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June ABCs of Web Design Newsletter

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Introductory comments

I just landed a full-time contract job doing user interface design work for three web applications and they want me to redesign their intranet and external web site based on my web site conversion experience. I am really excited about this job! I also just completed a bid for a very large e-commerce web site. If I get this job, I will be able to write a lot of articles and newsletters about this one!

New Testimonial

Hi Theresa, I've added some new web pages, based on your style of web design optimization, since you optimized our web site a few years ago. I wanted to let you know that our rankings in Google are now in the top 3, on almost every search we've conducted (most of them are in 1st place)—without using quotes to call out specific phrases. This is in searches that result in over 20,000 pages per search. We're backlogged with orders until late June, possibly July. You ROCK!” Diana Holycross, Tiles with Style.

Question of the month

Question: This month’s question comes from Randall Rust, he asks “Theresa, When I check a site's Google page rank, I am given a number on a scale of 10. For instance, r2communications' rank is 5/10. Is five representative of 50%? Is a rank of 1 better than 10, or vice versa? It seems to me that page rank is meaningless unless the URL is coupled with a search term.”

Answer: Great question! What is PageRank? Most search engines are thought to place emphasis on link popularity in their ranking algorithm--the number of sites pointing to your site is what determines your link popularity, and the more links there are, the higher your site ranking. This rating applies only to high-quality sites--not just to any site that will give you a link. Google uses a ranking algorithm they call PageRank™. The inventors of Google reasoned that, if someone puts a link from their site to yours, they are essentially "voting" for the quality of content on your site. The idea is based on the fact that people will most likely link to sites that they want their visitors to see--so they are not going to link to junk. PageRank is a measurement of the links you have coming to your site. Not only does it measure the quantity, but it also measures the quality of the links (quality of the sites).

To determine your site’s PageRank, download the Google toolbar (toolbar.google.com) and go to your site. Place your cursor over the PageRank bar. A box will appear beside your cursor and tell you your site’s PageRank and your rank “X/10.” And yes, different pages on your site can have different PageRanks. Most of the pages on my Web site have jumped in rating from 3 to 5. Right now, most of my pages are settled at a PageRank of 4, but I am trying to get that ranking higher.

Recent Clients of W-edge design:

Moonhorse Art Studio
PC Flyer
Lash Publications
Old World Kennel
Photo Alchemy
Medifocus
PDT Communications

Wrap up

The power of the Internet amazes me. I just got off the phone with a guy in England who called to talk to me about doing some web site conversion work for a web site. I also did a bid for a company in Japan not too long ago. Feel free to email me any questions! Thanks for reading my newsletter.

Please send all questions to theresaw@columbus.rr.com.

To see the articles from my print web column, go to http://www.w-edge.com/articles.htm

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