Marco Polo Restaurant Blog

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:22:11 +0000

The Marco Polo Restaurant Blog is a site that was designed to allow the client to add, edit and update content by using WordPress as a content management system. The main purpose of the blog is to provide information on upcoming events held at the venue. The client will also be publishing sample menus, recipes and wine reviews, as well as photographs of past events.

Spago Restaurant

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:30:27 +0000

Spago Restaurant is based in Newcastle. The brief was to redesign the website to reflect the new look of the restaurant and the new menu. The site is built in XHTML & CSS.

SEO Basics

admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:49:45 +0000

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) solutions help in providing high search engine page rankings which, in turn, can generate website traffic. Here are some basic techniques to help achieve a high page ranking.

Title Tag

The tag is placed between the <head> tags in an html document. Page titles should be short and descriptive and explain accurately what each page is about.</p> <h3>Description Meta Tag</h3> <p>The <description> meta tag is placed between the <head> tags in an html document. The page description is longer than a page title and should summarise the page content. Some search engines display descriptions on search results which can help visitors find the particular information they are looking for.</p> <h3>URLs</h3> <p>URLs containing relevant words are useful for visitors who may want to link to particular content. For example, http://www.vivreay.co.uk/wordpress/seo-basics/ is easier to remember than http://www.vivreay.co.uk/wordpress/2463479/.</p> <h3>Site Navigation</h3> <p>It should be easy for visitors to get around a website. Html sitemaps should be used, they can display a list of links to all the pages on the site. An XML Sitemap can help to ensure that search engines discover the pages on a site.</p> <h3>Content</h3> <p>Website content that is interesting, truthful, and useful may encourage word of mouth advertising. If new content is added frequently to a website and the quality of the content is good then it is likely that visitors will keep returning and link back to the website.</p> <h3>Anchor Links</h3> <p>Links to other pages on a website or links leading to other websites should be easy for visitors to understand and should stand out from the main body text on the page. Outgoing links should lead to sites that are relevant and offer quality content.</p> <h3>Sources</h3> <ul> <li>» <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html">Googles SEO Starter Guide</a></li> <li>» <a href="http://geekcom.net/outbound-and-outgoing-links-play-important-role-in-your-seo">Outbound/Outgoing Links play an important role in your SEO</a></li> <li>» <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors">Search Engine Ranking Factors</a></li> <li>» <a href="http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/ultimate-seo-checklist">The Ultimate SEO Checklist</a></li> <ul> </article> <article> <h1>Web Programming Basics</h1> <p>admin — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:12:05 +0000</p> <p>Most web applications involve both client-side and server-side script. Client-side script executes locally in the browser, and server-side script transmits data to and from a web server.</p> <p>Client-side script is often used to program the user interface for an application. For example, to respond to user actions such as button clicks, and perform input validation. The use of server-side scripting is mostly used for content management, where the site’s content is stored in a database and presented to the user on request.</p> <h3>Ajax</h3> <p>Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) can communicate with a server side script without reloading the web page. When data is downloaded using Ajax the source code is not visible to search engine bots. Therefore Ajax should not be used to display articles or any content that should be available to search engines. Ajax is a good technology to use for admin areas, email accounts or any place that is password protected. An example of Ajax usage is the <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/" target="_top">GMail</a> email application.</p> <h3>Common Gateway Interface (CGI)</h3> <p>Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a protocol standard that specifies how information can be passed from a Web page through a Web server, to a program, and back from the program to a browser in the proper format.</p> <p>CGI programs can be written in any language the server can execute; whereas Perl most commonly is associated with CGI, there is no reason that C, C++, Pascal, Visual Basic, etc. couldn’t be used to create a CGI program.</p> <h3>Perl</h3> <p>Perl is an open source programming language that is generally used for creating CGI scripts and also supports embedding into HTML. Large projects written in Perl include <a href="http://www.bugzilla.org/" target="_top">Bugzilla.org</a>, <a href="http://twiki.org/" target="_top">TWiki.org</a> and <a href="http://movabletype.org/" target="_top">MovableType.org</a>. Large websites that use Perl include <a href="http://bbc.co.uk/" target="_top">bbc.co.uk</a>, <a href="http://amazon.com/" target="_top">Amazon.com</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/" target="_top">IMDb.com</a>.</p> <h3>ASP.NET</h3> <p>ASP (Active Server Pages) is a server-side scripting language developed by Microsoft which can be embedded into HTML and used to create web pages. ASP.NET is based on the Microsoft .NET framework. The .NET framework allows applications to be developed using different programming languages such as Visual Basic, C# and JavaScript.</p> <p>ASP is linked to the Windows operating system and Microsoft IIS web server. It is not practical to run a web site based on ASP on anything but a Windows-based server, so in this way, it is limiting. Files created for ASP have a .asp file extension while ASP.NET files use .aspx.</p> <h3>PHP</h3> <p>PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is an open source programming language which was specifically designed for the creation of dynamic server-side applications on the Internet. PHP can be embedded in HTML pages and is a good choice for database interaction.</p> <p>PHP is widespread and is used by <a href="http://facebook.com" target="_top">Facebook.com</a>, <a href="http://wikipedia.org/" target="_top">Wikipedia.org</a> and <a href="http://yahoo.com/" target="_top">Yahoo.com</a>. The reason for the widespread adoption of PHP is the simplicity of the language. Files created for PHP use the .php extension.</p> <h3>JavaServer Pages</h3> <p>JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a technology based on the Java language that enables the development of dynamic web sites. JSP was developed by <a href="http://www.sun.com/" target="_top">Sun Microsystems</a> to allow server side development. JSP files are HTML files with additional tags containing Java source code that provide the dynamic content.</p> <p>JSP pages often run slower than pages using similar technologies due to being more robust and intensive. There is a steeper learning curve when compared to many other technologies. <a href="http://ebay.com/" target="_top">Ebay</a> runs on JSP.</p> <h3>ColdFusion</h3> <p>ColdFusion is a server side scripting language, which is executed by the ColdFusion application server. The ColdFusion Mark-up Language (CFML) is based on tags similar to HTML.</p> <p>ColdFusion is not dependent on a particular database or Web server, and it works well on a variety of Windows-based servers as well as Solaris and Linux. ColdFusion is not open source. Files created for ColdFusion use the .cfm extension. <a href="http://myspace.com/" target="_top">MySpace</a> use ColdFusion.</p> <h3>Ruby</h3> <p>Ruby is an open source scripting language first released in 1995. In Ruby, everything is an object. Every bit of information and code can be given their own properties and actions. Object-oriented programming calls properties by the name instance variables and actions are known as methods. Ruby is used by sites such as <a href="http://twitter.com/" target="_top">Twitter.com</a> and <a href="http://scribd.com/" target="_top">Scribd.com</a>.</p> <h3>Python</h3> <p>Python is an open source programming language which is quite easy to learn. Some of the largest projects that use Python are <a href="http://zope.org/" target="_top">Zope.org</a> and <a href="http://youtube.com/" target="_top">YouTube.com</a>. Large organisations that use Python include <a href="http://google.com/" target="_top">Google.com</a> and <a href="http://yahoo.com/" target="_top">Yahoo.com</a>.</p> <h3>Sources</h3> <ul> <li>» <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/193750/You_Used_THAT_Programming_Language_to_Write_What_" target="_top">You Used THAT Programming Language to Write What?!</a></li> <li>» <a href="http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/" target="_top">Ruby Programming Language</a></li> <li>» <a href="http://www.visualbuilder.com/jsp/tutorial/" target="_top">JSP Tutorial</a></li> <li>» <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Server_Pages" target="_top">Wikipedia – Active Server Pages</a></li> <li>» <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColdFusion" target="_top">Wikipedia – Cold Fusion</a></li> <li>» <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP" target="_top">Wikipedia – PHP</a></li> </ul> </article> <article> <h1>Web Accessibility Basics</h1> <p>admin — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:04:36 +0000</p> <p>Making a web site accessible helps to ensure that people who are using different types of browsers and settings, are able to use the website. Web standards and well structured markup allows web designers to deliver sites that are more accessible.</p> <h3>Cross browser compatibility</h3> <p>Internet explorer on the PC is the most popular browser but also the least standards compliant. It is a good idea to first concentrate on getting a web site working using a more standards compliant browser, such as Firefox. Once the site works on standards compliant browsers fix it to work on Internet Explorer.</p> <h3>Forms</h3> <p>Forms can be a problem for users who rely on an assistive technology such as a screen reader. When using a form, if the user navigates to a text box using the Tab key, there may be no indication as to whether the text box is where they should submit their name, address, phone number or a message, etc. When a screen reader accesses a form item that has a <label> element associated with it, it will read the text within the <label> element and indicate the type of form item it is (e.g., “Name. Text box” or “Age. Check box”).</p> <h3>Images, video, Javascript</h3> <p>If images, video or Javascript are used to provide important content make sure their functionality or message can be provided in alternative ways. For example, provide alt attributes for images, ensure that the site still functions if the user browser doesn’t support Javascript, provide captions or transcripts of movies and sound.</p> <h3>PDAs and mobile devices</h3> <p>Handheld devices generally have limited support for large images, JavaScript and Flash. Use a separate style sheet for handheld devices which will remove or replace large images and change the layout to accommodate smaller screen sizes.</p> <p>Some web designers create a separate site specifically for mobile web users which holds content relevant to those users, this type of site usually provides a link to the main web page so users have the option to view more content.</p> <h3>Sources</h3> <ul> <li>» <a href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/wcag-curric/overgid.htm">Web Accessibility Initiative – Guidelines</a></li> <li>» <a href="http://www.webstandards.org/">The Web Standards Project</a></li> <li>» <a href="http://www.userfocus.co.uk/tags/accessibility/">Userfocus – articles and resources tagged “accessibility”</a></li> </ul> </article> <article> <h1>Reflow Repairs</h1> <p>admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:57:19 +0000</p> <p><a href="http://www.reflowrepairs.co.uk/" target="_top">Reflow Repairs</a> are a laptop repairs company who specialise in graphics chip reflowing. The brief was to design a logo and website to help promote their services. The website was built with XHTML & CSS and is running on Joomla CMS.</p> <h3>Logo design</h3> <p></p> <h3>Website design</h3> <p></p> </article> <article> <h1>Squareyard Gallery</h1> <p>admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:34:39 +0000</p> <p>Square Yard Gallery is a contemporary art gallery run by Newcastle College. The purpose of this project was to design a website that would help to market exhibitions and events held at the gallery. The site was designed in 2008 as part of my web design FdA and uses <a href="http://wordpress.org/" target="_top">WordPress</a> as a content management system.</p> <p></p> </article> <article> <h1>Tynebikes</h1> <p>admin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:40:07 +0000</p> <p>Tynebikes are a cycling campaign group who promote safer cycling. The website and logo were designed in 2008 as part of my web design FdA. The site was developed as a content management system using PHP & MySQL.</p> <h3>Logo design</h3> <p></p> <h3>Mockup</h3> <p></p> <h3>Final design</h3> <p></p> </article> </main></body></html>

Viv Reay

Marco Polo Restaurant Blog

Spago Restaurant

SEO Basics

Title Tag