After nearly 3 years as a Web Designer, Developer and SEO Technician at one of Newcastle's most prominent rising small businesses, Cheetah Web, we have sadly parted ways. The split has been very amicable and I wish Alkaline Creative (who recently acquired Cheetah Web) all the best in the future.
My current situtation as is stand's has left me with some time to kill and with this I shall be carrying out freelance work. If you require a web developer that is compotent in W3C compliant XHTML and CSS and is proficient in PHP & SEO then drop me a line.
Running parralel with this I will be looking for a new position in the myriad of North-East agencies and development companies.
>> Read more about Available for freelance opportunities
I have temporarily removed commenting on the site as I was attacked whilst away on holiday by a variety of spammers. This is most certainly making me move to WordPress.com in the next couple of weeks.
>> Read more about Removed Commenting
Just a personal update. Having been put on the sidelines for the past week with a viral stomach bug I have got nothing done this week. I had a few projects I wanted to get sorted at my full-time employer and also on my freelance side. The workload completion this week: Nada!
Oh well, hoping I am going to be better next week.
>> Read more about Stomach bugs are just plain annoying
As a full-time designer & developer I have been in the wrong place at the wrong time to hear many a developer utter the word's "We are going to have to re-write the whole site!"
Yes, I am referring to the website's that have been designed for client's who were either unaware of the impact of SEO on their website, not offered the SEO solution that a design company offers (if) or they were just too tight to fork out the money to invest in their website.
Developer's have built the site with no SEO in mind and have disregarded any optimisation at all because it "wasn't in the spec document". This results in the website being built in such a fashion that stop's it from being uncrawlable, obtrusive and simply confusing to the search robot's. If only the developers had deviated just ever so slightly from the project spec and done some of the following basic, and simple, fundamental SEO development tips:
>> Read more about All new development projects should have search engines in mind
Some of you may have noticed my lack of news posting recently and that is purely my fault. I have been hooked once again by the scurge that is World Of Warcraft and this is taking up alot of my time again. Plus spending time with my girlfriend and working flat out have had their implication's on my free time.
Some of you may have noticed some very nasty and obscene comment spam being posted on some of my more popular stories.
>> Read more about Apologies
It's been just under a month since Guitar Hero II came out for the Xbox360 and I am glad to say that the novelty still has not worn off. OK, I might be suffering from bout's of rage that remind me of not being able to beat M. Bison on Street Fighter II Turbo on the SNES and feel like I am starting to suffer from Arthritis!
But nevertheless it's still a blinding game.
I have nearly completed all of medium with 5 stars, which isn't bad considering I ain't had much time to play etc, so hopefully that will be complete soon. Well, by soon, I mean tonight as I have the house to myself and a nice crate of fosters to help me along :)
>> Read more about The novelty aint gone yet
Seems like Volkswagen have been busted good and proper! Only last week did the Product & Marketing Manager, Kevin Gough Sr., at Google Enterprise feature the Volkswagen site giving them praise for their slick design. However, what he failed to notice is that at the official website vw.com it seems as if Volkswagen have gone down the same road as BMW and added some Keyword Stuffing into their site.
Barry Schwartz has reported at SEL that they were caught using a stuffing method called visibility: hidden. This is a basically CSS class that you can hide text, items or literally anything inside the containing element, in VW's case <div class="invisibleContent">. When I say hide, I mean hidden from users like you and me when we view their website, but it still shows in the source code to the bot's and anyone else that cares to look.
>> Read more about Google passing link juice to black hat Volkswagen
Apologies for the recent glitch in the site with regards to commenting. I was made aware of it when looking through my server logs that user's could not post comments due to an error in the sql database. I just thought no-one wanted to post :)
This is now fixed and users should be able to add comments to their hearts content now.
Now we shall see if people want to post or if I am infact unpopular - lol
>> Read more about Commenting now fixed
It's that time of the year again where everyone's upto the April Fool's pranks.
Google are at it again with their TiSP prank. Yes, you read it right: "a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online connectivity via users' plumbing systems".
On a semi-google related matter, it appears as if Matt Cutt's blog has been hacked. Call it a prank, or call it unfortunate timing but if it is a prank, then a few people over at SEL fell for it. Oh, and their own April Fool's prank: CuttCon.
Hope ya had some good April Fool's Jokes played on ya. Had it not been Sunday I would have played some MSN at work jokes.
>> Read more about That time of year again
Just a little update to say that I am currently experiencing some feed problems.
If you encounter double posts in your feed readers then I apologise to you. I ain't trying to spam you - honestly ;)
>> Read more about Feed problems
Most of you won't know this, but I am an avid collector of football programs. (Soccer to the Americans). Mostly I collect Newcastle United FC programs, but every once in a while I will buy cup draws etc. Well, whilst I was browsing the Other Paper & Ephemera section on Ebay I came across someone selling a Post-It note reminder to buy my lottery numbers! I've seen some crazy items listed on eBay before but this is most certainly the wierdest.
>> Read more about Ebayer sells post it note reminding him to buy lottery ticket
Everyone’s blogs are starting to look the same; that goes without saying, but the latest trend seems to be the addition to blogs of Blog Bling. It’s catching on in a tacky way much like those horrendous MySpace customizable CSS profiles. But irrespective of how tacky - you still want it, don't ya!
>> Read more about 5 sure fire ways to add tacky Blog Bling to your blog
Clients are wonderful. Speaking to a self-employed client is even better. The reason I love speaking to small businesses & self employed clients is because they are so passionate about their company. They want their company to be perceived by potential customers as being the most honest and trustworthy company out there. The best of the best!. However, these types of clients have a downside. They are so passionate about their new website that they fire off buzzwords that they simply have no understanding as to how hard it is going to achieve that look for their brand/company. Confused? So am I most of the time.
Let’s take a made up client called Bob’s Electrical Engineers. His core business is small electrical installations and repairs. He has a client list of around 200 customers and those customers range from residential customers to small businesses with a maximum of 5-10 employees. The aim of his new website is to attract new business and broaden his customer reach. He’s thinking about expanding the business and he thinks a new website will help him immensely. He has no budget for marketing and can only spend about £700 on a new website. That’s all fair-game in my opinion, it’s what I help do in my current role of a Website Designer day in and day out. After finding all this out it’s now my turn to ask him the dreaded question: What do you want your new website to look like?
>> Read more about Top 5 annoying Buzzwords clients give you when designing their new website
Just a little message to say I will be doing some backend updates to the site and it wil be done live as I don't have the time to do them on a testing station.
So basically, if you see anything strange on the site then it's probably me breaking something :)
>> Read more about Just an update
Firstly: Apologies for not posting anything in the past couple of weeks.
Secondly: Apologies for not posting anything in the past couple of weeks.
I've been hella busy with alot of work and ongoing projects that I have been pushing to the side and hopefully I can get these finished before the close of the new year. If I don't then they will just continue to lay dormant.
>> Read more about A little update
Well gang, the new website about me, Kev Strong, has finally been released!
This started out as a project on the side for me, but the more I worked on it, the more ideas and functionality I thought about!
>> Read more about Its launched
