Websites, metatags , etc. - anyone seriously good?

[riverking]

I need to get an active website up & running quickly (say 6 weeks from now).

It has to be GOOD, not flashy but functionally top notch. It also has to achieve prominance in search engines which somebody once told me was down to metatags?

Anybody up for it. Stress you need to be GOOD.
£££

Post advice or pm me if you prefer. Away from tomorrow as part of the project but back next week and will try to logon in meantime.

 

[Mike Werner]

Very few search engines use meta tags nowadays. Only way to get up in the search engines is sites linking to you, and you linking to top sites.

Also, register your site with the google and yahoo directories.

 

[judge]

Steve,

The advice you were given was a tad old school, once upon a time META TAGS was where it was at in achieving good search engine responses*. Not so now as webcrawlers and spiders are all the rage and they are more interested in activity (how many hits the site gets) and referral from other sites (i.e. you site linked on other busy sites) and content (how often the content of the site is updated).

META tags are no bad thing in a well formed site but there is so much more that needs doing.

Oh and search engines are not a big fan of flash authored sites, by all means have some flash content on your site but not the other way around.

A well designed site takes all the above into account and doesn't just look nice.

* Not that zillions of web services companies won't promise you the earth with their search engine optimisation services

You can have that free consultancy on me

 

[riverking]

Steve,

The advice you were given was a tad old school, once upon a time META TAGS was where it was at in achieving good search engine responses*. Not so now as webcrawlers and spiders are all the rage and they are more interested in activity (how many hits the site gets) and referral from other sites (i.e. you site linked on other busy sites) and content (how often the content of the site is updated).

META tags are no bad thing in a well formed site but there is so much more that needs doing.

Oh and search engines are not a big fan of flash authored sites, by all means have some flash content on your site but not the other way around.

A well designed site takes all the above into account and doesn't just look nice.

* Not that zillions of web services companies won't promise you the earth with their search engine optimisation services

You can have that free consultancy on me

Worse than a bloody builder, how much, how long, how good.

Ps. Got a 'still in the box' legit Dreamweaver MX which one of our lads conned me into buying. Any good or has been superceded by flishlashmakerturbo at a tenth of the price? (freestuff - don't even go there)

 

[Sergeant Pluck]

Ps. Got a 'still in the box' legit Dreamweaver MX which one of our lads conned me into buying. Any good or has been superceded by flishlashmakerturbo at a tenth of the price? (freestuff - don't even go there)

'Design' and 'build' aren't usually the same thing. Dreamweaver is an excellent package but it's only as good as the person thats using it, if that makes sense. A beginner will get a basic working website out of it, a pro will get maybe a nice css driven site, (perhaps, if thats what rings your bell), that works perfectly.... Usually programmers and developers won't use a WYSIWYG package like Dreamweaver. In either case, it can still look 'orrible if it hasn't been designed well, and be a useability nightmare if care hasn't been taken at the planning stages.

 

[judge]

'Design' and 'build' aren't usually the same thing. Dreamweaver is an excellent package but it's only as good as the person thats using it, if that makes sense. A beginner will get a basic working website out of it, a pro will get maybe a nice css driven site, (perhaps, if thats what rings your bell), that works perfectly.... Usually programmers and developers won't use a WYSIWYG package like Dreamweaver. In either case, it can still look 'orrible if it hasn't been designed well, and be a useability nightmare if care hasn't been taken at the planning stages.

S'funny I was going to mention your good self having had a little look at your portfolio recently but dare I had pitched you as a mere web designer

That said the advice is sound and I couldn't agree me, in fact I just suggested to Riverking that a Stradivarius in the wrong hands still sounds like a stangled cat

Dreamweaver is a fine package but a good developer will cut a fine site in Notepad or any other text editor

(you can guess what I cut my teeth on )

 

[riverking]

Thanks Guys, wasn't thinking of using either Dreamweaver or the Strad myself

But much as I would have liked to uncover a Strad, I'm afraid it's just the dreamweaver - just asking what to do with it - most computor gear I get conned into buying seems to be worthless the following day - is it saleable?

 

[Sergeant Pluck]

S'funny I was going to mention your good self having had a little look at your portfolio recently but dare I had pitched you as a mere web designer

*mere* web designer?! How very dare you...

Actually I do stick mostly to front-end and brand, and 'user-experience' (whatever that means ) - and leave the buildy stuff to the techies but most of my clients now want full-on dynamic and scaleable Flash so I've doing a lot of that recently too. I wouldn't want to offer myself up for this job Riverking, partly cos I'm always too bleedin busy but also because whilst I can do 'build', it's not really my forte and probably best left to those who can do it better than me.

 

[judge]

I get conned into buying seems to be worthless the following day - is it saleable?

Unless you were thinking of moving into the wed design sphere I'd say you were mis-sold this one - great though it is I'd not have wanted to cut my teeth on it.

Sale-able? Why yes, contrary to popular belief some people do actually by legit software titles and this is a current title so should have a market. eBay should be your friend or maybe even try here, though I'd not bother with anyone for whom Bittorrent turns up as a 'keyword' in their posts

 

[Steve]

though I'd not bother with anyone for whom Bittorrent turns up as a 'keyword' in their posts

 

[riverking]

I bought it 'cause a lad who used to work for me said if I bought it we could save a fortune on what we were paying for web stuff. He could sort it all.
I did, He didn't, he's gone, I'm still here and so is the Dreamweaver.

Bittorent - wtf - you're all just showing off now. Is it anything to do with variation of Keffective due to to negative temperature coefficient of reactivity?

 

[judge]

Bittorent - wtf - you're all just showing off now. Is it anything to do with variation of Keffective due to to negative temperature coefficient of reactivity?

Not sure but if you had any files on your computer relating to that then you could share it with others

 

[allan]

Riverking,

Agreeing with the advice so far about getting other sites to link to your site will push you up the google directory also I have discovered in the past it doesn’t hurt to have a link to the google search engine on your site http://www.google.com/searchcode.html

Add to that a sneaky trick I have heard some would use is to setup lots of dummy web sites with just enough content to make them look legit and have them link back to your site. Lets face it domain names now only cost about £3 a year or less in some cases, try http://www.ukreg.com . I dabble in dot.net amongst other duties and can vouch for design and build being very different, tech stuff is easy what you don’t know you can get from a book but the design takes a bit more time and talent. That’s why graphic designers earn more than me. :-(


Allan

 

[Bateman]

Have you considered purchasing a ready made dreamweaver template - there are some pretty good ones available that offer a half-decent amount of functionality and are pretty straightforward to use if you know the dreamweaver basics. They usually have a bit of nice flash animation in, and come in all sorts of styles to suit all sorts of needs. Try this site for starters - considerably cheaper than getting a designer in.

 

[Rabbitson]

Nice tip about the Yahoo and Google directories, thanks Mike.

I also didn't know that adding a Google search box to your site could help . .. . interesting

Also, just to throw in another opinion, CMS systems (Content Management Systems) such as Mambo or Drupal are good for an easily to construct, flexible site if you don't need too much complex functionality, the advantage of these being that they're free (open-source) óffer more flexibility than pre-purchased templates, and you don't need to be an expert in Flash/Dreamweaver in order to use them.

Maybe that helps.

David

 

[Steptoe]

Riverking, can i sell you a texas 480 laptop , i have a receipt, it's all legit ,

it'll tune up all your bi-torents

 

[longdog]

Ps. Got a 'still in the box' legit Dreamweaver MX which one of our lads conned me into buying. Any good or has been superceded by flishlashmakerturbo at a tenth of the price? (freestuff - don't even go there)

I did my website building using Netscape Composer, but if you don't want that old Dreamweaver MX thingy, then I'll take it off your hands as a favour!

 

[Mikey]

Away from tomorrow as part of the project but back next week and will try to logon in meantime.

This isn't going to help you and is not meant to be a thread hijack but could this project affect my holiday plans for next year?