Here are some useful Internet Resources
We only link to websites that we personally consider a useful resource, and/or whose services or products we found useful. If you also have a useful site then please get in touch - see foot of page.
1st Easy Ecommerce Hosts
One of the UK's largest ecommerce specialist hosts. Secure servers, Verisign authenticated, the best tech support available, and massive resources. Miva, osCommerce, and many other solutions. Dedicated servers from £60/month. Often found to be cheaper than hosts with less secure facilities or less reliable service. Provision of secure checkout without unique IP.
1st Easy Link Directory
Nativespace Hosting
UK hosting with fast servers and good support. CMS-friendly servers and good SEO features. Correct PHP security settings, unlike vast numbers of hosts. We found this host has the fastest CMS backend admin panel response times. Sensible tech features such as 10 free SQL databases on the average account (5 MySQL, 5 PostgreSQL), an excellent Control Panel, and unique IPs available. Our tip for the best UK value-account LAMP server CMS host.
Logaholic Clickstream Flash Web Analytics
Logaholic are the big mover in the world of stats right now: see our Statistics-2 page for why we think they are better than Google Analytics and AWstats put together. It runs on your own server, so you own the data. At $67 currently, it won't break the bank.
24-hour Free Website Monitoring
Your site uptime monitored - the online status of your website checked 24/7/365 - email sent to you if it goes down. It's free, it's invaluable, and it stops your business crashing.
Website Monitoring by Alertra
If you need a professional service, this is the one we recommend, for numerous reasons. Alertra give us the service and information we need. We've tried most of the others and come back here. The basic service is first class, though there may be some specific tests that one or two others may do better (certain security tests for example).
The world #1 CMS. The perfect example of the quality of OSS software: a combination of free and commercial resources. Around 3,000 plugins make this the most extensible CMS on the planet. Good code, the dev core team are on the case, 3PD devs are the biggest such group existing, a vast number of both free and very cheap extensions. Build an ecommerce store or a web video centre - or nearly anything else.
Joomla SEF URLs and metadata
The sh404 search-friendly URLs and custom metadata plugin is the icing on the cake for Joomla. You can have flat html page addresses, and unique page titles and descriptions. It's got to be the first extension you add to the CMS - everything else is secondary to this.
One of the few places where art and web dev technology meet. Some fine artists can be found there, and some good devs. Argue about which of the two is more important!
Search Optimising Resources
We don't normally list SEO links for two reasons: there are a lot of them; and material tends to be biased toward the viewpoint of the site owner. A flat and journalistic reportage style would help, but of course it is unrealistic to expect people not to prioritise their own viewpoint or services on their own sites - we certainly do. However, in some cases there are useful 'neutral' or invaluable resources that should be referenced. We'll add to this list as and when they are re-encountered. See the page on banned websites for specific resources, and search engine quality guidelines.
Average SEO fees
A round-up of average SEO costs from randfish.
Link value measurement
A useful round-up of current opinion on the value of various link types from people in the know. Nothing on link strategy here, but some interesting opinions from those who specialise in this area, and other industry names.
Search engineer's blog
There is so little communication from SEs, especially on any useful technical topics, that anything is worth reading. In this case, Matt Cutts being the head of Google's anti-spam department, we should not ignore it.
Live Search Webmaster Center Forums
Finally, a representative of one of the Big 3 search engines is communicating with website owners. Jeremiah Andrick, Program Manager at LiveSearch (MSN), engages with forum users on their search problems. Go there and be suitably grateful; he has done what his competitors couldn't achieve.
Here's ours:
Search Optimising
Present your enterprise in the best possible light online. A3webtech is an ethical SEO agency, and we can increase your website revenues the safe, honest and risk-free way. CMS and ecommerce project management.
.....and the URL is: http://www.a3webtech.com
[Add link: please link to any page you find useful - preferably not the index page please.]
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