Another Expat

Google's webmaster tools will flag up any places it finds duplicate, missing, or problematic title tags or meta descriptions, so it is something you want to pay attention to.

I've used <a href="#">top</a> before, but notice this just sends the user to the very top of the page, when usually you want to send them to the top of the content (below header and often top navigation), which is different than the page top.

I've seen this recommended before (placing Javascript as one of last items in code) and understand the benefits, but then seen other sources recommending always keeping js within the <head> tags. Just curious - what is everyone doing on this? cheers

If you use the YSlow firefox plugin, it will suggest you combine all your css into one massive file, but you have to weigh that against ease of maintenance (for you) when it comes time to edit your css in the future.

Several large-scale sites like YouTube have begun to withdraw support for IE6 and older browsers. A great trend to see but it still won't do much to fix the problem of corporations requiring IE6 for older apps.

Yes, the old site has a certain personality to it and a bit of simulated texture, which is nice. Maybe you just need to continue developing and refining the new one if you want to move in that direction. cheers -------- St Albans Web Design Web Design, SEO, Development, Email Marketing

Thinking long term, after you've gained some experience and have a few steady clients under your belt, don't be afraid to raise your rates (after you give current client at least 30 days notice), based on your improved efficiency and increased knowledge. Consistently undervaluing services not only hurts your business, but also the public perception of what web design professionals are worth. -------- St Albans Web Design Web Design, SEO, Development, Email Marketing

I agree validation is important and shows that extra level of care and attention you like to see from a designer, but at the same time, I think you have to cut a little slack if there a few validation errors and there is a good reason (beyond sloppiness) where the designer had to bend the rules to get the site to do what the client requested. cheers -------- St Albans Web Design Web Design, SEO, Development, Email Marketing

I've experimented with 15 day/2 week terms, but I find most established businesses have an accounts payable person/department with a policy to pay any invoice on 30 day terms no matter what it says on the invoice... -------- St Albans Web Design Web Design, SEO, Development, Email Marketing

Try to charge an hourly rate at first, then after you have a good handle on how long various tasks take, you can start quoting based on the entire project. Of course build in some cushion for cost/time overruns and always always always define the exact requirements for the site and have that document signed BEFORE you begin work. -------- St Albans Web Design Web Design, SEO, Development, Email Marketing

Agreed with Jock (and others) -- monthly income where you don't have much time commitment is generally a good idea. Remember to offer clients the option to pay yearly (or longer) with a % discount, which saves them money and saves you having to chase up small payments every month. -------- St Albans Web Design Web Design, SEO, Development, Email Marketing

-------- St Albans Web Design Web Design, SEO, Development, Email Marketing

Whichever way you go, get her to start with HTML and CSS in a text editor. Once the interplay of those two components "clicks", then it's safe to move into a WYSIWYG editor (if desired). -------- St Albans Web Design Web Design, SEO, Development, Email Marketing

Tables Just Aren't as Accessible Just like search engines, most screen readers for impaired users read Web pages in the order that they are displayed in the HTML source code. If a screen reader were to read a table based layout, it is possible that the customer would hit the back button before the reader had even read through all the navigation. With CSS, you have much finer controls over positioning and you can define a section as belonging on the left side of the page, but place it last in the HTML. Then screen readers and search engines will read the important bits (the content) first and the less important parts (navigation) last. -------- St Albans Web Design Web Design, SEO, Development, Email Marketing

Well done. I like the use of textures. If I might offer something constructive, maybe experiment with some other colours besides the dark grey as the dominant colour. cheers. -------- St Albans Web Design Web Design, SEO, Development, Email Marketing

First step: what keywords are trying to achieve high ranking for? cheers --------- St Albans Web Design Web Development, Email Marketing, SEO, Flash

Why not use a PNG? Every major browser after IE6 supports them. Or just a plain old gif? cheers ---- St Albans Web Design Web Design, Development and Email Marketing

You can do drop shadows in Illustrator now. Under Filter > Stylize... or Effect > Stylize... Just set the offset distance to zero to create outer glow effect. cheers ---- St Albans Web Design Web Design, Development and Email Marketing

How about 2 turntables together to form a capital B? ---- St Albans Web Design Web Design, Development and Email Marketing

Certainly an arresting image and good colour. I might work on the copy in the centre to make it equally impactful. Is this a print ad or online? cheers ---- St Albans Web Design Web Design, Development and Email Marketing

By all means create a robots.txt file, but be careful which directories you put in the robots.txt. Anyone can see it and in some cases it can just point someone directly to the folder you don't want them to see. Make sure the folder is not browseable -- a quick fix (while you work on a proper secure solution) is to put a blank index.html file in any directory you don't want browsed (images, stats, etc). ---- St Albans Web Design Web Design, Development and Email Marketing

It depends on the image size. For a good size image (500x500px), I'd shoot for under 100kb definitely. Basically, lower your jpg image quality setting to near the bottom, then raise it just to the point where the quality of the image becomes acceptable. ---- St Albans Web Design Web Design, Development and Email Marketing

IE 6 will be with us for a while because many companies built apps that only work on IE6 and it would cost more to re-code the apps than the productivity they lose using outdated browsers. cheers ---- St Albans Web Design Web Design, Development and Email Marketing

Yeah - I think you're right. I've just read stuff about Adobe apps having a requirement for 1024x768 screen size to install, which most netbooks don't. But I believe you can hook netbook up to external monitor temporarily, set new screen res, install, then unplug external monitor.

Hi - I'll be starting a new job soon and spending lots of time on trains, so I'm considering getting a netbook to use with my mobile broadband dongle for quick site updates and minor image editing while I'm on the run. Two questions: - Anyone ever got PhotoShop (or, gasp, full Adobe Creative Suite) to run on a netbook? - How do you keep your files synched between netbook and main computer? I'm looking at a 10.2" Samsumng NC-10 with 2Gb RAM. Thanks