Web site redirection
This articel tells you how to Redirect a website or webpage to another domain location or page :
Purpose for use :
• You are using optimising the index.html page for search engines
• A web page no longer exists so you are redirecting it to a new page.
• Directing a .co.uk domain to a .com (multiple domains to one)
• Passing search engine rankings from old site to new one
You just created a new web site but want to pass on the search engine rankings of the old one to the new one. What is the most effective and spider/visitor friendly method? You should use a 301 redirect.
301 redirect ?
It is used when you want to redirect your web site or web pages. The code “301″ is interpreted as “moved permanently”. After the code, the URL of the missing or renamed page is noted, followed by a space, and then followed by the new location or file name.
When a search engine spider requests a web page, your web server will check for an .htaccess file. The .htaccess file contains specific directions that are processed then sent
back to the browser. In the .htaccess file create a line of code that reads like this:
Redirect /index.php http://blog.saltalamacchia.co.uk/index.php
The first “/” indicates that everything from the top level of the site down should be redirected. All current links within the search engine results from the old site will redirect to the top level of your new site. Save the .htaccess file to your root directory on your server.
A useful site is :
http://www.htaccesseditor.com/en.shtml for creating .htaccess files
Redirecting a Web Page
The above example shows how to redirect a whole web site. What if you want to just redirect a web page that you have changed but want to keep the rankings of the old page? Follow the same steps as above but write the code like this:
redirect 301 /old/old.htm http://www.you.com/new.htm
Note:
It may take several weeks or months for the old rankings to be passed on to the new site. Therefore don’t remove your old domain name, web site or web pages just yet.
Auto-Redirecting Methods
The “Meta Refresh Tag” method
This method search engines can detect. It is also the one method that the engines are perfectly happy with as long as there is a reasonable delay between landing on a page and being redirected from it. At least 5 seconds is recommended. The code for it must be in the section of the page, and looks like this:-
META http-equiv = “refresh” content = “0; URL = anydomain.com/destination.html”
Don’t forget to include the “http” protocol which has been omitted.
The “content” parameter contains two parts, separated by a semi-colon. The first part is the delay, in seconds, before the redirection occurs. The second part is the URL to redirect to which, like any hyperlink, can be a relative URL (as above) or an absolute URL.
For search engine optimization purposes, a delay in the auto-redirection is not usually desirable. Using the Meta Refresh Tag with a delay of 0 (zero) seconds is not recommended, because search engines can read HTML, Meta tags are HTML, and people have had penalties from redirecting that way. For an immeditate redirect, one of the other auto-redirecting methods is much better.
The “Javascript” methodJavascript auto-redirects cannot be automatically detected by the search engines because they don’t yet parse Javascript. The script can be placed anywhere on the page, but it is best to place it in the <head> section so that it runs as soon as the page begins to load. This is a typical example:-
<head>
<script language=”javascript”><!–
location.replace(”pagename.html”)
//–>
</script>
…other head section stuff (Title, Description,etc.)…
</head>
“pagename.html” can be any relative or absolute URL, just like a hyperlink URL.
The use of Javascript’s “replace” function causes the new page to replace the current page in the browser’s Back button’s History list. If a visitor then clicks the Back button to go back to where s/he came from, s/he doesn’t go back to the page with the auto-redirect but, instead, goes to the page before that. It avoids the annoying occurence of the Back button taking a person back the auto-redirecting page, which immediately takes him/her forward again.
Using a Index.html page to redirect
Use the following code in your index.html to forward to another page or site. Locate this file in your domain root.
<head>
<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”5;url=http://blog.saltalamacchia.co.uk/index.php”>
</head>
Hiding a redirect to a sub domain
If you put your side within a sub directory of your domain, you can hide the sud directory displaying in google. To do this :-
- Create site in www.mydomain.com/subdirect
- Create an index.html file in the domain root
- Within the index file add only
<?php include(”subdirect/index.html”); ?>
or in the htaccess file add :
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^index\.html$ subdirect/index.html
Note
When using wordpress in a sub domain the wordpress .htaccess file is in the subdomain root and the redirect is in the from page root
Fireworks shapes
Here are some handy tips when working with shapes in Fireworks :
Combine shapes together
Select the shapes to combine
In top menu – Modify/Combine Paths/Union
Punch Shapes out (Cookie Punch)
Position two shapes with cut out tool on top
Select both shapes
In top menu – Modify/Combine paths/Punch
Importing an image to your size
In top menu – Import/File/Select the image/Open
Click and drag for size
Putting round corners on an image
Place an image on canvas
Position a new white rectangle over it (mask)
Round its Corners
Select both images
In top menu – Modify/Mask/Group as mask
Image below can be repositioned using thumb
Copying Shapes
Click and hold on the shape. Then press ALT. Move mouse to drag out another copy.
(If you hold the shift key out it will keep it on same axis)
- Modify/Group : To group shapes
- Modify/Transform/Flip : To flip shapes
Confine restraints (Drag a circle)
Hold Shift and drag
Styles
Pre defined styles can be applied to any shape.
- Create a shape
- Select a style from the styles panel on the right.
- If you press Alt+Drag on a styled shape, you will create an identical one. If you then edit ti and click on thr “Redefine Style” button in the properties panel. The edited style is applied to all shape instances.
Notes
Use the Cut tool and Shift key to cut shapes up (utilise grid lines)
Design Charts
This is a good way to massage your designer ego. A top chart of sites where “Web designers are the new popstars”of real-life. Visit it regularly
Connecting MacBook to network printer on vista
July 23, 2009 by admin
Filed under MacBook and OSX
This article steps you through connecting your Mac or MacBook to a network printer. The printer is connected via usb to a windows Vista PC. The article also details how to connect the Mac to the PC .
On the Windows PC carry out the following :-
- Open Control Panel/Network and Sharing Center. Then set Printer sharing “ON” and Password Protect Sharing “OFF”
- Open Control Panel/Programs and Features/Turn windows Features on or off. Select Print Services/LPD print services “ON”
- Go to Windows Explorer and share a Directory. This is done by right mouse clicking on it and selecting “Share”. Then choose people to share it with (everyone read only)
On the MacBook carry out the following :-
- Plug the printer directly in to the MacBook usb then download and install the drivers. Make sure you are able to print with it directly connected.
- Connect printer back into Vista PC.
- Printer must be setup at a network printer on MacBook so that we can print over lan or wifi to PC usb connected printer. PC must be on to do this.
- First we will give the MacBook the ability to connect to folders on the PC via the network. Open “Finder” on the Mac and select “GO” from the top menu. Type in PC details smb://networkname. Then press “Connect”. Type in the password and select the volume. You should now be connected to the shred PC directory (it will appear in the Finders shared L.H panel)
- To set up the Printer go to System Preferences/Print and Fax then select “+” to add the printer.
- Press the “Ctrl” key on the MacBook and select “More Printers”. From the drop down box select “Customize Toolbar” and drag “Advanced” on to your toolbar
- Select this “Advanced” button and fill in : Type = Windows, Url = smb://networkname.
Thats it should be done. Once all working you may want to review what folders you have shared and your permission settings.
SoftPages now iPhone friendly
This site is now iPhone friendly. Browse to this site on your iPhone and see it formatted for iPhone viewing. Also remember you can be automatically notified of all updates to this site via the RSS feed or our Twitter “SoftPages”. Not sure how to do that then comment below. Comments are now active for registered viewers.
High google ranking
The German company Sistrix analyzed the web page elements of top ranked pages in Google to find out which elements lead to high Google rankings. They analyzed 10,000 random keywords, and for every keyword, they analyzed the top 100 Google search results.
Sistrix analyzed the influence of the following web page elements: web page title, web page body, headline tags, bold and strong tags, image file names, images alt text, domain name, path, parameters, file size, inbound links and PageRank. Keywords in the title tag seem to be important for high rankings on Google. It is also important that the targeted keywords are mentioned in the body tag, although the title tag seems to be more important.
Keywords in H2-H6 headline tags seem to have an influence on the rankings while keywords in H1 headline tags dont seem to have an effect.
Using keywords in bold or strong tags seems to have a slight effect on the top rankings. Web pages that used the keywords in image file names often had higher rankings. The same seems to be true for keywords in image alt attributes.
Websites that use the targeted keyword in the domain name often had high rankings. It might be that these sites get many inbound links with the domain name as the link text.
Keywords in the file path dont seem to have a positive effect on the Google rankings of the analyzed web sites. Web pages that use very few parameters in the URL (?id=123, etc.) or no parameters at all tend to get higher rankings than URLs that contain many parameters.
The file size doesnt seem to influence the ranking of a web page on Google although smaller sites tend to have slightly higher rankings.
Its no surprise that the number of inbound links and the PageRank had a large influence on the page rankings on Google. The top result on Google has usually about four times as many links as result number 11.
Frame by frame animation
This tutorial produces a small movie using flash CS3. It does so using a frame by frame animation. Each frame will be different, hence all frames will be key frames.
- Select the number of frames which will represent your stack of paper
- Right mouse click on this selection and pick “convert to blank keyframes”
- Draw an image in frame 1
- Select frame 2 and draw the next instance of the animation.
- Repeat until all the frames are complete
Note : To assist with creating the animation select the “onion skin” icon and adjust its markers such that previous frames can be seen while drawing the current frame.
Backing up Wordpress
Ensure you always have a fairly recent backup of your Wordpress site. Especially when updating the version of Wordpress.
Firstly download all the files using an FTP download program. I suggest the whole httpdocs folder is downloaded. That way you have everything to simply re upload should the need arises.
Next access the database using PHPAdmin. Use the following settings to back it up to your local harddrive :
- Select “Database”
- Select the database to be backed up in left hand column
- Select the top “Export” tab
- Check that all the database files appear in the export area
- Tick the following selections : (Sql), (Structure), (Add drop table), (Add Auto-Increment), (Enclose table and field names with backquotes), (Data), (Max length=50000), (Export type=insert)
- Tick “Save as File”
- Select the “Go” button and pick your download location
Masking and Gradients in Fireworks
These technique are for fading an image in or out. It’s mainly used for creating web site banners.
- Import an image or photo
- Create a white rectangle over the image.
- Select the white rectangle and in the properties panel set the fill property to Gradient/Linear.
- Alter gradient left to right, white on black. The white is where the image will be seen clearly and the black areas will be masked out.
- Select both objects then Modify/Mask/Group as Mask
- Use the pointer tool to drag the picture beneath (image selected in layers panel)
- Select the gradient rectangle in layer panel to adjust gradient and colour (colour=canvas colour)
- Multiple fades is achieved in fade fill box property. Clicking adds extra thumbs ie Black,white,black
Vector Masks
These can be used for placing an image on a defined shape. And for fading in and out two pictures.
- Put the required shape on to the canvas. This can be any shape.
- import and position the image or photo above it.
- Select the top original rectangle and select Edit/Cut
- Select the image in the layers panel and then Edit/Paste as Mask.
- The image can be repositioned on the shape by selecting it then click and drag on the centre thumb.
- To create photo’s fading in the process can be repeated. Place the two photo’s on the canvas. Select the top photo then Commands/Creative/Auto Vector Mask. Pick a preference and edit using the properties panel.
These notes can be printed.
A full screen HD video of this tutorial is available Here or click within the video box.
How to update Wordpress
This is a more reliable way to update Wordpress than using the auto update tool, which in many cases won’t work. I have been using this method and never had an issue.
- Backup your wordpress files and database. Personally I ftp down the whole “Httpdocs” file and then backup the database using PHPAdmin.
- Download the Wordpress update patch and unzip it.
- Deactivate your plugins in Wordpress
- Delete your current wp-include” and wp-admin directories
- Upload the new wp-include and wp-admin folders
- Edit the new wp-config-sample.php to reflect your current user name, password and database name. Then rename it wp-config.php (see your current wp-config.php file). Do not upload yet.
- Delete all the current root files then upload all the new ones including the edited new wp-config.php
- The content of the new wp-content folder now needs uploading, carry this out individually so as not to accidentally write over your current theme and plugin folders.
- Browse to your web site and follow the instructions to update the database
- Activate your plugins one at a time checking they work as you go.
- That’s it all done
