One of the things that should be included in any of your website design plans is to choose whether you want to have a dynamic website or a static website. One is not better than the other and your choice should be based on your own research and your needs and wants. There are advantages and disadvantages to each and I'll try to break it down into digestible chunks.
One part of writing website software which can't be overlooked is the overall design of the pages. Besides the HTML that controls the layout, one or more custom style sheets (CSS) are needed to control the appearance of the HTML elements. I have found what I consider some of the best resources in this regard.
When tags were introduced to WordPress, most people expected the tag names to be in lowercase. They weren't, or to be more exact, they weren't forced into lowercase. They use the same format as the category names. It's your choice. There's a problem with this, however, as I'll quickly explain.
If you want to hide and display stuff in your sidebars, or anywhere on your website, you can do it with hidden divisions and JavaScript. Today, I'd like to pass on some JavaScript code I'm actually using on this blog.
Working with images in WordPress isn't difficult, but I've found better ways to include them in blog posts than what's provided by the WordPress admin options alone. To your left is a picture of Matt from the "About Matt" page at Nomadic Matt's Travel Site. I'm using it as an example since I was messing with the image on my PC just a short time ago and because I think he's more photogenic than I am.
If I borrow images from a photography site, I want to make them look their very best. If you have a similar goal, examine how I do it on my blog.
After learning both the iPhone and the iPod Touch use the Safari web browser, the pieces of the puzzle suddenly fit into place. When I posted "But I Only Want QuickTime!", I couldn't fathom why Apple was pushing the Safari web browser in what seemed like an unusual maneuver. Now I know.
In the world of blogging (the "blogosphere", a word I love to hate), a blogroll is supposedly a list of blogs you frequently visit or find valuable in some way. Some people change the name to be "Links" or "Other Places" or some such synonym, but its purpose is pretty much the same.
What happens when a blogroll no longer serves the purpose for which it was intended?
Maybe I should have yelled "Help me, Mr. Wizard!" just a little bit louder.
Yesterday, around 6 pm local time, I was finishing the initial design touches on my "Blog & Article Reviews" blog (you can look, but it won't do any good to look too much; it isn't close to being ready for primetime) when my demonic goddaughter punched some keys on my keyboard and whacked this blog out.
Heizzel (pronounced like the English version, Hazel) is an overly hyperactive 4-year old who hasn't been giving me any peace while I've played surrogate babysitter. Yesterday was no exception. I couldn't survive 5 minutes without being brutalized (I kid you not) by this little hellion.
But… the website blunder was my fault. I had the FTP client up, she came over and punched a bunch of keys and I didn't see what happened (files transfer much faster with this [high speed Internet] connection). A few minutes later, I shut down the computer because her mother came home (and it's her computer) to do her nightly thing with it. It wasn't until I fired it up at about noon, local time today that I found out by email messages from my son in Germany, Hari of Hari's Corner and Stephen of More Than Scratch the Surface that something was terribly wrong.
It took me about an hour to find out that the ".htaccess", "wp-config.php" and "favicon.ico" files had been transferred from my local copy of VideoTyme to the root directory of my website, which just happened to be Untwisted Vortex, this blog.
It's my fault for trying to get some work done, instead of sitting on my duff, and I should have been more careful with the daughter of Satan nearby at all times. Oh well, what can I say? Shiitake happens. From here on out, I need to be extremely careful. I have no idea what effect approximately 18 hours of an unintended redirection has had (other than having sent more than 200 searchers to the wrong blog).
I've recently come across a lot of different articles and comments (too many to specifically mention) that seem to indicate that certain link attributes shouldn't be used. I've come to a couple of conclusions. A little knowledge about link attributes is dangerous. No knowledge about link attributes is extremely dangerous. Links can be corrected, however, with the right information at your disposal.
References
There are two pages at W3Schools which explain links: HTML Links and HTML <a> tag
There are related pages, but it's not necessary to get into them at this point. View the references, at your leisure, to get a basic grasp on link attributes.
Another reference can be found at Wikipedia: Hyperlink
Ready, Aim, Target!
The target attribute is one of the most misunderstood attributes, in my opinion. Some people say to never use it while others say to use it when targeting frames only. The argument that I've seen used the most is that the target attribute will cause other browser tabs and windows to open, which can then be mistaken for popups. This is only true if the attribute is used incorrectly.
The objective is to keep visitors on your website as long as possible, therefore internal pages should open within the same window. If you link to external pages, you want your page to remain open, therefore the target attribute should be used to open an external page in a new window or tab while your page remains available. If you don't use the target attribute, your visitors may click on the external links and never return.
Most modern browsers let the computer user determine how links are handled, either through the defaults or through add-ons. The problem is that most non-tech savvy people never change the defaults which open all links within the same window.
Are we related?
The "rel" attribute is an underused attribute. It defines the relationship between the current document and the target link. Not only is it underused, it isn't understood by most people. Its purpose is to allow external applications, like search engines, know what kind of link it's being used with.
An annoying relationship attribute introduced in recent years is the "nofollow" attribute. It's new enough that W3Schools doesn't list it as a value. I wonder if any entity besides Google really uses it. If you don't know what it's used for by now, you're probably already in trouble with Google.
Conclusion
A little homework can save you a ton of headaches. There's an old saying that goes something like "don't believe everything you hear". The same applies to what you read. As information becomes more abundant on the worldwide web, so too does the misinformation.
(Image source: BioRUST)
Every website has hotspots. I've spent several hours reading eyetracking studies, heatmap studies, and you name it studies. All of these studies show that websites have certain hotspots in common. I'm not going to link to these studies and let you run off and confuse yourself with a lot of contradictions. I'm going to point out some of the things that are the most important and I'll start with getting visitors to look at your site in the first place.
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