Redirect Moved or Renamed HTML Pages Using 301

In the previous post, we discussed the overview of the importance of creating a customized 404 html page so as to provide visitors a way to navigate back to your site through the links provided in the notfound page.

There are instances where we need to rename some URLs of our indexed web pages, other times, move them to different locations or directories, or even transfer them to totally different domain. And consequently, visitors may encounter not found page. To avoid losing visitors and search engine rankings, you can point the old indexed urls to the newly updated urls by using redirection.

The redirection process can be done by inputing some line of directives in .htaccess. To open the .htaccess, see the instruction in the previous post. Here's what to put in the .htaccess file: redirect 301 /old/old.html http://www.yourdomain.com/new.html. The old.html page under old folder is really the old filename, without the "http://www"  and next to it, sepatated with a space, is the complete url of new file. As simple as that!

After that final touch on .htaccess, you can then upload it and check whether you did it successfully. Enter the old url in the address bar and see if it is redirected to the new page you pointed to. If a page not found is displayed, you probably made some wrong inputs in the .htaccess. Just make sure that urls inputted are valid and the format of the directive line is correctly followed.

Creating Customized 404 File Not Found HTML Page

Okay, you enter a url of a site in the address bar of your browser or you navigate from one page to another and what your browser displays is an error: page not found. And you just hit the back buttom to your disappointment. File not found errors are encountered when a url is typed incorrectly or the file has been removed or renamed.

For webmasters, creating a customized 404 file not found page is helpful to maintain the focus of visitors on your site. If the site is hosted on Apache servers, a simple tweak on the .htaccess file does the magic. For sites hosted on non-Apache servers, it is advisable to ask help from the hosting provider about 404 error page customization.

To create a customized 404 file not found page, locate the .htaccess file in the root directory of your site and add the following: ErrorDocument 404 /notfound.html. The "notfound.html" is the page that is going to be displayed when the typed url is not found. This page must provide some sort of links going to your site, it can be a link to the home page or to the sitemap.

When the customized error page is done, it must be uploaded along with the .htaccess file to your site. Make sure that the created customized notfound page works as expected, with all the links on it.

In summary, a customized 404 page may prevent losing of visitors by providing links relative to site content. It is a good practice to save visitors and giving them ways to discover your pages.

Online Portfolio and Presentability

Most portfolio sites in the internet are flash based. The reason perhaps why many web designers put their sample works in a flash is because of the "coolness" effect of flash websites. And it is a way of making an
impression for potential employers.

With the proliferation of flash folio sites, some ojectives of having the your sample works showcased online are often overlooked. Some sites are so sophisticatedly cool that records of accomplishments or gallery of
artworks are barely noticeable. Complex animations and rocking audios gets more attention than the list of clients they have serviced.

Flash websites have the tendency of loading very slow in many browsers. Though the site may look cool, the loading speed may suck up and may take away impressive points from the reviewer. It is best to have just enough balance between visual presentation and good usability.

You may opt for other web technologies and techniques in presenting your works. A nice javascript gallery may suffice for your need if you are not feeling those moving visuals created in flash. With good design and
layout, your folio page may look impressive and elegant even with just a lighbox gallery.

It is important to keep in mind that a folio site is a showcase of your  worth as designer. Making it a kick-ass page is not at all admonished, so long as there's a way for your works to speak for themselves in the page,
and the usability of the site is not in ruin. The presentability of your site may reflect your disposition as a career person, so furnish it with right elegance, creativity, and passion.  

Online Portfolio 101 for Web Design Applications

Almost all employers in web development industry today require that applicants who wish to become part of their company have to showcase their sample works through live links online. This is essentially important for aspiring candidates who are fresh graduates or career shifters who want an entry level position in web development industry.

For web and graphic design outputs, it is now preferred that they are showcased in a web gallery or similar web pages. Gone are the days when they are just contained in a flash drive or a colorful CD.

It is not uncommon that many applicants today are just copying the works of other people. They claim total ownership of other people's output. They trick potential employers about their real measure of their talent or laziness. Other applicants, to make the stealing less obvious, make some minor modifications on the existing artwork or design.

Some employers demand records of clients from the applicants. They want to see the actual service the applicants have rendered to their clients. They want to assess professionalism of work through scrutiny on clients satisfaction or finished outputs. It is for this reason that applicants must provide honest and professional-looking sets of their works.

Examinations are often provided for applicants and if the folio is nothing but steals from other peoples' effort, credibility maybe put under scrutiny. To put your name into the shortlist of employers, you must showcase the output of your creativity with utmost confidence. Not any form of deceit must come to mind when applying for an opportunity in creative industry. If not that confident in diving into competition, an applicant may consider more practice of his craft and devout more time in honing his skills.

We are going to examine the existing trends in online portfolio making in the upcoming post.

Blog Commenting Best Practices - Part 2

In the previous post, I talked about the importance of sensible and relevant blog commenting. Granted that you already prepared your sensible comment/s, what would be your approach in the insertion of links?

You can put your name in the name text field and the url of your site in the website text field. Some say that it is not a good practice in link building because you are making efforts to rank your name instead of your keywords. But the point of doing this is either you really want your name to get ranked by search engines so that you will get some web exposures along with the services/products associated with you or you want the site owner to trust you (even if your name is fictitious) in your comments.

After creating a relevant and substancial comment, you can then proceed in the insertion of links in the body of the comment with your keyword in anchor text. You just have to be reminded that you have to do it naturally and not spam-looking. You can make it more natural and easy to make comments if you only do it on blogs with articles related to your keywords. For example, you are commenting to a meditation-related article and you are inserting your keywords related to machineries. The site owner if not dumb enough will only delete your comment for the simple reason of irrelevance.

You can put your keyword in the name text field and the url of the page from which your keyword resides in the website text field. Then at the bottom of your sensible comment, you can put your name, without attaching a link. That way, you are making your comment credible and sincere, and if somebody wants to react on your comment, he can address you by name and not through keywords you are trying to link build.

In summary, just make your comments go natural. Make it a practice to comment with a sincere reaction in mind first and not your selfish link building goal go ahead of weight. Always put your name in every comment you get into.

Blog Commenting Best Practices - Part 1

Blog commenting if properly executed can be very effective in getting links pointing to your site. Link building through blog commenting is easy if you know the seamless way of doing it.

Today, many blog comments are pretty spammy and really out of sense. You can see comments that are totally out of relevance to the post. Those "comments" do not even deserved to be called comments at all, you know what I mean. Comments can be agreement or disagreement to a certain idea, thought or statement and not anything that has no sense, whatsoever.

Some of the spammy comments I've observed include just a plain, effortless and insincere thank you to a post. Other comments are even nonsense mentions of themes, the design of site, the subscribability of the page. Some stupid questions like "how did you do that?" are also common, along with "I subscribe to your RSS", "you helped me in my assignment", etc, etc. One thing these "comments" have in common? Irrelevance! Some site owners are inteligent and they knew that those kinds of comments are nothing but garbage spams. And these comments are just thrown by the site owner in the thrash.

In order to gain respect in link building, be respectful in commenting. Comment sensibly. Post sincere comments, or at least close to being really involved in the post.