Glyn Jackson's Web Design and ColdFusion Blog - Web Design 101

What is PageRank (PR)

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:22:00 +0100

PageRank (PR) is Google's way to measure the importance of a page. This system for weighting importance helps Google search engines to identify sites which clearly show relevance to its contents.

PageRank is measured on a scale of one to ten; ten being the highest a site can be awarded (although only a hand full of sites have a ten).

To obtain PR your sites have to have casting votes, worked out on this simple formula, (simple, well not for me)

Quoting from the original Google paper, PageRank is defined like this: We assume page A has pages T1...Tn which point to it (i.e., are citations).

The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85. There are more details about d in the next section. Also C(A) is defined as the number of links going out of page A. The PageRank of a page A is given as follows:

PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

What is a robots.txt and how is it used?

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:15:00 +0100

The Robots Exclusion Standard or better know as robot.txt is a way to instruct search engine spiders that certain URLs on a site are off limits to them.

Sometimes it is necessary to make URLs off-limits to spiders. A webmaster may not want certain URLs indexed by a search engine; these could include URLs where sensitive information is stored like a backend admin.

Robots.txt is a standard .txt file that must named 'robot', and should always be uploaded to the root domain of a site. [More]

Benefits Of Developing With XHTML And CSS

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:58:00 +0100

Found some articles I wrote back in 2004 which are still relevant today so I decided to post them on my blog enjoy..

Introduction

Every industry has standards; they are put in place to ensure easier understanding and consistency of workmanship. For example, building standards help ensure easier and cost effective home improvement. If you need to replace a door in your home, you can easily visit your local DIY store; pick up a standard door and 99% of the time it will fit straight in without any major modifications!

What Are Web Standards?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), setup and founded in 1994, by Tim Burners-Lee, are an international industry consortium with over 450 global member organisations. They develop common protocols to promote the evolution of the World Wide Web and ensure its interoperability. These protocols are what we know as "web standards".

There are many different standards that have been created by the W3C however we will primarily investigate the benefits of implementing two standards, eXtensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). [More]

Web Design Methodology My Opinion

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:51:00 +0100

The apparent new elements of search engine optimisation and ethical web principles are already shaping the still fairly young web development industry methods upside down.

It's evidential now more than ever, web design is a task that requires many different professional skills. Fashionable web application methodologies even the ones reported on this site have obvious lack of consistency. [More]

Which Methodology?

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:43:00 +0100

The most establish mythologies are normally the most widely used ones in that industry sector. Over the last 20 years a boom in software engineering methodologies has been seen particular in the Object Orientated (OO) development. [More]

What Is A Methodology?

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:36:00 +0100

A methodology is a philosophy, guide or blueprint which provides methods/principles for the field employing it. In the context of information systems, methodologies are strategies with strong focus on gathering information, planning, and design elements.

The belief is by applying standardised methods of working they can foresee problematic areas thus reducing defects, and giving the project a faster turn around. [More]