Category: Web Site Management

Web Site Management

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WordPress 2.2 Upgrade, Google Analytics Update, and other Statistic Issues

I’ve been seeing various posts around that WP 2.2 had been released, but I was under the impression it was going to be delayed longer than this. I guess they’ve put the push on to get it out, because I just downloaded it! Go get your WordPress 2.2 today! I have not installed it yet… I will install it on my development server here at eh house first, make sure everything works… then upload. I know not everyone has this flexibility–but, you could… I’m using a 10 year old box to test on! If not, be sure to carefully follow the upgrade procedure. The most important step being to backup your database.

I noticed this morning that Google had given my access to the new Beta Google Analytics interface that they are rolling out. First impressions are that it’s pretty and makes better use of space, but I haven’t evaluated it in detail for functionality yet. I ‘ll do that this weekend and give you a report!

Speaking of statistics… is anyone else wondering why different stats packages don’t give identical or at least reasonably close numbers when comparing well-defined categories of information? Either they all have different definitions of the terms, or none of them knows what they are doing! As you may have noticed with my end-of-month analysis for April Stats Update, there was quite a bit of variation. And it continues… while I spotted some configuration issues on my part in some places, many are just big questions. I’ll give you another wrap-up on my stats again the beginning of next month, adding my evaluation of HitLinks to the mix. I’m paying for that one, so it better come out good! Being logical minded as I am, I don’t understand the variation. I’ll probably have to pick a day and do a manual analysis of the logs with a spreadsheet to compare.

PS–The stats for the past couple days here have been weird! yesterday, the pageviews were triple the day before! And today… almost nothing! Very strange two days. 🙂

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Chasing a Dream is a Do Follow Blog

In checking out some of the ProBlogger Top 5 entries, I visited Susan Drigger’s Top 5 Sins post, and while there noticed a nice little icon, “No Nofollow, fight spam, not blogs” that reminded me to check the no follow status of my comments. Oops! WordPress strikes again… it was there! With the addition of the DoFollow plugin from Semiologic, comments and track backs are now nofollow-free.

Some of you are wondering, “What’s the big deal”? If it’s built-in to WordPress by default, it’s got to be right. That’s a matter of opinion. Google introduced the concept of using an attribute rel="nofollow" on links in 2005, to theoretically help reduce comment spam, and create more accurate Page Rank. However, many disagree that it has had much influence on comment spam, and we feel people should get link credit for posting comments. If you would like more information on the controversy, you can check Michael Hampton’s May 2005 post, Nofollow Revisited. It covers the story well, from the intent, how it is supposed to work, and why it doesn’t work.

If you would like to join the Do Follow crowd, as I have–note the new “U Comment, I follow” icon (courtesy Randa Clay Design) in the side bar–visit the No Nofollow | I Follow | DoFollow Community at BumpZee.

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Get Your Own Domain Name

As I introduced in my post, Entrepreneurs Developing Web Sites Must Address These Top 5 Potential Pitfalls, it is an absolute must for small business entrepreneurs, freelancers and other soloists to own their domain name. Your domain name is your business when it comes to a presence on the Internet. Even if you don’t want to pursue setting up a web site now, register your domain name so it will be yours when you are ready.

What is a Domain Name?

Before you can own one, you need to know exactly what you are getting. A domain name is an easy to remember name that represents a company’s computer services on the Internet. I’ll give a couple examples in a moment, but the first thing I want to point out is, what we are talking about is an over-arching name, that includes potentially, multiple actual computer servers. Most people naturally think of www.CompanyName.com to represent a companies web site. But, note that the domain name is also used for other services, most commonly Email & FTP (File Transfer Protocol) services. The actual domain name portion in the example above, is: CompanyName.com, where the www refers to a specific computer, usually a web server in this instance.

When you purchase a domain name, you get the right to use the name for the period of time for which you pay the registration fee. Usually for one to five years on initial registration, though on renewals you can go up to ten years. If you are securely in business, I highly recommend you always register your name for the longest time period offered. That way you don’t lose it by forgetting to renew!

How Should I Choose a Domain Name?

Logically, from my example above, you would probably select a name including your current business name if you have one. If you are in the early stages of planning a new enterprise, you have the opportunity to investigate name availability as you choose a name for your business. I would work on developing a business name in parallel with selecting your domain name. By doing both at the same time, you insure yourself of the availability of your name. You might even have the opportunity to choose a non-obvious name, like Yahoo!, if appropriate for your business. A name such as this requires a significant amount of marketing to develop a brand image, but it is obviously unique, and will stand out against your business competition. You may need to hire a brand name expert for that purpose, and I highly recommend such an expert if you choose that route.

The technicalities of the actual name are fairly straight forward. You choose a generic Top Level Domain (TLD), such as .com, .net, .org, .tv, or a country code TLD, such as .us, .ca, .au (United States, Canada, Australia). A full list of all the officially authorized current domain names is available. There are restrictions on the use of some TLDs, in particular the country codes, which may only be available if you are actually doing business in their country, or require a standard second level name like .co.uk.

Th original .com, .net & .org are pretty much open for any use now, but the selection of names is highly competitive. However, most consultants still recommend as do I, the .com domain for commercial businesses. I would seriously consider also purchasing the equivalent name in the .net & .org TLDs as well as a safety measure against a competitor stealing it. Unless you have a registered trademark, a fight over a domain name is not easy. I would just choose another and move on if it is not available.

As an example of a domain name selection, my own, cdchase.com, is derived from my first & middle initials and my last name. I wanted to keep it short, yet recognizable. I often stylize the domain in print: cdChase.com. You can do the same for print marketing materials, which should always have your domain name! Recently, I have considered purchasing longer forms of my name, but have yet to do so. One that used to be available is no longer… however, if it goes into disuse, I will obtain it.

Tom Brit has some excellent hints in his post, Picking a Domain Name is Harder Than You Think.

You too, can try to purchase domain names that are already owned, but not yet in use or bid to buy them. There are several companies that specialize in this business and there are people out there that actual collect domain names for the prospect of selling them for profit! One of the leaders in this field is Sedo, where I have a domain name parked for resale, ChattanoogaCountryHomes.com (though last night I came up with an idea to use it, so I may retract it!) Parking is a means of putting your domain name somewhere and potentially getting income from it based on searches finding it, and it having paid advertising on it.

How do I Register a Domain Name?

Registering the name itself, is easy once you have determined it’s availability. Most Registrars have tools on their web site to check the availability of a name, so you can start there, and when you find one you like, you click buy it! The tricky part is getting a good registrar. There was recently a case of a registrar (RegisterFly) going out of business… leaving the domain owners registered through them high and dry! The registrar is the technical center of making the domain name system work. So, if they are not providing the services reliably, your web site won’t be reachable. I recommend choosing only an ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) accredited registrar . I use a third-party registrar & DNS services company, DynamicNetworkServices (DynDNS), that allows me to manage my domain name separate from my web host & email services. This allows me some flexibility in the management of my web site & email, as well as other services. Doing this independent of your web host is not that complex, and I highly recommend it. However, most people will choose to purchase their domain name, DNS services, email & web hosting services from the same provider. At least the first time. I will admit I did so too! It’s convenient and easy. However, from a business perspective, I like the idea of specialists handling my services independent of each other. They can focus on what they do best and provide reliable services and flexibility. I would personally recommend choosing from the leading registrars, adding my own due to personal experience with them, and the elimination of one (eNom) due to the relationship with the above mentioned RegisterFly pending class-action suit:

In conclusion…They’re cheap! Buy more than one! You can point them all at the same place initially, then develop specialty sites later. This will help with Search Engine Optimization and marketing. You should own any trademarked product names that you have. If the name is related exclusively to your company, you should own it as a domain.

Well, that should get you started… I probably should have broken this up into multiple posts, but I was on a roll! Feel free to ask any additional questions that you may have. I’d be happy to help!

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Technorati Rank from 1,456,027 to 452,359–Overnight!

Wow! I just noticed my Technorati Rank change! I guess that shows you how many blogs that exist out there, and are not being read by many people. My ‘Authority’ went from 3 to 11, so things are looking up. Guess I should add the Authority plugin to my sidebar, next to Douglas Karr’s Technorati Rank. Feel free to use it to add me to your Technorati Faves–click on the heart. If you haven’t noticed before, each individual icon of the four on the left side of this plugin gives you different information when you mouse-over it. And each is a short-cut to the appropriate place.

I’ve added most of the links in my last post to my Technorati favorites. Maybe that influences rank & authority too…

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Entrepreneurs Developing Web Sites Must Address These Top 5 Potential Pitfalls

Note my choice of words for this post’s title. In particular, pitfall… The issues discussed here could be a problem, but with careful planning, they don’t have to be. Hopefully raising your awareness is sufficient to help you address them.

I’ve ordered these in the most likely order you will encounter the issue. Of course, when planning a web site in advance, you can address most all of them at the same time by doing good planning.

Purchasing a Domain Name

No web site exists without an address to get to it, and that means a domain name. It’s what ties your marketing materials together, it binds your online & off-line marketing together. It’s your email address. It’s everywhere! Why would you use someone else’s brand to label your product? You MUST own your domain name! There are two important points in that short phrase. First, it must be Your domain name–identified and related to your business, whether it be your current business name or variation of, or a fanciful name you plan on marketing off-line to build as your brand image, e.g., Yahoo! Second, make sure when the name is purchased or registered, that you, as principle of your company, are shown as the Owner. Third-parties are OK for administrative & technical contacts, but You must be the Owner. There are many sad stories about someone walking away from a business and taking it’s well-known web address with them. If you don’t own it, you don’t have control.

Choosing a Web Host

I know entrepreneurs are commonly on a shoe-string budget, but that is no excuse to choose a fly-by-night web host, just because they are cheap or run by a friend. Your business’ online image will be made or lost based on the 24×7 support that a web host must provide. Depending on the services you plan on delivering on the web, the level of host must be appropriate. The average $5 host won’t cut the mustard long-term. Shared hosting is only a starting place, you must have a plan to get your own dedicated host in the long term. No matter what size your business is, eventually. A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a good middle ground for most businesses with medium web traffic. Heavy-hitters, i.e., business whose business is the web, need a dedicated server. Big bucks maybe, but worth it. It’s also not all about the server. The available bandwidth (how fast and how many independent connections to the Internet) to the hosting facility, the back-up systems, the back-up generator & UPS systems that are the infrastructure of a web host are just as important to you.

Web Standards

The web has been here long enough now for some standards to have been developed. This allows different people to choose different tools and yet all of us work together. In the web world, the key is the web browser and the leaders have over the years tried to do things their own way. Yes, there was commonality in the basics, but they tried to sell you on using their browser by adding features that other vendors did not have and could not understand. So, if one site developed with one browser in mind you better have that one if you wanted to access the content! Finally, they have (mostly) realized that agreeing on web standards is to everyone’s benefit. You benefit in developing your web site by only having to build to the standard–you don’t have to recreate your design multiple times to address all the major browsers. The key standards are those developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). They are ever expanding and being advanced, but at least the core vendors are working together on a common path. A second benefit of this, is improved accessibility to your site by the visually or motor impaired. Web Standards-based designs can easily be made Section 508 compliant. If you plan on doing business with the Federal Government, you can be required to have your web site compliant with Section 508. This same ability also allows you to be prepared for change in the future for new types of devices re-purposing the content on the Internet.

Getting Help

Unless your business is web development, you should be contracting out the setup, design and maintenance of your web site. It might be fun to get your hands on the knobs and tweak the design, but if you are not an expert in web development or graphic design, your focus on the web site must be it’s CONTENT. That is where your business expertise should be focused–on your business! Not on what makes the web site look good or even makes it work. It’s the old story, do what you do best, and hire the best to do the rest! Experienced web professionals can do what you need done in much less time than you can and probably do it better. Meanwhile, you can be doing what you do best, running your business!

Keep it Fresh!

Once you have a good web site up & running, don’t let it languish! It needs to have it’s content kept up-to-date, even if you don’t have a changing product line, you should have something like a blog that requires updating on a regular basis so there is a sense of motion and change on your site. You need to track what results your site is getting using web analytics, and tie it to any web-based or off-line sales you make if you can, to determine your ROI. Your web site should easily pay it’s own way, if only in your marketing image–which is of value itself. Oh, and about every 12-18 months it should get a fresh coat of paint! I.e., a small redesign of the site based on feedback from your customers over the past period. Particularly addressing any usability issues that have been discovered. Change makes visitors keep coming back. If I get used to seeing something different every time I visit, I visit more often! You build brand image in your customer’s mind.

Hope everyone has enjoyed this recap of these potential pitfalls, and hopefully can now avoid them! Watch for more detail on each of these areas here in the future.

This post has been my entry to the latest Group Writing Project from Darren Rowse at ProBlogger. Be sure to check out more on the project, and visit the other authors that are contributing to the project. Here’s the summary pages so far:

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Earthy WordPress Theme Launched!

Yeah! It’s done! Well, is a web site ever done? Don’t answer that!  🙂

It’s live, anyway. I’m pleased with the general look, though a few of my visitors may feel lost for a while! The design was focused on creating something new & unique that would be identifiable with this site, as well as functional. I dropped a few items on my earlier to-do lists after review, and have delayed others. In the coming weeks I will point out how certain things were accomplished, the plug-ins used, and all the details.  For now, I’m just going to sit back and relax a bit, and focus on why were all right blogs–the content!

I invite feedback on the new look & feel of the site. Please leave comments and share what you think. I know there are some little glitches that showed up in the launch, like that Technorati Rank graphic not wanting to center… it is on my server at home! That’s strange. But, now that I can sit back and take it all in, I can focus on fine-tuning as we go. Thanks for being patient while I got this completed. I look forward to hearing everyone’s comments.

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Redesign Status Update

I’ve made good progress on the latest to-do list:

  • Review plugin use and confirm all are setup
  • Make notes of configuration changes that need to be done inside WordPress admin tool after installation of the template
  • Setup tabs with rounded borders using graphics
  • Check pages for IE support code & GIF graphics for rounded corners
  • Add Latest Posts to sidebar
  • Widen sidebar
  • Finalize color choice in post metadata
  • Consider post date ‘calendar’ format graphic or color change
  • Expand About page content
  • Posts by Category page needs format still
  • Posts by Date page needs format
  • Custom Category Templates for each of standard categories (Tools & Techniques) with header lead-in to content
  • Update blogroll and breakdown by category, perhaps using built-in link management system?
  • Add RSS Feed icon & links near top & remove from footer
  • Confirm RSS auto-discovery code is in header
  • About section in sidebar, with photo?
  • Ranking links (Alexa & Technorati)
  • Blogflux links (uptime, directory, mapstats)
  • Feedburner chiclet
  • Stats link codes
  • SEO code
  • Review online version for customizations to back-port to new design
  • Affiliate links (Sedo) others? HitsLink?
  • Last 50 entries on Archive page
  • Mullet Home page?
  • Review for standards compliance

I’ve made good progress, so I should be able to launch the new design tomorrow night. Funny, we are also launching a new site at the university tomorrow night–luckily I’ve scripted that so it should only take a few seconds to cut-over to the new design. We are just planning on doing it Sunday night so it will be up Monday morning when people come in as was announced. I guess you can consider this blog the same way! Weekends are normally a slower time for views of the blog, especially on Saturday, though this weeks stats are looking pretty good! Hopefully my visitors on Monday will have time to leave comments on the new design. I’ll do a launch post when it goes live tomorrow to celebrate the launch, then Monday I’ll post a specific request for feedback. I’ll really be glad to be able to get back to thinking about content, than about the design and structure of  the blog, though that’s some of what I will be doing! Keep watching…

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Final To Do List for Site Redesign

Here’s where we are so far in our progress on the earlier established to-do list:

  • Install copy of WordPress on development box
  • Import backup of live site content to provide some content for the development site
  • Create a bare-bones set of template files
  • Review the default CSS before beginning development of custom CSS for new template
  • Setup CSS for basic layout
    • 2-Column wide left, narrow right, approximately 75% – 25% split
    • Site width: 1024px (current width ~800px)
    • This gives almost the same relative widths as the current template, but with an increased overall width, resulting in a wider left column (and right) to give more room for graphics & code as desired.
    • Header will be short, ~ 5% +/- of screen height
    • Footer will be one or two text lines
  • Select color scheme
  • Select photo / graphic / logo for header and develop site-wide navigation in header

I’ve accomplished all the items on the initial plan! Until I was writing this, I hadn’t realized that all the original goals had been accomplished. That’s nice to realize! Goes to show that putting your plans and goals in writing and monitoring them can sometimes lead you to see progress in areas you didn’t realize you were making. That’s a subject for a whole other post. Too much philosophy for this one!

While I have accomplished the original goals, it does not mean that I haven’t changed and/or expanded on them while in progress. Or there may be some minor implementation issues left to finalize.

Here’s what I see still needs to be complete before launch of this redesign:

  • Review plugin use and confirm all are setup
  • Make notes of configuration changes that need to be done inside WordPress admin tool after installation of the template
  • Setup tabs with rounded borders using graphics
  • Check pages for IE support code & GIF graphics for rounded corners
  • Add Latest Posts to sidebar
  • Widen sidebar
  • Finalize color choice in post metadata
  • Consider post date ‘calendar’ format graphic or color change
  •  Expand About page content
  • Posts by Category page needs format still
  • Posts by Date page needs format
  •  Custom Category Templates for each of standard categories (Tools & Techniques) with header lead-in to content
  • Update blogroll and breakdown by category, perhaps using built-in link management system?
  • Add RSS Feed icon & links near top & remove from footer
  • Confirm RSS auto-discovery code is in header
  • About section in sidebar, with photo?
  • Ranking links (Alexa & Technorati)
  • Blogflux links (uptime, directory, mapstats)
  • Feedburner chiclet
  • Stats link codes
  • SEO code
  • Review online version for customizations to back-port to new design
  • Affiliate links (Sedo) others? HitsLink?
  • Last 50 entries on Archive page
  • Mullet Home page?
  • Review for standards compliance

As you can see, even though I have accomplished a lot, there is still much to do. But, most of it is little stuff in general, the details you don’t see or think of, until you get farther along in any project. This is one of the reasons project planning is not an exact science. While an architect can design a house, the carpenter that builds it still have to make a lot of decisions on how to implement the design. Here, I’m the designer and the carpenter.

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Redesign Update

I’ve been working on finalizing the new template tonight. I’ve got all the secondary pages (archives, blogroll, about) updated to use the new design. Simple really, just add a new CSS class where it belongs, and all is done naturally! That is the way CSS should be used. Of course, I created some new template pages, one as a customized archives page with a few tweaks, and I decided to move the blogroll to it’s own page. It was just too long for the sidebar. I do plan on shortening it… I can’t keep up with them all now!

This leaves me more room in the sidebar for other ‘toys’, or affiliate marketing links. I might make a ‘top 5 of the week’ selection of blogs that make the slot with extra promotion. Lots of opportunity now that I have the space.I’m not sure everyone will like my color palette choice, as it is a departure from most sites I see with lighter palettes or midrange brighter colors. I know I didn’t want black, but I wanted something ‘earthy’ to go with the header photo. I was also considering a deep blue theme.

This pass was more about getting into the architecture of WordPress and seeing what is possible at the simple level. Once I have it live, I can describe some of the details on how things were done. With the primary arrangement complete, I can tweak as I find it necessary. Us techies can’t keep our hands off the engine…  But, this is my ‘daily driver’ too, so I don’t want to wreck it! Came close earlier tonight on the development box… my screen went solid green! More about that when we get back to the program. Hope to take this live over the weekend.

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April Stats Update – Google Analytics, 103 Bees & StatCounter

This is the one you have been waiting for… The heads-to-head comparison of Google Analytics with some competitors, 103 Bees and StatCounter. All three web analytic products, are free at the level I am using them. All of them require their own JavaScript code to be installed in the pages and are totally dependent on that code for measuring any results. If a browser either does not understand JavaScript, or has it disabled, it will not be accurately counted. For this purpose, I have separated these products from the true ‘log analysis’ products I covered yesterday, Urchin & Analog. However, based on the statistics at W3Schools on global browser usage, they find about 94% of users have JavaScript enabled. As their methodology is not described, and they have a disclaimer as to reliablity & local variation, this must be taken into account. Urchin, and other products, has the ability to combine the techniques of log analysis & JavaScript browser sensing. I wish I had access to that level of functionality in my Media Temple account. The Urchin Help pages at Google have a good description on the benefit of using a combined technique.

Well, enough stalling! Here’s the numbers!

Google Analytics

  Visitors New Visitors (%) Visits Pageviews Avg PV/Visit
Month Total 198   231 463  
Average per Day 6.6 80% 7.7 15.4 2.04

103 Bees

103 Bees doesn’t give too much detail, but it tries to capture search-terms (as does Goolge Analytics and StatCounter) providing a means of adding them to a ‘To Do’ list. Sound familiar? Think HitTail. Everybody is trying to do it, but I still like HitTail better as it tries to do more analysis on the words by making specific suggestions. More on that in another post! I wish I hadn’t missed their promo deal that ended April 30th, I was planning on taking advantage of it, but got distracted working on the template. Oh well! Hope the rest of you weren’t sleeping!

  Visits
Total 336
Average 11.2

StatCounter

Finally, there is StatCounter. StatCounter gives a lot of detail, like Google Analytics, in a very easy to navigate interface. It’s free if you don’t mind losing the detailed level of analysis that a large log file gets you. Up to 100 log entries is free, and then you can purchase 1,000 or 10,000 or more log entries to allow you to get more detailed analysis. Summary data is always available. StatCounter also confirmed the 94% JavaScript enabled browser figure from above for my site. Though I would really like to know how they figure that when they only get a log entry when it’s enabled… that’s a good trick that I will have to ask them. If it could see the log entries from the web server’s point of view, then it could compare one method vs. the other.

  Page Loads Uniques First Time Returning
Total 355 247 203 44
Average 11.8 8.2 6.8 1.5

Note, StatCounter’s totals are low since I didn’t start them until April 7. I’ll give a full update the end of May. At least we can compare the daily averages.

Analysis

While I would think I could make the following equivalences for terms used, the numbers still don’t line up!

  • Google Pageviews to StatCounter Page Loads (15.4 vs. 11.8 average)
  • Google Visitors to StatCounter Uniques, and possibly 103 Bee’s Visits (6.6 vs 8.2 vs 11.2)
  • Google New Visitor percent to StatCounter (First Time / Uniques)

However, comparing the numbers really doesn’t support a close correlation here! Only possibly for the new visitor percentage, Google’s 80% vs StatCounter’s 83%. Close. As this is a small amount of data, and there was missing data for the beginning of the month for StatCounter, I will withhold any deep opinion on accuracy just yet. However, the variation certainly makes one think…

I added FeedBurner Site Stats yesterday, and paid for an account with HitsLink (I had used there 30-day free analysis a few years ago, and still had an account setup.) I’ll see how they stack up against a continued comparison of the other contenders for May. As I am remembering, I do like HitsLink. Now, I’m interested in seeing who is more accurate. I will also compare the overall page views to the lo-based analysis in an upcoming summary.