Google's use of Meta tags... The debate goes on...

So we've all heard how Googlebot no longer uses meta description or meta keyword tags to index your webpages in it's SERPS listings; and how it uses the actual page content to evaluate the "PageRank" etc... Well with that in mind many web developers/agencies/SEO "experts" often neglect to include meta tags in today's market... Well think again!

A recent post on the Offical Google Wemaster Central Blog explains how Google DOES use meta tags (well the meta description tag at least). Now, although this may or may not have an impact (our research shows that it most certainly does have an impact) on your actual positioning as such, it certainly can have a huge effect on your links "clickability".

The post explains how the meta description data is used to support the link so people can determine if it's your content they were actually looking for... Therefore, our research certainly indicates, that as more people visit your site, Google increases it's importance... Thus how you sell your content in the meta description tag must have an impact on your SERPS positioning.

Pure CSS headers as gradients?

Just a quick one (ooo-argh missus) to share this great post I found on Web Designer Wall for doing CSS headers with a graident effect. Ok, granted, it's not exactly a new technique but it's a really nicely written tutorial for all you CSS newbies and some nice ideas for those of you who have been doing this stuff for years (scroll down to see the examples).

Check it out at http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/css-gradient-text-effect/

Cheers
Jon

Introducting RootsCMS...

We've been busy beavering away over the last few weeks (hence the lack of posts!) building our new CMS system - RootsCMS...

Built around the Smarty template engine RootsCMS is intended as a very simple and easy to plugin content management system - in fact anyone with basic HTML knowledge can plug RootsCMS into their website within minutes - it really is that simple!

Many commercial CMS applications are either incredibly expensive to licence or incredibly complicated to to integrate into an existing website - this is the barrier we are striving to overcome with RootsCMS - think Adobe Contribute but without the delays of FTP uploads - RootsCMS runs on the back of your web server on a simple sql-driven database (whatever you have available).

RootsCMS is no slower than executing a basic PHP request!

With the use of the Smarty templating system the overheads are also minimal - the majority of CMS systems compile each page request as it's made - not RootsCMS...

On publication of a page RootsCMS compiles the template with the content updates and caches the result so the end user only ever receives the final compiled version - which means very simple archiving of content for: rollbacks; archiving; or even event based content publication.

RootsCMS is currently in user testing on a couple of websites but it currently publishes to XML, XHTML, HTML, CSS & PHP (we'll also be porting it to other languages when we have a stable version to release for beta testing). RootsCMS uses a WYSIWYG editor for ease of use for site editors and can be customised to use your favourite editor... TinyMCE, FCKEditor... Whatever you prefer.

Anyway we'll be releasing updates over the coming months and hopefully we'll have a release for you to try in the next couple of months!



*RootsCMS is in the early stages of development but we appreciate any comments people have on content management systems they have had issues with (so we can make RootsCMS even better), people interested in seeing it ported to other platforms etc etc... Basically if you have something to say - email us

Code Required are proud to announce....

Code Required have just launched a brand new promotional website for the cult band "The Amateur Transplants" at http://www.amateurtransplants.net.

Built using Adobe Flash along with the crazy opinions and copy from Adam Kay & Suman Biswas this was a great project to work on and we wish the guys all the best with the new site and integrated newsletter tool.

Keep up the good work guys and we'll see you soon for beers!

The Amateur Transplants are responsible for cult classics such as the London Underground Song and The Menstrual Rag both of which can be heard on the site via the DocPod. Check out their blog at http://fitnesstoblog.blogspot.com