Articles in the Web Design Category
When James asked, “Are Bloggers Creating Their Own Sweatshop?” we discussed what a blog is, and what it isn’t. Ok, so our blog isn’t our product, it’s our platform, right? Why put so much time into maintaining a dynamic site? Couldn’t a static website be just as effective as a business card, portfolio, or sales rep?
Yes… & No…
A site’s effectiveness is measured on many scales. One must consider visibility, function, conversion, and return on investment. All of these factors are influenced by your readers and your content.
A Static Site
- The Business Card
- The C.V. or Resume
If your site offers your contact details and a description of your services/business, it is a business card. But, as with the cards you keep in your pocket, the best way to get your card into the hands of your potential customers and clients is to give it to them. This is 100% “push” marketing. Almost everyone who visits your site already knew about you and what you do. They may even be existing clients/customers.
If you’ve added details of your past success, gigs, clips, testimonials, etc. you’ve taken your business card site one step further. Now you’ve got a C.V. or Resume. This is where you not only give your existing contacts a way to reach you but also a way to see what you do. With this additional information they can evaluate your services/products and decide to contact you to get more information or place an order. 80% “push”, 20% “pull”. You’re still doing the majority of promotion but the site is making more conversions and your portfolio will begin to bring “loose change” traffic based on key words (ie. keywords) in your services and products.
A Dynamic Site
Now you’ve decided to step up another notch. This is where you can take one route or the other. The first maximizes your return on investment, it puts in place your potential income streams, and begins promoting product from the beginning. The second is usually done first, because most people don’t realize they need the first to make the second’s ROI (return on investment) profitable or they begin as a hobby and later realize their hobby could make them money.
- The Catalog
Before you develop your blog, I recommend you establish your catalog. A catalog site is not necessarily a list of products with a fully integrated shopping cart. In the simplest terms, a catalog is a showcase of marketable goods and services. Each good/service should have its own sales page, optimized for search with clear calls to action and compelling copy.
Your products/services don’t even have to be your own. If you can recommend useful things to people who would be interested in your CV/Resume you can affiliate and make money in commissions.
Once you have a solid catalog your site is ready for a fourth dimension.
- The Blog
The purpose of the blog isn’t to sell content. It’s soul reason for being is to give your potential customers exactly what they initially arrived at your site seeking. Your blog content is written in a way that encourages indexing and sharing. You want to maximize your blog’s reach.
A blog has the greatest potential for “pull” marketing. You can spend less time actively handing out business cards because your customers are handing them out for you. You’re giving each visitor exactly what they want and word-of-mouth fires up with positive reviews and natural testimonials. Friends tell friends, who tell friends, to the full six degrees of separation.
And, because you update frequently, search engines tell everyone who asks about something you write about that you’re in the know, right now. Search engines LOVE fresh content, in the eyes of those little bots if it’s new its news. If your site was established ten years ago and hasn’t been changed since the search engines don’t come back to look at you. It assumes you’ve said all you’re going to say. It wants to see what people are saying today, not ten years ago.
And, because you’re giving away your blog content for free, customers are getting what they need, loving what they get, signing up for more of what they want, and giving you free access to the upsell.
Building On Firm Foundations
Blogs have the potential to grow larger still. They break out of blog bindings into networks and communities. Every stage increases visibility, functionality, conversion, and return on investment. But you can see why blogging for free isn’t really blogging for free at all. If you approach your site with the mind of building a marketing platform, you build a business, not just a blog.
Want to take your site to the next level? Yep, that’s the business I’m in. Contact me to find out how to put together, the best showcase for your products and services, the best web solution for your business.
Did you know that CSS is a language developed by web programmers who needed a way to have more control and flexibility when customizing the design and layout of sites on the net?
In recent years, font types, colors, and images were directly fed into a webpage with static HTML. Individual pages often mirrored others on the site with minimal changes made where content differed. The site design elements, that carried over from page to page, were copied to every single page of the site. This made .html pages very chunky increasing load time and required storage space.
So what changed?
With the introduction of CSS we became able to introduce page-wide style commands in the header of each page. The header was a centralized place to make changes across a full page but it still wasn’t enough to give us the freedom to make site-wide changes in a time effective way.
With the introduction of PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) and ASP (Active Server Pages) however, webpages became fluid. Each page could be made ‘on-the-fly’ drawing on information that came from other webpages, other websites, and from databases around the world. With this freedom to weave information into a page we were able to step away from styling each page individually and create site-wide changes that influenced multiple pages with a single edit.
These days, .css is often the extension of a page in your site. It’s known as a ‘Style Sheet‘ and it influences your sites design and layout. The page itself is never seen by the average users of your site but the information affects the way they see everything.
Calling on Style!
In order for a style sheet to have an effect on a webpages design it needs to be ‘called’ as the site is loading. A simple command in the header of the site (between the <head> & the </head> tags), known as an ‘include’ or ‘link’ calls the style sheet. As the page loads it looks for the ‘include’ and adds that information as if it were a part of the original page, then translates the information in the style sheet, making changes to the way your page is viewed in your visitors browser.
If you have a chance, look at any of your websites rendered page and compare them with the raw code you can see when you ‘View Source’. The pages will differ based on the information ‘called’ during the loading of the page.
On PHP* pages an ‘include’ will often look like this:
<?php
include(“stylesheet.css”);
?>
You can use standard URL addresses to call pages and these can be used for all kinds of included content, not just style sheets.
However, Cascading Style Sheets have become so commonly used that new standards for calling them were created within the infrastructure the Internet.
Such as this <link> tag:
<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”http://www.writersroundabout.com/wp-content/themes/RLS-Rebecca/style.css” type=”text/css” media=”screen” />
Either method will effectively add the style sheet information to your Web page. Giving you an opportunity to dynamically affect changes across your site by updating the instance in a single, centralized location.
Want to learn more about Cascading Style Sheets? Let me know if you have any specific questions and I’ll add a new CSS primer soon! Or, if you’d rather I stick to writing about writing let me know.
* I’m doing examples only in PHP at this stage. If you prefer to work with ASP or need ASP examples please let me know in the comments.
Search Engine Optimization does not involve the complexity of algorithms, trends, and scripts. The truth is, there are simple techniques that experienced web developers and SEO specialists consistently implement to get effective results. The first and most basic SEO techniques begin in the head.
While developing the correct mindset is important, what I really mean is the HTML content between each web pages opening and closing
Every well developed web page has key elements within these tags that might seem inconsequential but actually play a vital role in not only search engine listings but page distinction and identification. These aspects perform the simple duty of providing basic information to a client’s browser and can be easily overlooked or under appreciated.
The Title Tag
The most important tag to include within the head of any web page is the title. The title is displayed at the top of the browser window (and may be displayed on the content tab in some browsers). The content of a web pages title tag is also, often the title used on web links, particularly in social media submissions and almost exclusively in search engine listings. It sets a readers expectation of what is to follow.
Because the title is one of the first elements rendered by the browser, it is the perfect opportunity to begin optimization. Search engines give this prime web real estate more weight when calculating results and considers the title a vital element on every page. The choice of an effective title for your web pages can significantly impact the quality and quantity of your search engine leads.
Meta Detail: Description
While there is some debate regarding the weight of search terms used in the description meta tag, this tag plays a significant role in the results of your search engine optimization. In the past, search engines used the description given in this meta tag when displaying search results. Now, while results usually gather their information from the instance of particular keywords in the pages main content the description meta tag still impacts search engine rankings.
Google representative, Vanessa Fox confirms that the tag plays an important role. It is important to use an unique description for every page to prevent duplicate content penalties. While it is impossible to know exactly how much power your web page description holds in final results, it is opportunity to optimize your pages with a mind to your keywords and content that should not be overlooked.
Meta Detail: Keywords
There is no arguing that keywords and keyword phrases generate maximum impact when optimizing you web pages for search engine results. The keyword meta tag allows us to add additional focus to up to twenty keywords and keyword variations every page. The methods of selecting keywords and using keywords effectively in your site content is more than this post could possibly begin to contain but in most cases, the obvious keywords to use are self-evident.
While there is no way to control how, or if, the information you provide in these tags is displayed in search results, the inclusion of accurate, relevant, and unique keywords and descriptions can influence a searchers choice to click through to your site. They allow searchers to evaluate the quality and relevance your content may have for their current needs. This leads to increased targeting and decreased bounce rates.
Points To Remember
- Search engines each work in differing ways.
- Small changes can create a significant increase in resulting traffic.
- SEO techniques are often basic and simple to implement
- Each page of your website should have these important head elements
- Each web page should have a unique title, description, and keywords.
Finally, when considering SEO remember – UNIQUE – RELEVANT – DESCRIPTIVE
Any questions?
There are some fantastic experts in the field of SEO but Joost de Valk has to be one of the best. He specializes in Search Engine Optimization for Wordpress users and not only does he share wonderful tips and advice to enhance your SEO he has also developed a number of useful plugins that make it easy for non-programmer Wordpress users to put SEO into action.
Spend an hour with Joost de Valk! Honestly, it is an hour very well spent. You’ll want to keep your notebook handy because in one hour Joost de Valk shares links to plugins and tips to optimize your Wordpress blog for search engines. Of course, if you’re like me and find listening to videocast difficult to follow, Joost de Valk has broken down many of the tips he shares in this video on his blog, “Wordpress SEO – Yoast.Com“. If you’re really eager to learn simple ways to optimize your blog for search engines you should read and watch, then discuss your thoughts in the comments!
WordPress SEO & Optimisation Strategies a4uexpo London 2008 from existem on Vimeo. I’d like to share my thanks to Squeaky from Mad Mouse Blog for first bringing this great video to my attention.
What were your favorite tips from Joost de Valk’s presentation? Have you started using any of these tips on your own blog? Is there anything you disagree with in Joost de Valk’s approach? Please, share your thoughts in the comments.
XHTML Validation: Does Your Blog Comply?
Since there was such interest in XHTML and HTML Validation, I thought I’d share two more aspects of HTML that can affect the validation of your website or blog. Making changes to your site helps you develop the habit of correctly coding your blog posts or web pages. These points are simple, and you can significantly enhance your site’s load time by improving the consistency of your web pages and blog posts.
Using The Right Nesting Twigs
With HTML, tags usually come in pairs. These pairs like to stay together, they like to nest together. It is important to nest your tags correctly because, as with other aspects of your HTML code, the browser expects them to be nested in the right way. Incorrectly nested tags create confusion and slow down the speed a browser can process code and return a web page.
Correct:
<p>This is a paragraph tag. Inside it we could place a correctly nested tag called <strong>strong</strong></p>
Notice in the above code that the strong tag stays together, completely nested within the paragraph tag. It would have been easy to instead write:
Incorrect:
<p>This is a paragraph tag. Inside it we could place an incorrectly nested tag called <strong>strong</p></strong>
The appearance of the text on the screen would have been identical. It would not appear to be an error when someone views the page, however, while most browsers forgive the error and displays the paragraph with a bold word, it stumbled over the incorrect nesting, taking a moment longer to understand the intention of the code.
The importance of nesting is more significant with some tags. The <div> tag, for example, can play an important part in the layout and design of your blog. Incorrectly nesting this tag will cause display errors on the page. Nesting errors in <table> <tr> & <td> tags can also create display issues and serious loading delays.
Please Lower Your Case
When I first learned to write HTML it was taught in uppercase. Tags were in uppercase, attributes in lower case, and there was a kind of ‘prettiness’ about the code. It looked interesting but the case was not significant. XHTML is less forgiving. Lower Case is considered the right case and uppercase tags are not recognized in the same way.
Tommy Olsson covered this question more eloquently than I have just done in his SitePoint article, “Bulletproof HTML: 37 Steps To Perfect Markup“:
Is HTML case-sensitive?
No, but XHTML is. In XHTML, all tags and attributes must be in lowercase. Traditionally, HTML element names and tags were written in uppercase, but with the advent of XHTML, this convention has slowly given way to the XHTML standard of lowercase element names.
<A HREF=""> is not longer the same as <a href="">. The former will return a validation error. While both cases will work correctly in most browsers the lowercase is considered uniform and script is now always taught (or should be) in lower case.
Want To Learn More?
Still not satiated when it comes to hints and tips for having valid XHTML and HTML? Are there other validation errors on your site or blog that you don’t understand? Please, leave a comment! I’d love to help out with any site issues you’re having and will continue to explain XHTML and HTML Validation if you’re interested in learning more.
You can learn more about valid XHTML, HTML, and CSS in the programmers gospel, W3 Schools.
Test the validation of your own blog with W3’s Validation Service.
Hire a Web Tech to bring your site to compliance because honestly, wouldn’t you rather just be writing?
Does your website or blog comply with XHTML industry standards?
For many bloggers, maintaining a blog means writing new content and managing comments. There are elements of a blog far beyond average user control, such as the design, scripting, and accessibility. These key factors, however, control the quality of your platform. Your platform on the Web is almost as important as the speech you give from atop it.
One of the greatest keys to expanding your platform is your blog’s accessibility. The internet is a diverse culture of users from all walks of life. Their differences range from technological to physical and this creates a challenge when attempting to provide for the dial-up modem, aged browser version, or sight-impaired.
A quality Web designer knows how to maximize your website’s performance. For those who want an optimal platform but wish to only write new content and manage comments, hire a Web Tech.
If you’d rather learn a few simple tricks to do this yourself, read on!
HTML Tips To Aid Validation
Over the years, programmers have developed a standard for the coding languages involved in creating websites. This standard is a collaboration from talented programmers and designers, created to streamline the functionality of Web pages. It encourages Web designers to develop coding habits for increased browser compatibility and a uniform approach to Web scripting.
Valid HTML follows certain procedures. Each element of the Web page contains aspects that, when read by the server, returns information to the client in a certain way. If these elements are incorrectly coded the server is forced to slow down, attempt to understand the code, format an error, or determine how to get past the inconsistency and continue to display the content requested.
Display Valid Images
Graphics and images are powerful stimulus for your blogs content but equally powerful for the accessibility of your site when coded correctly. There are three primary requirements in every image tag.
Source
Every image requires a call to its source. This is the location of the file that should be displayed. On the internet there are a number of image types available, the most common being “.gif”, “.jpg”, and “.png”. These images are the industry standard for Web usage and should display in all image-enabled browsers.
Alternative
If a browser is not image-enabled then something needs to replace the image on the screen. This is why the alternative tag is important. Images might be turned off for any number of reasons and without an alternative the server takes a moment trying to decide what should fill that hole. For sight-impaired users the alternative provides text to describe the image or at least explain the gap in the pages text. An image alternative should offer enough information to explain the image. Remember, that the alternative text is also information search engines take into account when considering your Web pages.
Opening and Closing
Finally, every HTML tag must be closed. This is how a server knows the information for that section of the page is complete. Because an image tag is self contained it does not have a separate open and close tag like many Web page elements do which is why it can be easy to forget. Don’t forget, close your image tags.
Empowered Linkage
Another element you will use in your blog posts and website is links. A link creates text that users can click to go elsewhere, be that to other sections of your page, other pages within your blog/site, or to other sites and blogs. Some links are more complex than others but they all contain key aspects.
A link requires opening and closing tags, a destination, and clickable content. More complex links, however, might contain:
Ampersands (&)
Usually, these will be found in the querystring of a link. A querystring is additional information that is sent with the link. It is begun with a question mark followed by a label, equal sign, and value. When more than one piece of additional information is required they are tacked on with ampersands. The trouble is, when a browser loads a page the ampersand has multiple meanings. It is most commonly used to indicate a small command code that needs to be translated. Therefore, when a link requires an ampersand it is generally best to use the command code (&) rather than an actual ampersand.
Spaces ( )
Sometimes, links contain spaces, be they in a querystring or in the name of the page. Most of the time a link will work correctly by just writing the link with spaces as they appear, however, to avoid the potential for error it is better to replace empty spaces in URLs with their alternative (%20). It is best to avoid browser confusion where possible.
There Is Always More To Learn
Writing validating XHTML and HTML is a HUGE topic. There is so much more to learn and it would be impossible to cover the entire topic in a single blog post. This post highlights just two elements but I feel they’re the most important for bloggers because these two elements are used in most blog entries. Every blogger should develop the habit of ensuring their image and link tags are correctly formatted within their posts.
You can learn more about valid XHTML, HTML, and CSS in the programmers gospel, W3 Schools.
Test the validation of your own blog with W3’s Validation Service.
Hire a Web Tech to bring your site to compliance because honestly, wouldn’t you rather just be writing?
At Word Camp 2008 in San Fransisco, Stephan Spencer talked about mistakes bloggers make when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Take thirty minutes today to learn these mistakes, how to avoid them, and how you can optimize your blog for better search engine results.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been a concept that has been around for years. It predates Google if you can believe that. I remember, because my first Web designs predate Google too. In 1998, Google was small fish against MSN, ruler of IE browser search bar, and Yahoo, the hub of the Web. Even then, SEO was a buzz term and anyone serious about designing websites that got indexed learned the tips and techniques necessary for robot loving.
Today, many of those basic tips and techniques are still valid. Search Engines are smarter, faster, and have expanded to consume the girth of the internet. Robots scan and index hundreds of sites every minute. Finding your placement amongst search rankings has never been harder but thankfully, it is not all out of our hands.
Of course, I could never explain how it all works in a single blog post. Why does it work? How does it work? Does anyone truly know? Thankfully, everything I know about SEO I learned online and you can too.
ê¿êspi20.com recently covered a few key SEO techniques that anyone can get started on right now and create a huge impact on their search engine results. Learn, “Just What The Heck Is SEO And Why Do You Want It?“, why “Pictures Are Not Only Worth 1000 Words They’re Worth SEO“, and “One Last Step To Achieve SEO Nirvana“.
One of my favorite resources for mastering the blogiverse is Darren Rowse’s Problogger.Net. Along with a wealth of information such as, “7 Essential Things You Should Be Doing When Your Blog Is Still Young” you’ll find you are only just breaking the surface of Problogger’s fantastic content with, “How To Get Search Engine Traffic To Your Blog“.
I’ve even dug a gold nugget of information from Chris Garrett on “The Right Way To Build Internal Links For Blog SEO“.
With so much information available it can be hard to distill and absorb. Would you rather I broke it all down for you element by element? Or should I just keep the links coming from time to time?
If you’ve been by Writer’s Round-About recently (drop by if you’re in a feed reader) you might have noticed I’ve done a little tweaking here and there. Adding the header and buttons has been on my to-do list since I launched the new design. What do you think of the additions? I don’t know if I’ll ever be 100% happy but I’d love to hear your feedback, ideas, and suggestions!
Speaking of designing beautiful blogs I wanted to give a little link love to blogs who have designs I adore! Feel free to share your own blog links in the comments if you want to show off your blog theme. Which blog themes do you love the most?
Momma Helpers with Arthemia
Hope Wilbank’s site, Momma Helpers looks fabulous in Arthemia. The original theme is sharp, sassy, professional and actually rather drab and dark. I use elements of this theme at Writer’s Round-About but Hope jazzed the theme with bright ‘Mommy’ colors (pink and chocolate). Momma Helpers has a darling header that creates an inviting atmosphere perfect for her target audience and warm images to highlight posts.
To really bliss this site I’d love to see, MORE CONTENT! From a design perspective it would be great to see the Entrecard button moved below “Our Faves”. The uneven layout of that widget amongst the “Sponsors” looks disorganized. One of the images doesn’t appear to load correctly any longer so fixing this ‘bug’ is a must. Giving the “For Mom” section uniform width/height that ensures the “Featured” and “For Mom” sections are always the same size would tidy that section of the site.
Top Ten Blog Tips with Aeros
Ben Barden’s latest blog, Top Ten Blog Tips has a professional, tech edge based on the Aeros Theme. There are so many elements in this theme I love that I’ve actually considered adopting a few of them. The rounded edges give the blog a smoother, friendlier look that softens the dark color scheme. The date and comment count are little tabs to the left which is very clever from a design perspective. It increases the white space to the left margin and puts valuable information where it is unobtrusive but catchy.
I have two peeves about Ben’s design however, the first is that he tends to use large images at the beginning of his posts. Images in posts is fantastic! I love them but I also prefer to see the meat of a blog post first. Using slightly smaller images aligned to the side of the opening paragraphs gives a balance that is more aesthetically pleasing and makes better use of layout. I also feel the sidebar is ‘messy’. Sidebars often grow and shape with time so the youth of this blog puts this element at a disadvantage.
Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits
I’m not sure if Zen Habits is a completely unique theme or if it is based on something more universal but it looks empowering while maintaining a relaxed, welcoming balance. Leo knows how to highlight his posts with images and the site has a cool blend of colors that come together beautifully. The two things I love most about this theme is the simple appeal above the fold and the “Popular Posts by category” in the footer.
However, while I love the uniform feel of the font I can’t help but have a growing sensation of being boxed in by it. I also find his main content block is a little wider than my dyslexia would like to read and while the top half of his sidebar looks fantastic the bottom half is a cluster of images in a large variety of sizes with no balance or aesthetics.
Freelance Parent by Sawtooth
A final site to mention is, Freelance Parent. This site is classy and happening. A detailed header gets you where you need to go with well placed marketing elements such as the RSS links and free Internet Business Guide. The content is kept in a manageable segment with a surprisingly large sidebar packed with goodies.
The downside of all this content is that viewed as a whole the site looks daunting and busy. Even above the fold there is so much going on that it is kind of scary and I’m sure there are newcomers who run a mile. The sidebar tries to do too much. In this case a little less would do so much more. Let readers dig deep rather than trying to cram so much information on the first page.
Now It’s Your Turn!
Are there any blogs whose design thrill you? Are there sites you go to just for the buzz or glow of looking upon them? Do you think your own blog’s design rocks or wonder how to improve your design?
You are welcome to share your own favorite blogs in the comments (links please!). What do you love and hate about their designs? What do you love and hate about the themes of these four sites I’ve introduced? What do you love and hate about Writer’s Round-About’s current theme?
Yesterday, a very dear online writer friend of mine mentioned on plurk that her blog was acting strangely. It sure was! When I checked it out, along with a dozen other people, what we saw was a page of content that went down in one cumbersome lump. One of the downsides of using Cascading Style Sheets. If the .css page fails to load, your site gets really ugly!
Not A CSS Issue?
Initially, I thought it was a simple problem and offered a simple solution to her plea for help. Unfortunately, the problem was no where near as simple as we originally thought. As she called in the troupes I set about scanning her files to check that the CSS file DID exist, it WAS being called/included correctly in the headers, the files required by the CSS file existed, etc. But as I was diligently checking these details someone or something was doing something very untoward.
Databases and WP-Admin Cookies
I’d reached the point where I was checking settings in the database. Now, most Web hosts make this easy with MySQL and phpMyAdmin panel. The database looked a little cluttered but everything should have been working perfectly. So, I logged out of the database to check into another area of the site that might be the culprit, the WP-Admin panel. That’s when I discovered that there was another issue. One we still haven’t truly nailed down. For some reason wp-admin was failing to store cookies and it’s failure to do so was leading to an endless loop as the site attempted to log in and attempted to log in and attempted to log in…
OMG! Malicious Attack!
It was time to check the database again so I logged back into phpMyAdmin and my jaw dropped. At least one, perhaps more of the databases were gone. Completely obliterated. They had been there earlier, I’d left them sitting their all nice and pretty, but when I returned it was as if they’d never existed. Someone has their grubby footprints in the backend of my friend’s site.
When you’ve had a malicious attack the first thing to do is to change your password. This, hopefully, bumps them out of your system and sends them back to step one, running keygens to try and discover the new password. You, of course, have selected a gobbledy-gook password of alphanumerics that no one could possibly guess because the truth is you just closed your eyes and threw your cat on your keyboard when choosing it. So, it means Mr. Nasty is held at bay and hopefully will give up and move into new pasture in which to make a mess.
But it still left us with a dilemma because you see while I’d gathered a backup of the original website we were having trouble with, there was no backup for those databases that were now gone. With no backup there is no way to restore the information of what could be weeks, or months, or years of data.
The lesson?
Back Up NOW!!! Honestly, don’t feel like this can’t happen to you. It can! You might be insignificant, your site might get a total of three unique visitors a week but tragedy can strike and you can lose your content. It mightn’t be a hacker, it could be a server fire, electrical failure, magnetic interference, or any number of culprits, the thing that’s important to remember is your site is not fail safe. Bad things do happen.
The Backing Up Process
- Change Your Password
- Copy your primary site directory into an archive file on your Hard Drive.
- Load your phpMyAdmin and export each of your databases as single .sql files.
- Zip the primary site directory files and your database files into a neat, dated, archive package.
- Email a copy of this package to your online email address (such as gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc.).
- Save the archive package to your external hard drive (you do have one don’t you???)
- Burn a copy of the archive to disk and file it away from your computer.
- Back Up Now, Back Up From Now On! (At least once a month, weekly if you update more frequently.)
Happy Ending?
To tell the truth, over 24 hours later and my friend and I are still working at damage control. We are waiting to hear from her hosting company in hopes that they can at least correct any server related issues. We could beg upon their mercy in the hopes they’ll do a full restore for us but the odds are slim. Yes, the host backs up regularly but they will not (generally) be willing to wade through their massive gigabytes worth of file structure to restore one users information.
I was able to bring the original site back online with it’s CSS intact. It looks pretty again despite not being currently hosted with the original host. We can only hope that this story will have a happy ending and we are already looking for the cosmic message in this tragedy.
Regardless of the outcome of this one case, don’t let it be you. Back up!
Have you experienced something like this? Please share your own experiences in the comments. How has having a backup of your files helped you? Have you had to learn this lesson the hard way like my friend did? Do you have other tips or ideas when it comes to site security and restoration? Share your thoughts!
