Brice Cheddarn Development

As in any web industry this day and age, the trends in search engine optimization are hard for SEO professionals to keep up with.  For the web developers, small business owners and casual bloggers, that is especially true.

Thankfully, a few of the most important elements involved in optimizing a website or mobile site aren't likely to change anytime soon.  They aren't even things you need a degree in Physics to understand. 

No matter how much search engines change their algorithms, one thing will always be true:  writing quality content is arguably the best way to improve search rankings for keywords.  In other words, when all of the SEO mumbo jumbo becomes confusing or time consuming, just focus on writing quality, relevant content.  

No matter who is writing the content, or what the content is about, here are a few simple tips that will help to naturally optimize a site thru quality content.

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Since the pseudo death of MySpace -- and likely well before that point -- ColdFusion developers around the world have been trying to find a replacement for their go-to answer when someone asks what big name sites are constructed in the web's oldest programming language.  MySpace was an impressive example to utilize for awhile in the mid 2000s, but the site has since turned into the Walmart of social media and has since changed directions away from CF as it's platform.

Have no fear, there are still plenty of big name ColdFusion websites to impress those inquisitve clients or friends who program in Ruby.  While this list barely scratches the surface of the awesome ColdFusion sites across the web, here are some big name brands using CF as the driving force of their web pressence:

POLITICO:  Politico is a political news organization based in Arlington, Virginia and covers political news with a focus on national politics, Congress, Capitol Hill and the presidential races.  Politico's website includes video features, regular blogs, photo galleries, cartoons and political forums, providing further proof that Washington, D.C. loves Adobe's greatest product.
Page Rank: 8 | Registered: 1998 | Back Links: 4,390

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It's hard to believe that Twitter, one of the most popular social media sites thriving on the web, is already five years old.  Thinking of social media in dog years, Twitter would be around 35 years old which is actually close to the median age of the average tweeter.

The initital "tweet" was sent on March 21, 2006 by co-founder Jack Dorsey.  The company officially launched the website on July 15, 2006. 

Last month, people tweeted an average of 140 million tweets per day.  It took three years for Twitter to gain a billion tweets, but now almost 200 million users post that number every week.  As a result of it's increasing popularity, the company's valuation to approximately $3.7 billion.

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Google Analytics has long been considered one of the most powerful "free" tools for tracking inbound and outbound website traffic.  It logs a plethora of information about the traffic trends on a site that is helpful to small businesses in maintaining a healthy SEO strategy on a budget.

The service captures the simple basics like visits, page views, bounce rates, popular content and popular sources.  It also collects more complex statistics like which keyword phrasesused to find a site, referring sites, traffic sources, time on page, visitor browser stats and average time on site.

Those statistics allow companies to prepare more accurate marketing strategies, construct more-targeted PPC ads and track advertising ROI.  The data gives business owners accurate details on what their customers are most interested in terms of product/content, where people are located, what pages on the site are not performing well, etc.

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According to the Exploring IE Blog, Microsoft's newest version of Internet Explorer 9 was downloaded over 2 million times since its release earlier this week.  The new browser is alleged to have greatly improved support for standards like HTML5 and CSS3, a new ligher design, improved speed and several other new features like privacy controls and "pinning" websites to the taskbar.

Popular website GigaOM notes that users shouldn't be so quick to hop on the IE9 bandwagon.  The install requires a restart, still isn't 100% standards compliant, and has a long way to go in catching up to HTML5 capabilities. 

With the launch of Internet Explorer 9, curiousity peaked about what the new global trends were before heading into the latest round of the Browser Wars.

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Mobile web usage is growing at near the speed of light these days.   That leads many professionals in the search optimization industry to believe that 2011 will be the Year of Mobile SEO.

Yes, mobile search engine optimization is a different world all of its own, similar to other forms of search like organic, local and instant.  Mobile is treated like a different beast when compared to more standard SEO practices and content creation. 

With that in mind, here are a few optimization-related factors to consider when constructing mobile websites:

Page Weight: Page load time on a mobile device is vital to the success of a site for obvious reasons.  Search Engine Journal says that a mobile page should have at least half the load time of the normal version.  A page's latency is likely even more important for mobile search rankings than on a normal website, so it requires a bit simpler, cleaner and more direct design and construction approach.  With mobile sites, bad UI design could indirectly effect search rankings. 

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Recently, Facebook announced that the Like/Recommend functionality will replace the traditional share buttons that many website owners had incorporated into their websites.

Many people had already begun to switch out the Share button in favor of the Like button, despite the fact that the new "like" functionality didn't share as much information on a user's stream.  However, shortly after Facebook made their announcement, users started to notice that their "likes" were being featured in their stream just like the share functionality did.

For those who live in a cave, the Like/Recommend button lets a Facebook user share content with friends on the popular social networking site. When a user clicks the Like button on a website, that article appears in the user's friends' News Feed with a link back to the article.  

The change enhanced the visibility of people’s “likes” by adding thumbnails and meta data from Facebook’s Open Graph Protocol.  This means that when a visitor likes or recommends a page on the web using the button, the functionality sends the relevant meta data from that page back to the user's stream, complete with image and short description, for all of their friends to see rather than just a link with a status message.  With this change, Facebook is giving web developers, website owners and social media professionals more control over how their listings show up in streams.

The change also offered up a chance to enhance a piece of Mango Blog functionality.  

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Domain names act as great vehicles of advertising, promotion and brand extension for companies and individuals, but they can also generate revenue in a few ways.  Domains are good for more than just building websites on; they are also a great alternative investment strategy.    

Since domain investing is a somewhat unknown avenue of online business, it made since to dispel a few common myths about domain names.

Myth One: Social Media Profiles will Replace Domain Names
Myth Busted: Marketing and advertising firms across the globe might have some people believing that the popularity of social media will eventually lead to individuals and small businesses foregoing the creation of an actual website. This myth may be reality for a few small niche demographics around the web, but the benefits of a detailed and interactive website is far more valuable that some are led to belive.  

Purchasing a domain and developing a website offers a more flexible method of promotion than a social media profile.  They also offer a more reputable way to extend a brand name and usually don't come with an ever-changing User Agreement.  

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Having attended and volunteered at several Ignite events in the Phoenix, Arizona area, it was great to see the event finally make its way back to Iowa.  

Ignite is an information exchange for fostering and inspiring the creative community.  In one evening, you hear very passionate speakers from all walks of life talking about their current projects or favorite ideas for just five minutes.   Often times, each "ignite" that is scheduled has a theme topic. 

Presenters can use up to 20 slides and 5 minutes to quickly get the point while making it exciting and engaging.  There are several other guidelines, as well, as organizers try to avoid the "salesman" types.

The first Ignite Cedar Rapids was an opportunity for locals in the Corridor area to share their ideas for enhancing and promoting visual arts in Cedar Rapids. The event was hosted at Gatherings by the Cedar Rapids Visual Arts Commission.

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An article on msnbc.com recently declared, "The Soggies have finally won: Cap'n Crunch is quietly sailing into retirement."  The cause of this alleged retirement?  Apparently, its high sugar content.

With pressure from health activists affecting how PepsiCo and other food companies market their products, the thought was that Quaker Oats was forcing the esteemed Cap'n into retirement.

Not so fast, says the Cap'n himself via his new Facebook and Twitter (@realcapncrunch) accounts.

"Reports of Cap'n Crunch's demise are greatly exaggerated," Quaker said in a statement to Ad Age. "In fact, we just launched an official Facebook page for Cap'n Crunch. Now that our Cap'n Crunch brand is in the social-media space, our adult consumers can stay up to date on all things."

The message on the website reads, "I was out on the seas, but don't worry, I'm back and not going anywhere!"

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