Why Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is Still Important

By John Pozadzides There is a war of words being waged around the concept of Search Engine Optimization with one side claiming that SEO is dead, and the other claiming SEO is everything. The reality lies somewhere between these two extremes (as reality often does) so it’s important to understand both the history and the […]

CSS Optimization: Cleaning Up Your Stylesheet Analysis

Blogging Pro has an interesting analysis on CSS Optimization that is definitely helpful if you are considering your website’s design optimization as well as your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Just be careful using these on WordPress Themes. I have been spending some time looking at CSS Optimization tools today. I wanted something free, online, and […]

Extreme Site Optimization For Speed Loading

While I don’t agree with everything said, Brave New Word’s article, “Web Developers, Speed Up Your Web Pages”, does offer some excellent tips on optimizing for web pages for speed. Excellent points for everyone to follow include cleaning out unnecessary spaces, tabs, and code; using medium to high compression and small file sizes on images; […]

Do-It-Yourself Search Engine Optimization Guide

Search engine optimization doesn’t cost, but not paying attention to search engine optimization costs you plenty. The following are tips, techniques, and the tools you need to create a search engine friendly website or blog. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the technique of fixing code, writing keywords, and making your site an open door to […]

Site Optimization: Checking Loose Links

The three biggest complains by Internet users are speed issues, broken links, and slow ads. Let’s tackle the number two complaint: broken links. Few things are more frustrating than tracking down the information you want, and you click the link and get the famous “404 Page Error – Page Not Found”. The term “web” came […]

Site Optimization: Optimizing Bandwidth and Cleaning Out the Code Closet

The number one complaint by users has little to do with design elements. It has to do with how long it takes for a web page to load and how willing they are to wait for it. While most people just accept and tolerate the long waits for pages to load, they don’t have to. […]

WordPress School: Image Preparation

In the assignment for Lorelle’s WordPress School free online course today and over the weekend, you are to work on preparing images for uploading to WordPress. You will be adding a variety of images to your WordPress test site such as images to accompany your posts and Pages, portraits, images for galleries, design elements, sidebar […]

WordPress School: WordPress Resources

We’ve just started Lorelle’s WordPress School free online course and you are welcome to join at any time. It is a slow-moving, at-you-own-pace course to learn WordPress from the inside out. As you go through the course, you will need to find more help and resources on WordPress, and this is your starting list. Below […]

Research on the WordPress, Web Development, and Web Design Job Market

In 2012 and 2013, I did extensive research for the grant program to develop and rewrite the Web Developer degree program at Clark College. This research included an analysis of current and future job opportunities for students graduating with that degree with a solid understanding of WordPress. Now that the program has completed its first […]

Blog Exercises: How to Create a Blogger Identity

A rebroadcast of “How Much Does Your Name Matter?” from Freakonomics Radio looked at the impact of a name on society, perception, prejudice, and ability to succeed. Indeed, there is some evidence that a name can influence how a child performs in school and even her career opportunities. There’s also the fact that different groups […]

Blog Exercises: Check Your Site Title Tag

Do you know what the title of your site is? Not the name of your site or the title of your post, but the HTML <title> tag for your site buried in the source code. In HTML, every website is required to have the <title> tag in the <head> of the source code HTML structure. […]

Blog Exercises: Backlinks

Known as incoming links or referrer links, backlinks are links pointing from an external site to your site, directing their readers to you as a resource. Timethief of “one cool site blogging tips” describes backlinks as: Backlinks to your content are like votes for your blog. The more backlinks your blog receives the higher it […]

Blog Exercises: Comments and The Blog Bullies

No matter what we do or say, there will always be bullies and mean people. Some are mean intentionally, some can hurt unintentionally. And then there are those moments when we read the black letters on the white screen too much in-between the lines and come away feeling sick to your stomach. Welcome to the […]

What You Most Need to Know About WordPress

At the recent WordCamp Portland 2012, I was asked by several attendees to cover the basics of WordPress and we came up with What You Most Need to Know About WordPress. Here are the “notes” from that unconference presentation. The Difference Between Categories and Tags I hear this question at WordCamps, from readers, students, and […]

7 Blogging Steps Even Veteran Bloggers Forget

Originally published in Blogger and Podcaster Magazine and updated. I write for a variety of online and offline magazines. They’ve graciously permit me to republish my articles. Participating in a recent multiple guest blogger event, I edited and review posts by many top bloggers before publishing. I was rather stunned to find that even veteran […]