Archive for the ‘Webster – The Web Developer’ Category

A lot of thought and effort goes into building and designing certain aspects of one’s website. A website can include interactive calendars, brand enhancing banners or slides shows—or unique and stylized content. Leveraging these items and ensuring their consistency across one’s web properties can save an enormous amount of time and add quality assurance to site.

Pixelsilk allows you to use web tokens to save all kinds of work and let others use it to, which is especially helpful for those building and managing multiple sites. A web token is code that inserts something like this [[“and”]], so the CMS knows what to show where.  After creating web tokens, all approved users can just start typing [[name of token]] in editor window and the Pixelsilk token sense window will come up. The window allows you to confirm selected web token. Once you do, it will instantly render element or content right there.

Web tokens can include controls, themes, skins or content—really what you can think up and build using CSS, HTML, JavaScript or a plug-in.  Another time-saving benefit is after a token is updated, the update can be easily rendered across multiple sites by a click.

When you consider these benefits, you can see why use of Pixelsilk tokens make a lot of sense and makes a lot of customers happy.

OK we know why management is lovin’ CMS multisite management because of cost-savings and time-savings but what about developers? Well, they are too. They know that multisite management is more than just being able to duplicate site content like Drupal, Jentla and WordPress allow. Some of these sites maintain separate code-based instances of each site, which is cumbersome to manipulate. Others have multisite features built around a core that was really designed for single site installation, which adds restrictions.

On the other hand, Pixelsilk was built to handle and efficiently manage multiple sites from the start. Managing both site content and site resources is at its core. And it makes sharing themes and the HTML of important brand elements simple.

Can’t wait for more developers to get it! I’m Susan Sano Berado.

Content organized well on the web is becoming more important.  If a page is too difficult to navigate through or too hard to find the information one needs, a visitor usually gives up and goes elsewhere. Having certain pages be created as a “list section” rather than just an HTML page helps you avoid this problem.

A list section is a “page type” that displays structured or record-like information really well. Articles, news items or photo/video galleries can be displayed cleanly—and better yet—can be sorted and searched by your visitors. Numerous book listings, for example, can be sorted and found based on a title or author’s name. The ideal vacation property can be pulled up first based on a visitors’ query.

Most Content Management System’s (CMS) don’t offer a list section, but Pixelsilk does. If your CMS doesn’t, you basically have two options: go research possible plug-ins or go hire a developer to build you the right fields for your list section.

With Pixelsilk, you won’t have to do either because it comes with default property fields that can work for any list section type right out of the gate. Pixelsilk lets you define how you want your list section displayed and used. Personalization can be done on a section-by-section (or page-by-page) basis giving you and your visitors many options.

I’m Susan Sano Berado—here are some samples:

http://www.blackbutteranch.com/accommodations/vacation-rentals/

http://www.blackbutteranch.com/Recreation/Whats-Happening-at-the-Ranch/

http://www.smartz.com/about/testimonials/

http://www.ironhorseprineville.com/Available-Properties/listings/

If you’re already a Pixelsilk partner, you know the value of the Partner Portal. It can speed up your development time ten or a hundredfold depending on how many sites you’re creating.  For those of you less familiar with the Partner Portal, think it’s time we shared the secret with you.

Webmasters Take Note

A Webmaster, like you, can leverage the work of one site in the Portal for the benefit of 1000 sites simply by clicking a box. Once clicked, themes will automatically transfer; CSS files will also seamlessly transfer; and files containing images, text, and media will transfer. In a matter of minutes, you will have created lots of new websites—and be ready for a coffee break.

Ongoing updates are also easy.  Let’s say you, and your team, want to release a new red banner on the homepage that promotes a short-term offer. All you, the Webmaster, need to do is make the “resource” (or red banner) available to site in the Portal. As soon as the homepage reloads,  the new red banner will be present on your multiple sites.  Not bad for a day’s work.

I’m Susan Sano Berado. More thoughts and tips forthcoming.

Welcome to a new feature on the Pixelsilk blog!

My name is Jon and I am one of the “Websters” (web developers) developing sites with Pixelsilk and pushing the boundaries of what Pixelsilk is capable of doing. As you may (or may not) know, Pixelsilk has a fairly extensive front-end Javascript API (application programming interface) and combining that with the popular Javascript “JQuery” library (not to mention HTML, CSS, and judicious use of Flash) there are some amazing things that can be accomplished.

Hence this new “Cool Things to do with Pixelsilk” feature: a series of ongoing articles from me and my fellow Websters highlighting many of these examples and pointing you in new directions and towards new ideas. Feedback, questions, ideas are all encouraged, and you can either leave comments on these posts or email me directly at jon.abernathy -at- pixelsilk.com.

Validation and SEO crawlability go hand in hand.  If you’re a web developer or SEO, you know full well the importance of validated code.  Traditionally in the world of CMS, W3C validation has been difficult to achieve due to the inflexible nature of the CMS when rendering a page.  We know W3C validation isn’t everything – but it can help.

Pixelsilk is making waves in the SEO and development communities because of its flexibility.  With Full HTML control, you now have the ability to create fully validated web sites and create a DOCTYPE of XHTML 1.0 Strict.

Recently, a CMS validation showdown was run (credit due to SEO Consultants) and Pixelsilk passed with flying colors compared to WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Ektron, Plone and others.

Pixelsilk CMS Validation Showdown

BEND, Oregon – August 6, 2009 – Pixelsilk, an SEO-friendly content management system (CMS) today announces the release of their Partner Portal during this year’s SES San Jose conference.

The Partner Portal is designed to meet the needs of web development companies and marketing agencies – or any group that needs to manage multiple sites from one control panel.  Pixelsilk was designed to facilitate SEO best practices and these assets can now be leveraged across multiple sites with one place of management.

Pixelsilk is a scalable, Web-based CMS that provides SEO, marketing and Web development teams with the features they need to maximize their online initiatives and gain a competitive edge in their organic search engine rankings. Cutting-edge tools that allow full control of the HTML code, the ability to interact with business and social media applications, open framework structure, real-time SEO feedback and true theme and navigation flexibility are among some of the features that set Pixelsilk apart from any other production-level CMS available today.

The addition of the Pixelsilk Portal allows partners to leverage website resources such as: design themes, CSS, JavaScript, images, content types and more across all or selected sites under their management.  Moreover, partners can manage multiple administrative users across all websites.

Mark Knowles, President and CEO of Pixelsilk, speaks to the potential of the Partner Portal by saying, “Our partners provide unique and powerful tools to their clients. The portal is a huge timesaver for them during the development process.”

The Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose 2009 conference will be held at the McEnery Convention Center from August 11-13. To register for the SES San Jose conference, visitors may use coupon code 20Pixel for a 20% discount.  Or, visitors may register for the expo pass and visit the Pixelsilk booth (#106) for a demo.

About Pixelsilk
Pixelsilk is the first proven world-class SEO/CMS solution provider designed to meet SEO Best Practices requirements. Headquartered in Bend, Oregon (sometimes referred to as the “hub” of the Search Engine Optimization industry), the company has been integral in the fields of content management and software development for nearly 15 years. Its memberships and professional affiliations include: SEMpdx, SMX, SES and the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The creators of Pixelsilk are SEO ToolSet-certified, and the company is also a Microsoft Gold Partner.

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Media Contacts:
Wendy Roe
Pixelsilk
2525 NE Twin Knolls Drive
Bend, Oregon  97701, Suite 1
Ph: (877) 749-7455
E-mail: wendy.roe@pixelsilk.com

What makes Pixelsilk a perfect fit for your business organization?  Because we understand the multiple roles that need to be involved in the website, from the editor to the IT team.  In order to start a conversation around the way roles inside of Pixelsilk work together, we’ve created characters to help the process along.

Let us introduce you properly:

Meet Ed, “The Editor”
Ed, “The Editor” handles adding, editing and deleting pages, content and page properties.  Ed typically does not know HTML and primarily works inside of the WYSIWYG interface.  He understands basic Word Processing (MS Word).

With proper training, Ed is savvy enough to understand how to add links, documents, media and content to grow content on the site and add frequently updated information.

Meet Sadie, “The Site Manager”
Sadie “The Site Manager” assigns permissions/security roles and users.  Sadie would guide access to various areas of the site and assign editing tasks to those working within the system.

Sadie can easily add roles and create/define users assigned to those roles. She also is known for review and monitoring of web analytics.

Meet Webster, “The Web Developer”
Webster “The Web Developer” has a solid knowledge base using HTML, JavaScript and CSS and is typically responsible for theme/skin development.  Webster’s domain and access is under the ‘Design’ area where full theme editing takes place. Webster utilizes controls and subsequent [[tokens]] to setup the theme templates, forms, navigation and easy third-party plug-ins.

Meet Oscar, “The Optimizer”
Oscar “The Optimizer” is the SEO guru.  He enjoys the ability of full HTML/URL control implement his SEO strategy.  Oscar typically sets up proper URL structures, meta data, robots.txt and other SEO items.  He works with Webster to deliver optimized, clean (non-bloated) code.

Oscar may also use the ‘Search Advice’ interface to put his advice into the system and make it available for Ed while editing.

Meet Devon, “The Developer”
Devon “The Developer” has a wide-spread knowledge base of server-side languages, such as: PHP, .NET, Cold Fusion, etc.  Although not needed to theme and deploy a site, Devon is useful when third-party integration is needed.  He enjoys access to both the server and client APIs to accomplish more complex integration between Pixelsilk and a third-party application.

Meet Netti, “The Network Admin”
Netti “The Network Admin” is the keeper of Domain, DNS and E-mail management for individual sites.  The Pixelsilk ‘Control Panel’ is where Netti accomplishes Domain registration, renewal and domain properties as well as DNS name server information.  Netti also manages   e-mail accounts associated with the client and is the technical contact, coordinating hosting related issues.

These roles help everything from the sales process, training and overall communication.  Although other roles exist outside that mingle with those mentioned above, Ed, Sadie, Webster, Oscar, Devon and Netti are directly involved in working within Pixelsilk.

Which role are you?

During the SMX West 2009 keynote, Google released information on the new ‘canonical link element.’

For more information on the keynote, see Matt Cutt’s Blog post.

We like this new link element. It should certainly help the engines improve their databases and use their clock cycles for the more important work.

This problem has been out there for a while and there is some good news here for Pixelsilk customers. First, Pixelsilk without a plug in, is already ensuring that the proper URL is being rendered and redirected so, most Pixelsilk sites are already fine. Secondly, simple HTML skills are all that is required to implement the canonical link element in Pixelsilk, no plug in required.

Pixelsilk uses a “token” system for common site elements and to leverage web developers preexisting work. Because of that, this canonical link element is already supported. Let’s use a site with two layout themes as an example for a moment. In Pixelsilk, you just add the following code to each site theme one time and you’re done:

If you have questions or are fixated on a “plug in” type answer for this new link element, call us so you can see for yourself why it took six seconds for us to write this “plug in”