Most web saavy people have a Facebook account and are actively posting there and watching what their friends are doing. This can be addicting to people so Facebook is now spreading to outside websites.

I’m currently building my first Facebook Connect site for a client.

What is Facebook Connect? Facebook Connect is a set of APIs for use in Web Development. My current app is using a hybrid of Javascript and PHP in order to accomplish what needs to get done.

When I first started, it seemed like my app would work one second and then would fail the next. After about a day it seems that things stabilized and it was actually working on a consistent basis. This can be really annoying to most web developers that are used to the “either it works or it doesn’t” philosophy which has served us so well in the past. Well in the Facebook area, its not an absolute any longer. You have to realize that Facebook is getting so large that they have lots of servers handling requests and not all the servers get the application (your Facebook Connect site requires you to setup an application!) settings immediately. Best to setup your application and then wait a few days.

When you’re just getting started, I recommend you read through the Facebook Developers documentation. They are making it better. When I wrote my First Facebook App (Last Summer) it was horrendous and there was many hours spent cursing Facebook! They seem to have gotten the picture but it still has a ways to go. Anyway, read what you can and use Google to find answers (make sure they are current!) and you should get by. If you’re new to PHP and Javascript, then I would not recommend jumoing write into Facebook Connect. If you don’t understand the fundamentals, you’ll drive yourself crazy trying to make it work.

I’ll try and post some sample as I build them.

1. In order for the owner to continue to manage her site we took the site from framesets to single page with an IFRAME. I’m not a huge IFRAME fan but it worked better than the old framesets and allowed for the owners son to continue updating the pages as he always had.
2. Navigation. On the old site they were using Microsoft Javascript calls to load the pages. The navigation consisted on 4 SELECT boxes and really needed a better mechanism for SEO. So I took the 4 SELECT boxes and put all the page links into an accordion style navigation list and made a few adjustments. The accordion style setup allowed all teh links to be found inside hidden DIVs and would allow for better search engine access than trying to decipher the Javascript.
3. Added pages for ones “under construction”. The clients site really only had about 7 actual pages and some of those were an “under construction” page that they were eventually going to fill in. For better SEO, I created the other pages and tried to add some keywords in each so that the search engines had something to look at. This site was at least a few years old so I did ask the client if they actually wanted links for those pages and they assured me that it was needed so I thought creating the pages would be a good start and then they could just insert the copy into those pages as they created it.
4. META tags. I’ve seen lots of sites over the years where no one bothered to go in and add META tags. This site didn’t have any at all so I went into every page an added the META structure and added basic keywords and a description.
5. In a complete redesign I would do a W3C validation check. Doing a validation check on what is now a Frankenstein site of MS Frontpage code and XHTML would have put me over my allotted time. If you have the time to re-validate these site I would definitely recommend you take the time to do that so that your SEO plan is hindered by messy code.
6. Add a favicon. I love looking up in my browser’s tab bar and seeing the icons for the sites I have up. If the client has a logo that can be made into a nice favicon I recommend doing that. Here’s a site for generating a favicon from a JPEG.
7. Re-evaluate hosting. Hosting accounts have definitely become cheaper over the years. Review with the client what they are paying and see if you can save them money by either switching their hosting account to a cheaper place or if you’re like me and host your own sites, see if you can save the client some money by switching them over to you and give them a discount if they pay for a full year. I recommend HostGator as an affordable solution if you don’t host yourself.
8. Re-submit to search engines. After launching the site on the web server, re-submit the site to Google, Yahoo, Bing and the Open Directory Project. Do a re-submit just makes sure that the search engines add the site to the list to re-spyder after you do your update. It can’t hurt to resubmit after an update to the any site.

Updating a website like this can breath at least a bit more life into an old site. When the site gets to be over 5 years old, it’s time to really do an overhaul but just doing a few minor tweaks and updating to current standards can get you by until the next re-design.

I find it disturbing that just because a company has a lawyer on staff and their business name is a common phrase, they are allowed to crush another company from ever competing with them until someone comes up with a better phrase to describe their industry. Funny thing is, that John could go register “hoverwash.com” because has has a hunch that all of human civilization will be using hovercraft to travel from place to place in a few years, but Dave will then have his lawyer retroactively file a patent on the word “wash” so that no one can register any domain name with the word wash in it. Oh and by the way, you won’t be able to write a blog post with the word “wash” either so I’ll be getting a bill in a few years for each instance of that word in this post (16 times at $1000 each). Where will it end?

Metals are the most recycled elements these due to their cost in creating from ore. All-Aluminum and Metals Recycling Inc works to take scrap metals and turn them back into usable items while keeping the scrap out of landfills.

Recycling is a practice that is very important to McClintic Design Inc. and we are very proud to have worked with All-Aluminum on this project. The new website includes contact information, a partial list of recycled metals and most important, an interactive Google map to find out how people can find their location.

All-Aluminum and Metal Recycling Inc. also hosts their website with McClintic Design Inc.

If any part of your business is customer facing, you know what it means for your customers to have a positive experience. It can make or break a small business. The staff at IICEM can work with your to streamline your processes and make sure that every customer has a positive experience.