Nerd Blog

New England Patriots will win the Super Bowl ...because they still use ColdFusion

2012-01-29T08:01:35Z

With Super Bowl XLVI (46) a week away, I'm still trying to determine which team I will root for. Normally, I don't care enough about the teams to worry about who to root for. As a fan of football, I usually just watch for the sake of watching. This year, things are a bit different.

Niether the New York Giants nor the New England Patriots are what I would consider "my team." However, both are fun teams to watch and both have an Iowa Hawkeye player on their squad (something that always makes an NFL game interesting to a die-hand Hawkeye fan like myself). The Giants have safety Tyler Sash and the Patriots have linebacker Jeff Tarpinian. The Patriots also have tight end coach Brian Ferentz, who is the son of Iowa football's head coach Kirk Ferentz.

But, after careful investigation, there was one little fact that sealed the deal for who I will be rooting for this year: the Patriots still use ColdFusion to power parts of their website.

At one time, the Patriots website used to be exclusively constructed with ColdFusion. Doing a site search for ".cfm" will produce several results which include links to .cfm pages. But, over the years, they made the decision to switch to a different platform for their website needs.

Though they switched, there are still several areas of the site that still utilize the power of ColdFusion. For example, the Official Patriots Fan Club still employs the framework we all know and love. Any login or registration is processed with CF. The archive section of the website still makes use of CF, as well.

The Patriots actually aren't the only NFL team still using ColdFusion. Five other teams still have CF powering a certain portion of their websites: the Dallas Cowboys (dallascowboys.com), the Detroit Lions (detroitlions.com), the Pittsburgh Steelers (steelers.com), the San Francisco 49ers (49ers.com), and the Indianapolis Colts (colts.com). The New York Giants also used to use CF as the main platform on their site, but have switched away from it in the last year or so.

Of the six total teams still using ColdFusion, four of them made the playoffs this year with the Patriots making it all the way to the Super Bowl.

Coincidence? I think not.

Another Awesome ColdFusion Website: New York Philharmonic

2011-06-14T05:06:50Z

While looking through some recent tweets in Tweet Deck, I noticed that Keith Olbermann mentioned that he would be on the Colbert Report television show soon. He tweeted the announcement along with a link ColbertNation.com. Since Colbert Nation was a site that I had never visited before, I thought I would check it out.

As always with a new site, my hopes were that it would be a ColdFusion website (I'm not a self-labeled ColdFusion Nerd for nothing). While the Colbert site itself wasn't a CF site, I did notice a link on the home page that contained .cfm. So, like any good nerd on a mission, I clicked the link.

That link took me to the New York Philharmonic website. It didn't take long to realize that the whole site was well-constructed with ColdFusion, and is actually pretty awesome. It is chalked full of CF functionality, in addition to well done Flash animation.

While they could definitely use some help in the search optimization department (hint, hint), the design of the site is fresh and engaging. It presents visitors with a ton of information right away, and allows visitors to listen to the great music of the NY Philharmonic right on the site, as well as see any upcoming events via their calendar of events.

Their onsite store and shopping cart are all CF based, holding true to form, and allows visitors to purchase tickets to upcoming events, purchase related merchandise and purchase a membership all with a few simple clicks.

According to Compete.com, the PR7 site averages about 24,000 unique visitors per month. Not too shabby!

If you're a devoted ColdFusion nutcase like myself, make sure to check the Philharmonic site out and/or follow them on Twitter. Since he resides in NY, maybe Ben Nadel can swing over someday to introduce them to the CF community and offer up his services for any redesign efforts in the future.

Twitter Follow Button Plugin for Mango Blog

2011-06-04T08:06:48Z

Twitter recently launched a new Follow Button, enabling users to subscribe to the Twitter feeds of companies and individuals directly from their websites. Users are still be able to preview Twitter profiles before opting to follow them by clicking the username next to the button.

Before this new button, bloggers and developers had to redirect users to their accounts on Twitter before they could opt to follow. Now users can subscribe with a single click

The new Twitter Follow button allowed me yet another opportunity to create a valuable plugin for Mango Blog.

This plugin makes use of the new Twitter functionality within the Mango framework. It allows websites a few different display options like background/color and follower count prefernce. It also offers a few different language options, so that the button can be more flexible.

Download Twitter Follow Button Plugin | More Plugins | Mango Blog

MP3 Player Plugin for Mango Blog

2011-05-24T11:05:15Z

A few months ago, I was contacted about developing a plugin for Simon Hine of HineSight Development in Australia. Simon wanted something that would allow him to play podcast files within a blog post. It seemed like a fun little project, so we developed a rough plan for a simple plugin that would play an MP3 file using a basic audio player from Google.

A simple plugin solution was developed. The plugin was developed to play an MP3 file within a blog post using a few tags within a post or a page. The plugin replaces the tags to display a Google audio player that will play an MP3 file within the post content.

Here is it would look:

[podcast]http://example-website.com/theAudioFile.mp3[/podcast]

Listen to the Podcast

Download Plugin | More Mango Plugins | Mango Blog

The Tags

[podcast] - This custom tag displays the podcast player and any subscribe links included. The link in between the start and end tag is an example of the audio link to your mp3 file. The plugin searches the post for the tag. If it finds the tag match, it performs logic to grab the link from the tag and use it in player.

[podcastlist] - This beginning and end tag will display an archive podcast list in a post or page. By using this start/end tag on a page, it will display the archive list of related posts within a post or a page. Click here for an example in action.

Admin Features

Post Heading - A field that allows for a custom heading to be inserted above the audio player when using the [podcast] tag within a blog post. If a heading is not wanted, simply leave this field blank.

Page Heading - A field that allows for a custom heading to be inserted above the audio archive when using the [podcastlist] tags within a blog page.

Post Category - A field that tells the plugin which category to use when pulling the archive that displays on a page when using the [podcastlist] tag. If the plugin finds a match, it uses the built in dynamic Mango Blog features to query the database for a particular category of posts to display.

iTunes Subscribe Link - A field that stores a subscribe link to a podcast on iTunes, so people can subscribe.

Player Width - A field that stores the default width in pixels for the audio player when embedded into a post.

Player Height - A field that stores the default height in pixels for the audio player when embedded into a post.

Include Download Link in Post - A field that allows the option of including a download link to the audio file being playing by the audio player.

Include Subscribe Links in Post - A field that allows the option of including the subscribe links that are stored in the admin.

In addition to these features, the plugin also features a style sheet, which will allow for adjusting the appearance of the plugin even more if needed.

The plugin is a work-in-progress, but something I am glad Simon requested. I hope I can continue to improve upon it as time allows. Feel free to offer enhancement suggestions.

Download Plugin | More Mango Plugins | Mango Blog

Eight Available Domain Names to Register on Star Wars Day

2011-05-04T09:05:38Z

May Fourth...the day Star Wars fan's around the world celebrate the greatest holiday of the year. This day is considered an unofficial holiday by Star Wars fanatics as a way to honor and celebrate the entire culture and franchise that has developed over the years.

The Star Wars saga is one of the most popular and celebrated science fiction franchises of all time. The origin of this specific date is unclear, since the actual release of the original Star Wars movie came on May 25th, 1977. It's been suggested that May 4th was selected because "May the Force be with you" is a famous quote spoken in the Star Wars films. So, fans commonly say "May the fourth be with you" as a part of the celebration.

ColdFusion's Jedi Master is definitely enjoying the holiday.

Being the nerd I am, it made sense to start my day off with seeing what Star Wars-related domains were available for acquisition. Were there still any available Star Wars domain names worth registering or owning? The quick answer was YES.

If you have some cash lying around, the domain ewoks.com is available for $25,000. Seems a bit high in price, but that's probably a fairly accurate assessment of its worth.

Another deal of a domain is ewok.net, which is for sale for only a mere $6,900. Since most nerds and/or domainers don't have that kind of bank account, I decided to check for a few NEW domains worth registering.

After doing a few basic searches on GoDaddy, as well as a few other registrars, I was pleasantly surprised to see several viable options that might be worth investing in. Here's eight more Star Wars-related domains that are available for purchase, should you feel inspired to create a Star Wars fan site on this beloved holiday...

JediZone.com - A good domain for a forum, and it might also come with some link juice as it appears it was once a site already.

StormTroopers.tv - A TV show dedicated to nothing but Storm Troopers? I'd watch it.

DarthVader.it - Create a tool that changes any quote into a Darth Vader quote.

HanSolo.me - For fans of Han Solo, the universe's favorite smuggler.

LukeSkywalker.co - For fans of the Jedi savior.

JediTalk.net - This is another good domain for a Jedi-related forum.

TheSith.org - Could be a great domain for the Sith, if they ever organized a non-profit organization.

Wookies.net - A perfect domain for a wookie-related dating site?

Darth Vader might say, "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to register a domain is insignificant next to the potential of the Force." Still, it might be kind of fun to have a Star Wars website.

What is Digital Asset Optimization?

2011-04-12T03:04:03Z

In a quest to educate myself in as many areas of search engine optimization as possible, the term Digital Asset Optimization kept popping up.

The process of Digital Asset Optimization (DAO) isn’t exactly new, which means it isn't exactly the new form of search engine optimization. DAO is the holistic approach to SEO. It's a complete process of optimizing online content to make sure digital media is properly indexed.

As Gabriella Sannino at Level-343 adequately puts it, Digital Asset Optimization is really just "full-blown SEO with a fancy acronym." But hey, what computer nerd doesn't like acronyms?

Digital Asset Optimization is an all-encompassing term that applies to written content, videos, images, PDFs, files, style sheets, social media accounts, online user accounts, animation, podcasts, online calendars, mobile applications...you name it. The process includes optimizing file names, image meta data, usernames, etc., to ensure that search engines pick up a all of possible content.

Since search engines are now offering media-specific search options for users, websites with varying content types and quantities can gain a huge advantage by leveraging digital assets and organiztion/optimizing accordingly.

Digital asset optimizers are almost like the Howard Hughes of the SEO profession. DAO relies on concise, targeted words and tags, and an almost Hughes-like obsessive–compulsive behavior. It requires attention to detail and organization.

Is DAO really SEO 2.0 or SEO: The Next Generation or SEO on Steriods? No. It's just the holistic approach to optimizing content. It's just a matter of paying attention to the details.

The Value of a Domain Name

2011-04-11T03:04:45Z

Explaining to someone that I invest in domain names isn't always the easiest of conversations to carry on. That's why a recent article about the domaining industry caught my attention.

The article, titled "Why $10,000 For A Domain Name Is Still Cheap," was written by renouned entrepreneur and domain investor Alan Dunn. In the post, he tries to explain the real importance of a domain name and why domains are more valuable than most assume.

Dunn compares the cost of traditional media like billboards, radio advertising and mobile advertising to the cost of acquiring a domain. He points out that domains have other "intangible factors" like authority that traditional media can never compare to.

Dunn does an awesome job at explaining why more marketing firms and advertising agencies should pay attention to domain names. He does a great job of shedding light on the industry, and in the process opens the doors to more potential buyers. That's something I've been struggling with in my endeavors.

Comparatively speaking, when it comes to the domaining industry I am a very small fish in the pond. I have bought and sold several domains since 2000, but nothing horribly notable or substantial.

Until a few years ago, it was still a hobby. Now, it's something I want to make a living off of. Slowly but surely, the investments and sales tags are increasing in sum.

For me, collecting domains started out as a hobby, just like collecting baseball cards as a kid. Collecting sports cards started off fun, as a way to try support my favorite players or to try and complete as many sets as possible (without actually buying the whole set itself). The more I collected cards, the more business-like I got about it. I didn't just want as many Ken Griffey Jr. cards as I could find, I wanted to super hard to find Upper Deck rookie card.

When I started collecting domains, it started as a fun thing; a joke domain here, a nonsense domain over there. Now, it's mostly business. I don't just want a keyword rich domain with a phrase that's trending, I want an aged, four-letter .com that someone has undervalued (if that's possible).

Where I struggle in the domain industry is convincing potential buyers of why the price is good for the domain. What I have had a hard time explaining to other web professionals, Dunn does an excellent job of in the post.

As Dunn states, "the real question is not how much a domain name costs but how much value the right domain name can bring to your business."

Sometimes people balk at the price tag for a premium domain, but more often than not it's usually because they don't understand the true value of a domain to begin with. Helping to dispel a few common myths about domain names can go a long way.

Thank you Mr. Dunn.

HTML5: A Quick Glance

2011-04-05T03:04:56Z

Unless you've been visiting the planet Tralfamadore for an extended vacation, you've likely heard the buzzword HTML5 thrown around a time or two. Now that the advertising and marketing hipsters have picked up on the trend, HTML5 is the code version of Justin Bieber.

HTML5 is the next evolution of the Hyper Text Markup Language that brings majority of the Internet to life in a browser. It represents an improvement to the way the web performs, making it easier for designers and developers to create awesome websites.

HTML5 also seeks to make the web more efficient for users regardless of the browser or platform. To do that, it introduces several new elements and attributes that reflect today's web needs. With it's highly touted media playback and offline storage features, HTML5 allows sites to directly embed media with just a few simple HTML tags, something that Apple hopes might help phase out Flash and Silverlight. In addition, it adds new interactivity features like drag-and-drop, something familiar to anyone with a Gmail account.

Chrome, FireFox 4 and Safari all support at least some elements of HTML5. IE is starting to support more of it with the release of Internet Explorer 9, but still falls far behind the curve.

Some of the new content structure types include <section>, <article> and <nav>. New information type elements include <video>, <audio>, <time> and <summary>.

Universities Love Using ColdFusion

2011-03-28T07:03:38Z

In my vision quest to find awesome websites that are constructed using the world's greatest programming language, it quickly became evident that ColdFusion is extremely popular on college campuses across the United States. This fact might come as a shock to some web professionals, especially those who continue to persist that ColdFusion should be retired to a nursing home somewhere on the web.

While this post proved to be fairly simple to research, is also turned out to be a major time consumer. As the data began to pile up, the more I kept digging to see just how far the .CFM rabbit hole extended.

By using a simple search method (.cfm site:arizona.edu), and swapping out the school domain for various institutions around the country, I was able to determine just how exhaustive the list would be. The list is nowhere near complete, as that would have taken a few weeks to construct. Despite being incomplete, it still contains some very interesting data.

For example, every university in the Big Ten and Pac 10 Conferences uses ColdFusion somewhere on their campus. The Big 12 Conference has all but one school using CF, while the SEC and ACC have all but two schools using the language.

That means that of the 58 schools in those five major conferences, 53 of them use ColdFusion in some capacity somewhere on their campuses. Another impressive statistic is that of the 8 schools that make up the Ivy League, 6 make use of Adobe's programming language.

Another interesting, yet random fact is that all three major universities in Iowa and Arizona utilize ColdFusion for various aspects of their website needs.

Of course, it should be noted that most of these colleges and universities also use various other web programming languages to meet their web needs. That doesn't change the fact that an inordinate amount of educational institutions make use of ColdFusion, a fact that almost makes me want to go back to college.

Here's a quick look at some of the schools on the list:

BIG TEN
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Wisconsin

PAC 12
Arizona
ASU
California
Colorado
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Utah
Washington
Washington State

ACC
Boston College
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Maryland
Miami
North Carolina
NC State
Virginia Tech
Virginia
Wake Forest

SEC
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
Georgia
Florida
Kentucky
LSU
Mississippi State
Ole Miss
South Carolina
Tennesse
Vanderbilt

BIG 12
Baylor
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech

IVY LEAGUE
Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmoth
Harvard
Penn (Wharton)
Princeton
Yale

MISC SCHOOLS
California State University
Cedarville University
Eastern Carolina University
Emory University
Florida International Unversity
Grace University
Hamilton
Johns Hopkins
Minnesota State University
Ohio University
Pace University
Thomas Jefferson University
University of Dallas
University of Houston
U of Missouri-Kansas City
U of Texas at San Antonio
Utah State University
Virginia College

MISC SCHOOLS
Full Sail University
Lehigh University
University of Chicago
Notre Dame
BYU
University of Northern Iowa
Indiana University IUPUI

INTERNATIONAL
Curtin University
James Cook University
London Metropolitan University
Massey University
Robert Gordon University
University of Alberta
University of Amsterdam
The University of Edinburgh
University of the West of Scotland

What Exactly is an Infographic?

2011-03-23T06:03:25Z

During the past few years, web enthusiasts have seen the rise in popularity of infographics.

Infographics are representations of information, data or knowledge blended together with unique design to create awareness. They are an artistic rendering of facts gathered from a poll or survey and conveyed by graphic elements, including charts, graphs and a wide variety of other methods.

They illustrate information that normally hides in text form, and channel that info in a visually pleasing, instantly understandable manner, making it not only powerful but visually stimulating. Infographics are universally understandable and provide content for people to easily share and link back to.

The infographic acts as a way to visually spread awareness through social networking sites, and will hardly need any pushing to get tweeted about or linked to if it is fun, interactive and not confusing.

Infographics are a creative way to build links. It's technically not the strict definition of "link building" as defined in the world of SEO because the links aren't built manually. Instead, the links are built by people promoting the unique and appealing content that is created on their own through social media, blogging, or other methods of sharing. The visually appealing content is begging to be shared.

Link Bait: anything on a website that encourages links from other websites. It can include content, online tools, downloads, infographics or anything else that another website owner might find compelling enough to link back to.

If the infographic is tailored to trending keywords or keywords the website would ideally like to target, that's a double bonus.

SEO blogs and forums rarely deal with the creation of infographics to get links and exposure because it is a rather involved process. It takes an optimizer, a designer and sometimes a social media addict to collaborate to create a targeted message with the greatest appeal. But the long term benefits of regular infographic generation could be astounding if they go viral.

Eight cool social media infographics
40 Useful and creative infographics
How to Build Links with Infographics

Six Blogging Tips to Help Organic SEO thru Quality Content

2011-03-22T05:03:21Z

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.

Post About Trends: Write posts about what is trending in the relevant/related industry. Using social media feeds, rss feeds or Google Trends, find out what is trending and write a relavant blog post about it.

Use Keywords in Titles: Use keywords and catchy titles to draw readers in. This is another obvious tip, but it is often forgotten or ignored in the interest of a catchy title. When creating a headline for the blog post, be specific and use relevant keywords. If the post is about Unicorn Stickers, then use the phrase in the title.

Post Length: Try to make each blog post at least 200-250 words in length. While there is no magic number of words to optimize a post properly, writing at least a couple of paragraphs worth of content help the cause more than a sentence or two.

Post in the Morning: This is an obvious tip, and more true for the casual posters, but try to post new blog articles first thing in the morning. That way, the post will have all day to collect reads. Just like newspapers, more often than not, people tend to catch up on their blog reading first thing in the morning.

Post Regularly or on a Schedule: Attempt to post at least 2-3 new blog posts a week. Adding fresh content on a regular basis isn't always the easiest, but it is important to ensure that visitors (and spiders) return to the site regularly consume the new content.

Share the Posts: Writing good content is one thing, but letting people know it's there can go a long way to optimizing a site. That's even more true now that search engines are using social media in their algorithms. Once the quality content has been written, share it with friends and followers on social networking sites.

Popular ColdFusion Websites to Name Drop Instead of MySpace

2011-03-21T09:03:20Z

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

UNITED STATES SENATE: Proving that politicans can make the right choice from time to time, the website for the United States Senate, and many of the Senators' websites themselves, are well constructed CF sites. Hopefully the decision to use ColdFusion was a bi-partisan effort.
Page Rank: 9 | Registered: ??? | Back Links: 5,590

HASBRO: Hasbro is a huge international toy and boardgame company. Some of their products might ring a bell: Transformers, G.I. Joe, Mr. Potato Head, Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly and Dungeons & Dragons, just to name a few. Hasbro uses ColdFusion to present visitors to their website with information on their boardgames, toys and other various product lines.
Page Rank: 7 | Registered: 1994 | Back Links: 442

CRAYOLA: Everyone that has every colored in a coloring book knows the name Crayola. The makers of crayons, colored pencils, markers and paints used ColdFusion to construct their colorful website.
Page Rank: 7 | Registered: 1994 | Back Links: 677

PROFESSIONAL GOLFERS ASSOCIATION: The PGA of America is the world's largest working sports organization. Their mission is to promote enjoyment and involvement in golf among the general public, and the PGA entrusts ColdFusion to help them achieve their objective.
Page Rank: 5 | Registered: 1996 | Back Links: 1,040

DIAL: The Dial Corporation is one of the largest manufactures of personal care and household cleaning products. Henkel, the company that owns the Dial brand, uses ColdFusion for a number of their websites.
Page Rank: 4 | Registered: 1995

If anyone has doubts, viewing the source on any of these sites will confirm usage of ColdFusion. Going forward, and with the help of GotCFM.com, the nerds at Brice Cheddarn Development hope to feature one CF website each week in a blog post as a way to get the word out about the awesomeness built with ColdFusion.

GOT CFM?: GotCFM.com is a site dedicated to promoting ColdFusion-related technologies. Rey Bango built the site as an attempt to help people understand why the CF community thinks ColdFusion-centric technologies are a great choice for building scalable and engaging websites. It is a fantastic resource that every CF developer should contribute to and utilze in their CFML evangelism.

Happy 5th Birthday, Twitter

2011-03-21T12:03:46Z

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.

While the Twitter web interface uses the Ruby on Rails framework, there are several ColdFusion applications that interact with the service's API. A great example is the ColdFusion Twitter library on RIA Forge enables developers to integrate CF applications with the popular social media site.

Happy 5th Birthday, Twitter!

Infograph via Digital Surgeons, with stats being based on U.S. usage.

Small Businesses can Take Advantage of Google Analytics for SEO Tracking

2011-03-18T07:03:46Z

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.

Digging into Google Analytics presents several basic options that can enhance a small business SEO strategy.

Keywords: Google Analytics allows users to analyze which keyword phrases are driving traffic from search engines to the website. Many experts point to keyword research being one of the more vital parts of ongoing SEO efforts, and GA provides users with information about the keywords that delivered traffic to their website. By monitoring the keyword data, small businesses can get a better idea of how to optimize their sites and what their visitors are looking for.

Top Content: Analying the top content on a site is one of the best ways to learn how to target visitors while they are on the site. The Top Content feature informs companies what their top performing content is. It shows them what visitors find useful, and/or what content might be ignored or hidden.

Traffic Source: With GA, companies can learn about where visitors are coming to the website from, which will allow for better planning in ongoing SEO. It shows search engine traffic, paid per click traffic, referral websites, social media traffic, and other related information.

Map Overlay: Local search results are picking up steam, and Map Overlay in GA tells you about where the traffic is coming from, location wise. This can help companies to see which areas are their traffic is coming from and which areas they might want to divert their SEO efforts to.

Mobile Statistics: Mobile devices are becoming extremely popular. GA can provide stats on what devices are being used to visit a site, which will help them to build a proper SEO strategy for those users platforms.

Custom Reports: One of the most under appreciated aspects of GA is the ability to create and automate reports in several different formats and containing a wide variety of data. Management loves reports.

Internet Explorer 9 Debuts, but IE's Market Share Continues to Plummet

2011-03-16T08:03:23Z

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.

According to global web statistics provider StatCounter, IE currently holds 45.5% of the total browser market. Firefox has grown to 30.37%, while Google's Chrome browser has jumped to 16.54%. Firefox overtook IE in Europe in December 2010 to become the number one browser in Europe.

"This is the first time that IE has been dethroned from the number one spot in a major territory," explained Aodhan Cullen, the CEO at StatCounter. "This appears to be happening because Google's Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer while Firefox is mainly maintaining its existing share."

In October of 2010 IE's global usage fell below 50%, much to the joy of web developers across the globe. Steady increases by FF and a tripling in Chrome usage has started to make a huge dent in IE's market share, and accounts for almost 17% of the global browser market now.

Chrome is the preferred browser of the nerds at Brice Cheddarn Development, but like any good firm our websites are standards compliant and cross-browser compatible.