CategoryWeb Development | Pixelsilk Blog

Come Swivel With Us!

It’s that time again. Time for the Bend WebCAM Conference in Bend, Oregon. This year we’ve put a spin on the conference… and on the name.

Swivel, formerly known as Bend WebCAM, is taking place in Bend, Oregon from October 12-13^th, 2015.

If you’ve attended in past, you’re aware of the benefits that this conference offers. If you haven’t, it’s time you heard:

Swivel is a marketing conference that fuses technology and creativity together to produce some of the most cutting-edge marketing strategies in the field. Anyone in marketing knows that the field is always evolving- strategy that works one day will fail to work another. Swivel offers you a chance to get caught up on the latest trends in marketing by learning from some of the best in the business.

This 2-day conference holds value for all those involved in the marketing field: designers, optimizers, developers, writers and strategists. You’ll get to hear from experts in the field talk about marketing, advertising, graphic design, copywriting, content strategy and brand development.

The focus of Swivel 2015 is communication. Communication in social media, communication in search engine optimization (SEO), communication in search engine marketing (SEM), and communication in mobile marketing. Communication is pivotal to every marketing campaign. After all, isn’t that what marketing is… communication?

Swivel is more than just a conference. It’s an opportunity to join in a marketing movement. A movement to create stronger, more creative, and more effective marketing decisions. It’s a chance to hear from experts in the field, network with colleagues, and connect with new clients.

Join us at Swivel 2015 this October in Bend, Oregon for a marketing experience to remember.

Remember to use your promo code and save $200 when you sign up! Promo = PIXELSILK

Cool things to do with Pixelsilk

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.

Pixelsilk W3C Validation surpasses WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Ektron

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 And The New Canonical Link Element

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:

<link href="[[PrimaryDomain]][[PagePath]]" rel="canonical" />

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” 🙂