Twitter widget is it damaging your website?

Compliance to standards is a basic requirement for website / search engine optimisation.  In a recent exercise around this issue we discovered that the Twitter website widget is not actually compliant.  As such this means that your entire web page/e, where you have the widget, may be forcing non compliance and therefore damaging your website's performance.

To check your website for compliance http://validator.w3.org%20target=/and enter your website address in the box

It is however really easy to fix.  Within the code of your page where the Twitter widget is you will find this line of code:

<ul id="twitter_update_list">ul> This the culprit. So just add
<li></li> so that is looks like this:
<ul id="twitter_update_list"><li></li></ul>

That is it. You are done.

If the W3C is still showing problems after fixing this one or if you want help to fix it give us a call or send us an e-mail.

Website optimisation and url canonicalization

Canonicalization is a term that relates to the domain name (URL) of your website.  It is important as most people do not realise that search engines view the domain name (URL) http://www.yoursite.co.uk and http://yoursite.co.uk as being totally independent of each other.

To see if your website  may be at risk try this in another browser window.  Enter the url of your website using both http://www. and just http://.  If they both work your website may be being penalised by search engines for one of the biggest sins of all - "duplicate content".

Fortunately the answer to the problem is really simple.  Add a .htaccess file to your server in the same directory as your home page.

The content of the .htaccess file should be:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourwebsite\.co.uk
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk/$1 [R=301,L]

Just replace "yourwebsite" with your actual url.  That is it!  The .htaccess file  basically redirects all calls to http://yoursite.co.uk to http://www.yoursite.co.uk.  This consolidates all your existing links and prevents search engines from downgrading your website due to duplicate content issues.


You will be amazed what the effect can be..   in just three lines of code.  If you think there may a problem with your website but not sure how to go about things.  Give us a call or drop us an e-mail and we will see what we can do.

Good luck.
PS the code cannot be written in a word processor as they add hidden characters to format text.  Use notepad or something similar.  You will need an ftp programme to upload the file to your server.

Unemployed what next?

The economic crisis has caused a lot of heart ache for those who no longer have jobs. But what are you waiting for? You have skills that people want right now but not necessarily afford on a full time basis.

The world has changed, does it stop?  But the job market is not likely to improve. So instead of joining the treadmill with everyone else.  Maybe it is time to offer your services on a freelance basis. Let's face it people still need people with skills and are willing to pay a service provider. So why not start your own business.

These days what do you need? A telephone, computer, determination and a sense of worth. Armed with these you should be working toward something for yourself and family. Something worth working for; your own business. Even if it is short term at least you can show future employers that you have belief in yourself and the skills you have obtained.

We can all play the "what if game" and do nothing. Or even worse the "if only game" and do even less. But what you have is a track record in a skill that your last company paid you for. So embrace it and get out there to provide your skills to those who need it right now.  These are probably like minded people who have made the same decision.

It may seems like a big leap, but you have read the papers and seen the news, things will get worse before they get better. The government is relying on "green shoot" companies to drive the country forward. So in reality denying your community your skill set is actually delaying the recovery process.

The things to do is to network. Join your local chamber of commerce or business club.  You will quickly find people, who have dome the same as you, who need your skills.  In our experience you will often meet people who are happy to exchange skills instead of wanting cash all the time.  This is how the world of commerce started.

The business essentials are a website, business cards and letter headed paper. This is a really small investment to make.

So don't let this situation get you down. Look at it as an opportunity. After all what is the alternative? We are here to help you and our sister company Services Web Design can help to get your Internet presence going from just £199.

So don't wait get started.  If you need help or guidance we are here to provide it.  We have been there and done it.  Now it is time for you to begin.