To avoid any issues for your website, if you have large flash (or rotating) images at the TOP of your website’s pages, you might want to consider making some changes. I recently decided that I was not only at risk because of my home page image rotation…but I also was not receiving any SEO benefits from that rotation. It was graphically pleasing to the eye, but from a Search Engine’s standpoint, there were no “words” to give it meaning.

After doing some research for a client, I came across a plugin that I feel is a good compromise! RoyalSlider allows me to put Optimized content on a home page, that still “looks pretty” and grabs attention.

This is a great example of why it’s important to keep up to date about how SERP’s change! Good standard SEO is the best insurance (no black hat or trendy tricks), but sometimes there are other elements of your content that can affect your results.

The post Google’s Page Layout Algorithm Improvement – Ads Above the Fold appeared first on Nola Cooper Designs.

On Tuesday, January 3, 2012 I was back in the office from a Holiday Break. I had an immediate need on my schedule for that day. A client needed to move their WordPress website to a new host. The old hosting account would be expiring on January 4.

Typically, moving a WordPress site is not a huge undertaking for me. I’ve done it so many times now, that I’ve come up with a very good “flow” for getting it done quickly. But this project was full of “flow busters” from the start.

Turns out the client’s old design company [referred to from this point forward as “the company”] was also the host (reseller) of the website. And, to make matters worse, the company had registered the client’s domain in THEIR name, instead of the client’s name. At the time I got involved, the client had already been to court and won the rights to her domain and website. But, that did not mean we were home free. When you move a WordPress website, you not only need a backup of the database, you also need the theme files, any paid plugins, and a copy of the uploads folder (Media Library). Because they would not allow us any access to the client’s hosting via cpanel or ftp (don’t even get me started on their reason for THAT*), it was requested of the company that they send us a zip file containing those items. This was our response:

“The images used were purchased with a single use license – which were used for the website – and not available for other use. There is no ‘theme’ to supply you with as it was custom built. The plug-ins are not ours to supply you – they are simply wordpress plug-ins.

Your hosting expires on January 4th. We do not provide payment for hosting accounts as we have provided you with 30 days notice of such payment becoming due. If you allow it to expire the site will go down.”

SERIOUSLY?? THAT WAS FULL OF EXCUSES…

This reply infuriated me, and prompted me to write this post! First of all, they are correct that many images are “single use”. But in this case that “single use” would have been for the client’s website…so we’re not violating anything by transferring them over.

Second of all, customizations to a default (WordPress TwentyTen) theme still reside in a theme’s files, so when they say there’s no “theme” to supply they are incorrect. I had access to the WordPress dashboard on the old host, and could see the customizations they’d made to the TwentyTen theme. The theme was not functioning very well at all, and we had none of the theme’s images…

Lastly, it is true that plugins are available from WordPress. But if there are any plugins that are paid, you have to get those files from the place they were purchased. Luckily, we were able to substitute. Interestingly enough, the slideshow plugin they were using had been discontinued because of a vulnerability which could be exploited by malicious people to conduct SQL injection attacks.

The company charges a very large sum, not only to mildly customize a default WP theme, but also for upkeep. Head desk, head desk, head desk….

I went to work. First, I got the needed database backup, and used 7-Zip to unzip the .gz file that WP Database Backup gives you. Now we had the correct type of file (.sql) to import into the new database.

Next, after toying with the theme files we were able to get from the dashboard, we decided to just go with a fresh theme. I customized my memorability theme for the look and feel the client had wanted from the start.

We had to have the 318 files from the old Media library…otherwise we’d be looking for images for weeks to come. No one wanted to sit and download these files one at a time! After doing some research, I found DownThemAll, a FireFox AddOn. This allowed me to download a whole page of images at a time…saving us lots of headaches.

NIGHTMARE OVER! We now had all of the ingredients necessary to move the site, without any input or help from “the company”. You can imagine the phrases that were bouncing around my office at that point!

Finally, it was a matter of installing WordPress; importing the database; installing the theme; and then fixing the image links. (this is all we should have had to do from the start) A couple of hours of work, had turned into 2 days, but lessons were learned, and the site works so much better than it did before (looks better too)!!

We got our positive outcome!

If you want to find out whether you OWN your own domain, go to WhoIs.net and look it up. Your name or your business name should show as the “Registrant”. If it does not, contact your domain registrar and find out why!!

*Did you know that your host can restrict FTP access to a particular directory? Yes, it’s done all the time. That way if you have specific ftp needs on just one of many sites you have hosted on a single account, you don’t have to expose all of your sites. What a concept, eh?

The post Turning a Negative into a Positive appeared first on Nola Cooper Designs.

So Why Should I Have One? Smart phones with sophisticated apps are becoming more prevalent in today’s “always connected” society. QR Codes allow you to publish lots of valuable information in a small area, or provide easy access to contact information–making you and your business more available.

Types of Codes: URL (your own website, sales page, or your social media pages to “follow”), Contact Information, Google Places/Map, Email Address, Phone Number, SMS (a form of short text messaging), RSS Feed. There are so many possibilities!

Some Great Uses:

• Business Cards – put your URL or Email address in a QR code, making it quick and easy to find out more about you.
• Promotional Materials – put your URL on a coffee mug, or any other promotional item.
• Marketing Materials – use a QR code to put your URL on your catalog or brochure, especially when handing them out at trade shows! Link to a blog post or article on your site that’s relevant to the print materials you’re distributing. Using a QR code on a post card allows you to use even more space to get your message across, by putting your contact information in the code.
• Signage – put your contact information or URL on your Car Magnet, or any banner or sign you display. A great opportunity for quick contact with Real Estate agents!

Truly, a QR code will be valuable on any item that you distribute or display, due to the increased usage of camera and smart phones in today’s society!

Generate your own code for FREE over at delivr. Sign up for their other free services while you’re there!

The post What is a QR Code and Why Have One? appeared first on Nola Cooper Designs.