Many people are tempted to just go straight to Google Images, type in what they need, and “borrow” one of the first images they see to complete the look of whatever project they’re working on. Or, they tell their web designer and/or marketing person, “just find something online.”

Finding something online is easy, it’s the making sure you pay for the image you want to use that isn’t. There are various stock photography and clip art sites that sell the rights to images for mere cents on the dollar, or actually offer their imagery for free as long as you give credit where credit is due. Depending on what you need the image for, the resolution you require and the size, the small investment upfront could help you avoid potentially a great deal of headaches in the future.

Need help finding images to use on your website or in your marketing materials? Not sure if the images you’re using fall in the “safe to use” zone? Contact GnomeMedia today so we can help.

The answer is called a “301 redirect“. A 301 redirect is the the most search engine friendly way to redirect users from one page to another.

How They Work
Someone goes to a search engine, types in something they’re looking for more information about, and they get a link to your website as one of the results. If the link is one that directs users to a page that is on the older version of your website, a 301 redirect will direct users to the newer version of that particular page on your current website when they click that link. Essentially, the 301 redirect is telling the search engine that you have permanently moved the info from your old site to this new link.

How to Set Them Up
How you would go about setting up 301 redirects depends on a number of items; whether your website is built within a content management system, who your hosting provider is, etc. If you need assistance setting up 301 redirects for your website, contact GnomeMedia and we can help you figure out what you need to do.

So, when is it good, or not good, to use Flash in a website?

Well, if you run an art gallery or movie trailer website, you’re probably going to want to bedazzle your visitors visually to keep them interested in the content on your website. So, you’ll probably use Flash or something similar.

If you want to get noticed in the search engines, having a Flash website is not going to help. Why? Search engines can’t read text that is being displayed within Flash, or any images on the site, unless you insert a great deal of extra code into the back end of the website that describes what is being displayed on the screen.

Not only is the extra code “behind the scenes” helpful for the search engines, but it is also helpful for the hearing and visually impaired that rely solely on image descriptions to understand what is being displayed on a web page.

Even with going this extra step, every time you change the text on the front end of your site, the code on the back end also has to be changed, which can be an ongoing hassle depending on how you are able to get your website updated. (e.g. You rely on someone else, or you have to find time to do it yourself.)

One other item to note about Flash, is that unless the visitor to the website has installed a Flash plug-in on their computer, they won’t be able to see the website correctly until they download and install the plug-in.

Also, if you want iPhone users to view your website, and you have Flash on it, they will only be able to see the non-Flash elements of the site, as iPhones do not support Flash yet.

So, while there is the “shiny and pretty” aspect of Flash websites, there are a lot of other items to consider as well when developing a website that may contain Flash, or be built using only Flash.

If you have additional questions or concerns about Flash, please contact GnomeMedia.

It’s something small, but people pay attention to it, especially if you have an online retail shop. With the downturn in the economy, this small piece of information is getting increased exposure by visitors to your website. They often use this to determine whether you’re website is credible enough to buy from or take away information.

If you have a website that’s been up for more than a year, you should include the date range of how long it has been live. For example, if you put your website online in 2001, your copyright should look like this: © 2001-2009 YourSite.com

If you need help getting your copyright date current, contact GnomeMedia.

Say you own a domain name that is for your own personal website. For example, www.AmandaNuckolls.com. Given that this spelling is an unusual way to spell “knuckles”, I always recommend purchasing the common misspelling as well (www.AmandaKnuckles.com) because you never know how much website traffic you could be missing out on. Any domain name misspellings you purchase can be set up as “redirects” to your main domain name. This can usually be done through the admin of your hosting provider.

Another reason to own multiple domains is if you are able to find domains that include specific keywords that apply to the interests of your personal or business website. For example, an e-commerce shopping cart provider might want to purchase www.shoppingcart.com as a domain that will help them to gain additional traffic from users looking for this type of service using a search engine.

Here are a few “how to set up a domain redirect” links provided by some of the top hosting providers:
- GoDaddy
- DreamHost
- Bluehost
- HostGator