Herself’s Webtools

What does that mean? First and foremost it means letting visitors interact with your website through forums, blogs, and other means. Let the public contribute if they want to do so.

It means new designs, out with dark pages, html formatting, and java applets. In with new tools and designs; using css, php, mysql, light colors, rounded corners and a whole lot more white space. Add in content that changes frequently, photo streams, news streams, etc.

TimesToCome had sat for about two years while I settled into Houston. I thought it’d take a few weeks to update. It’s been 3 months and I’m just about done. It is going to take longer than you think.

I took the major topics on TimesToCome and spread them across 8 domains, 9 blogs and a few micro sections. The java applets are gone. I’ll replace them with PHP scripts. There is still one section not fully updated. The rest are done. This will make it easier for people, search engines and advertisers to find you and find what they are looking for on your site.

I was still putting details on webpage designs today. Don’t forget the details; contact information, a link back to the old site, and a license on each page. If you use a pre-made template, hack it and make it your design. It doesn’t take a lot of css training to be able to do that. Cross link to the other websites you split your stuff across in case people are looking for more than one subject they found on the old site.

Just this morning I realized I had not added digg buttons back in after updating my templates. I’ll add those back in this week and add directions for you as well this week. Still I’m finding details missing. So you might want to make a list of everything on your pages before you do the move and check them off as you add them to the new design.

TimesToCome got started back in 1997. Last time I did a major update on TimesToCome was about 2002 or so. Google and the other search engines bounced me down in rank for moving pages. They are very unforgiving of that. This time I used 301 redirects. It still cost me ranking to move things around. Don’t forget to resubmit your site to the directories you were previously listed in under your original domain. Google’s DMOZ and Yahoo being the most important. Take your time and do it yourself by hand. But only after you get the bulk of things moved to the new sites.

The good part is, I’ll regain the ranking and then some with the new design. It is far easier to keep the site current and to make changes. So with only one section left to update I’m expecting to spend a whole lot less time on maintenance and much more on content.

see also:
How to do 301 redirects