason, or people do not feel comfortable editing their .htaccess files. If this is the case, please use the PHP solution below.
Second, the PHP solution. You need to make the following changes to the “index.php” file that is in the root directory of your WordPress installation. When you open this file, it should have the following code -
<?php
/* Short and sweet */
define(’WP_USE_THEMES’, true);
require(’./wp-blog-header.php’);
?>
Make sure you keep a backup copy of the “index.php” file just in case (you never know)!
All you have to do is replace the original code with this code -
<?php
/* Short and sweet */
$request_filename = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$this_dir = dirname(__FILE__).’/';
if($request_filename!=$this_dir && $request_filename!=__FILE__ && (is_file($request_filename) || is_dir($request_filename))) {
// we are not supposed be here!
die;
}
// load WordPress in /wp
define(’WP_USE_THEMES’, true);
require(’./wp-blog-header.php’);
?>
Now save the file and upload the new “index.php” file to the root folder of your WordPress installation directory and your done!
What the PHP solution does is it makes sure the request is not for the home directory or index.php itself - this is because you want WordPress to handle these.
Then it tests if the request is a regular file or a real directory - it dies if that’s the case. Basically you are doing what the two RewriteCond lines in .htaccess supposed to do.
Now your password protected directory correctly asks for password instead of showing WordPress’s 404 error page. All WordPress permalinks work. All non-protected directories work. My “travel” subdirectory is now usable again - YAHOO!
I must give credit where credit is due. I found the .htaccess solution on Textpattern.com and the PHP solution on ju-ju.com.
I hope one of these solutions work for you so you don’t have to waste as much time as I did!
As WordPress’s motto says “Code is Poetry”. Please leave a comment if you find this post to be helpful.
Topics: Technical Support, Web Applications | 1 Comment »
Domain Names
By Kyle Henrie | May 19, 2008
Henrie Media recommends that you use a discount domain name broker when purchasing a Domain Name for your Do It Yourself projects.
What is a “Domain Name”?
A Domain Name is a name that identifies a computer or computers on the internet. These names appear as a component of a Web site’s URL, e.g. Henriemedia.com. This type of domain name is also called a hostname. Domain names are also used for other purposes in the Domain Name System (DNS), for example the special name which follows the @ sign in an email address, or the Top-level domains like .com, or the names used by the Session Initiation Protocol (VoIP), or DomainKeys.
We recommend using idotz.net for all of your domain name registration needs. They provide domain name registration for only $8.75 or less! They also don’t have all of the “in your face” banner ads and offer pages like many other registration companies.
Use the search box below to find your next domain name:
Topics: Do It Yourself, Domain Names | No Comments »
Henrie Media Website Templates
By Kyle Henrie | May 19, 2008
Topics: Do It Yourself, Website Templates | No Comments »
Link Popularity
By Kyle Henrie | May 16, 2008
What is link Popularity? Link popularity is a general representation of the total number of web pages which link to a website (or individual web page). Most of the major search engines support the “link:” operator. Type in “link:” (without the quotation marks) in front of the URL about which you want to learn.
What does this tool do? This tool will query all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) when you enter the “link:” operator with your chosen URL. It will return the total link count for each URL.
Why is link popularity important? Link popularity is important because it is a major factor used by search engines in determining a site’s position in search results. Generally, a site with more inbound links will be positioned higher than a similar site with fewer links. Other factors that are considered include anchor text.
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Topics: Link Analysis, SEO Tools, Website Strategies | No Comments »
Site Link Analyzer
By Kyle Henrie | May 16, 2008
Keeping track of links is an important pastime, and it just got easier than ever. Examine any webpage’s outbound links (or its internal ones) by using the Site Link Analyzer tool.
The tool only requires that you enter an address, decide which type of links you’d like to learn about, and make the same choice regarding nofollow attributes. It’ll then return relevant links’ URLs and anchor text, effectively giving you all the link-related figures a person could want. Use this time-saver to your advantage and optimize your online campaign.
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Topics: Link Analysis, SEO Tools | No Comments »
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