No mystery to SEO - Just Hard Work!

Search engine optimisation, although an apparent mystery to many - is in fact purely about following set rules and backing them up with hard work.
The only mystery shrouding the world of SEO is that the rules have been hung, drawn and quartered and seemingly every SEO has their own version of rules that often contradict those of their peers.

SEO is evolving at a breathtaking rate and consequently the rules of engagement are constantly being revised. To perform well as a professional SEO you need to keep up with those changes. To perform well as an occasional SEO on your own website… the following information will be of great help to you.

So for this article I will stick to just one of the fundamentals of SEO and explain what you should know about one of the most important elements in building a successful website.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is led by Google. Not only is Google the leading search engine that has set the standards for search engine algorithm technology, the Google ranking system is also by far the paramount method of evaluating the quality of a web site.

Google’s dedication to perfecting their site valuation system means it is today very difficult to cheat the system and get sites to perform well with ‘SEO manipulation’ rather than providing qualitative content. So I advise you concentrate on SEO’ing your site for Google and you can fine tune for other important engines later.

Good Backlinking Works!
Getting other sites to link back to yours is still a very important method of getting your site to rank high in the search engines.
However, there are obstacles and the wrong kind of backlinks can lead to your site being penalized. In the past too many ‘cheats’ were developed to try and fool Google into thinking a site was highly popular. And so Google has also with time refined and improved its algorithm and can quickly root out link farms or irrelevant backlinks.

Probably the best value backlinks are those that come from sites with similar content. Backlinking within your field of productivity will give you a lot of extra exposure. If your site deals with office stationary - then find other sites with similar content and exchange links with them. They don’t have to be your direct competitors - backlink with other regions or countries.

Do choose carefully! Google will give you a lot of exposure if you backlink to good quality sites with relevant content. If you link to bad quality sites you may be penalized.

The best performing backlinks are those that are linking through anchor text. In other words, a site linking back to you that has text on its page (relevant text) and that text is the link to your site. Remember though, what counts more than anything is relevancy. If you deal in widgets - get backlinks from other widget sites.

In the past, webmasters would often accumulate multiple sites and domain names with the intention of having them all point to one specific site. All those other sites would be used to create links back to the main site. Well, that worked wonders for a while. But that ‘while’ is over. Now Google actively looks for sites that are created within the same IP adress and considers a group of sites with links pointing to a principle site to be ‘link bombing’. You may do this with moderation - but overdo it and you’ll pay the price.

In what appears to be an amazing turn of events in the software industry it has been announced that the award winning Open Source Content Management System called Joomla! has an unexpected end.

It is still unclear where the announcement came from but we are able to show you images that clearly demonstrate the unusual but certainly absolute end of Joomla!

Actually it’s the bit right on the end that we refer to as an ‘exclamation mark’.

According to Wikipedia; An exclamation mark or exclamation point is a punctuation mark: ! It is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume, and often marks the end.

The exclamation mark is known informally as a bang or a screamer.

Very few people actually know whether or not to use the ‘bang’ at the end of Joomla! when writing sentences that don’t actually end with Joomla! Confused? I am. Anyway, I digress.

Let’s take an even closer look at the exclamation mark at the end of Joomla! I don’t mean the long stand-up thingy but the actual round blob at the bottom that looks like a Danish cheese.

If we look very closely (to this end we have magnified the cheese several thousand times) we can quite clearly see that the end of Joomla! is actually the beginning of something new and exciting. Wow!

To summarize let me reiterate what we have all witnessed in this article:

• Don’t use an exclamation mark unless it’s absolutely necessary.

• Use an exclamation mark after an exclamation, especially after one beginning with what or how or ending in Joomla!

• The end of Joomla! is actually the beginning of Open Source CMS.

To find out more about the award winning Joomla! Open Source solution that is freely available to everyone, visit www.joomla.org

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Article by Navega Bem - Web Design. The Joomla! Professionals

Proprietors of the Madeira Property Specialists website were happy to be chosen as the ‘Site of the Day’ by the renowned ‘Best of Joomla‘ team.

The-Property-Agency.com is a combination of three companies each licensed in their field of work to provide the best possible service to both local and overseas clients. This collaboration is a trouble free way in finding your new home here on the Idyllic Islands of Madeira & Porto Santo whether you are looking for a new build or an old property.

David Albon, MD of the Clearview-homes Group said “The Clearview-Homes group is your number one company to see you through every aspect of buying and personalizing your new dream home, we have many house developments along the south west coast of Madeira to suit every body’s requirements and budgets”.

The site has been developed by Joomla specialists Navega Bem - Web Design.

‘Best of Joomla‘ award sites are chosen on the following criteria:
1. Design 40%
2. Navigation 20%
3. Content 20%
4. Graphics 15%
5. Personality 5%

In the last 6 weeks this is the 5th site developed by Navega Bem - Web Design to be chosen for the ‘Site of the Day‘ award.

Madeira Story Centre

If you are visiting the island of Madeira, don’t miss the opportunity to visit a fascinating museum that is like no other.

The Madeira Story Centre is a spectacular modern museum about Madeira’s History and culture.

It is like a story teller, designed to make your visit a unique experience, the exhibition draws on interactive displays that will allow you to learn about the History of the Island while feeling the environment of the different periods through smells, sounds, interactive games and challenges which will capture your attention and trigger all your senses.

It is the perfect place to start your visit to Madeira Island. It will give you a panoramic view over the archipelago History.

The Madeira Story Centre also offers a shop, with the best souvenirs and art & crafts in town, and a themed café explored by Penha D’Águia, a centenary pastry shop in Funchal.

The site was chosen by the Joomla resource and extension web site ‘Best of Joomla‘ as site of the day. For the Madeira Story Centre this a welcome award as the site has been chosen on an international level and can obviously compete with the best sites on the world wide web.

Now for the first time ever you can get Digital Delivery of your favourite Sportfishing DVDs at www.fishingdvds.tv

The idea of the website portal came about for a number of reasons, most significant of which were the desires to buy fishing DVDs online from the convenience of home, not having to wait for the physical delivery of the product, no matter in which format they were (NTSC or PAL) they could still be played from a disc on any computer, and above all else not having to pay excessive courier or postal costs.

The concept raised several issues; 1) how to deliver huge file sizes across the internet (most DVDs are about 4.2 GB in size) 2) how to convince the film producers that their work would be safe from copying by ‘pirates’ 3) where would the DVDs be sourced from, and 4) how the DVD digital products should be presented to the public on the internet.

Fortunately there was significant interest in the project from an international content delivery network (one of the largest in the world), an innovative Norwegian company that had developed a combined payment platform and DRM (Digital Rights Management) clearing house, the creators of a compression utility developed in a Danish university that are based in Germany, and a ‘cutting-edge’ website development company based in Madeira, Portugal.

Visit the site here and see video and DVD productions from leading film producers in the sportfishing film industry.

The site has been carefully crafted around Joomla 1.5 and VMart. Navega Bem - Web Design were responsible for the project design, programming and development. You can read the case study about this project at ‘Fishing DVDs Case Study‘

Having closed the company for 2 weeks to allow everyone to enjoy the summer holidays - it’s now back to work with a precise to-do list that ensures the smooth continuance of both design work and clients sites.

The most pressing issue for us is the upgrade of all our sites from 1.5.x to 1.5.6
This security release was put out on the 12th of August and one of our sites was attacked and went down screaming exactly one day later. Fortunately, with a support strategy designed to combat such eventualities and a bod on standby - we were back up and running within 90 minutes. But many tales of woe are creeping across developer blogs - explaining a not so swift return to normal service.

If you didn’t upgrade yet - get the security update at the Joomla site

SECURITY [HIGH] Fixed security hole in reset logic to check for proper token length.

We back up our sites daily - this should be common practice for any Joomla professionals running sites for their clients or offering ISP services.

The 2008 Madeira Wine Rally, the largest automobile event in the Region is into its second and final day.
Famous names from the world of motor racing and their cars are taking part in this major event.

58 participants were allowed to start the race with 21 special stages, to be covered by the drivers over three days.

With the second and final day of the Madeira Wine Rally underway, the top five drivers appearing on the leader board are fighting a heated battle for points and podium positions.

At lunch time today the Peugeot domination over the last several stages of Rally Madeira came to an end – somewhat – along the numerous curves of the Ponta do Pargo 1 stage, when Giandomenico Basso’s Abarth Grande Punto and Bruno Magalhaes’ Peugeot 207 tied for the stage win.

Navega Bem  wants to thank everyone that helped in getting numerous technical projects ready in a timely and professional manner for the start of the Rally. Special thanks to Marcia:

See you all at the party

Portugals renowned Dj Foksen has launched his new official website with professional support of ‘Navega Bem - Web Design‘.

The site has been designed by Sara Lomelino and many interactive features are incorporated in the Joomla 1.5 framework: Image gallery, live digital audio feeds, download and media areas as well as the latest charts. Of course you can find all the latest news about Dj Foksen and upcoming dates of special venues. Visit the site ‘Dj Foksen - The Official Website‘.

Our Real Estate Agent CMS solution includes full design, multilingual
capability and search engine optimization. Just add your properties!
No license fees, no monthly fees, no maintenance fees or set-up fees.
Learn more about our award winning Joomla websites at Navega Bem - Web Design.

the-property-agency.com is a brand new website that has been developed by Navega Bem - Web Design.
The Madeira Property Specialists website is a combination of three companies each licensed in their field of work to provide the best possible service to both local and overseas clients. This collaboration is a trouble free way in finding your new home here on the Idyllic Islands of Madeira & Porto Santo whether you are looking for a new build or an old property.

Clearview-homes Group
“The Clearview-Homes group is your number one company to see you through every aspect of buying and personalizing your new dream home, we have many house developments along the south west coast of Madeira to suit every body’s requirements and budgets”. David Albon

Proprifunchal, Mediação Imobiliária – AMI 6265
“My goal is to make the process of buying, selling, or owning a home stress free, enjoyable and rewarding for you and an efficient service from me” Graça Caires

Macnicasa, Construções Lda – Alvará 54969
“We Pride ourselves on the level of construction from start to finish, we give attention to every detail providing the Quality that you would expect of an efficient new home. Most of our clients have been astonished at the standard of finishings and ultimately the sheer value for money.
As from the 1st of July of this year all new properties have to ahere to stringent rules with green issues high on the agenda. All new properties will be graded into four categories from A+ to B-, A+ being the highest specification and build quality.  B- Being the lower specification and build quality.
From a recent appraisal of all the properties we have in construction at the moment, all have been rated within the highest specifications and build quality”.  Fábia Gomes, Civil Engineer.

The site has been developed by Joomla specialists Navega Bem - Web Design. The company have developed their own Real -Estate solution that is competitive with the biggest software solutions available in the realty market.

Managing Director Chris Szabo explains “we have developed a complete real estate agency solution that is crafted around the Joomla framework. We don’t market our component to other developers - our strength lies in creating complete Real Estate Agent websites in a package that includes a unique design, our proprietary real estate component, search engine optimization and submission to all the major search engines and directories.
The only thing our clients need to do is add their properties”.
“The big advantage with our real estate solution is that there are no license fees, no monthly fees, no maintenance fees or set-up fees. Also, we have developed more integrated features than most of the other solutions put together. The properties can be exported or imported and we already have XML exportation to several locations such as Properazzi, Google Base, Imo-Portugal, Habinet, Lardocelar and GiMob. Others are being developed.”
“Utilizing Joomla as the backbone of the site we can offer clients a multilingual CMS Real Estate Agent website that you can manage from anywhere in the world. All you need is an internet connection and a standard browser. The complete site (CMS & Real Estate) is managed through just one back office

Find out more about Professional Real Estate Agent websites here.