I finally finished the redesign for my web development and SEO consulting company, infinFX. This is the first version of infinFX that I coded entirely in transitional XHTML and CSS.
After the site was finished, I validated all of the source code using the W3C’s XHTML Validator.
What is Validation?
According to the W3C:
Validation is a process of checking your documents against a formal Standard, such as those published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for HTML and XML-derived Web document types, or by the WapForum for WML, etc. It serves a similar purpose to spell checking and proofreading for grammar and syntax, but is much more precise and reliable than any of those processes because it is dealing with precisely-specified machine languages, not with nebulously-defined human natural language.
Why Should You Validate?
Non-valid pages rely on error correction by web browsers. Since not all web browsers are the same, while your page may look fine in one browser, it may appear smugly in another. By validating, you are ensuring your web site is fully web standards compliant and will appear (mostly) uniform across different browsers and operating systems.
Once your site has passed the validation test, you are awarded with a little validation badge that you can place on your site to show off to your readers that your page is standards compliant.
Optimizing infinFX for Search Rankings
Last week I posted an SEO Case Study highlighting some of the ways a page is made more search engine friendly. The company owner asked me to remove the company name from my blog as she doesn’t want visitors to visit my blog before her site, so that is why I reposted the article. The company web site, which was previously in Google’s supplemental index, is now ranked #2 for a search for the company name (which interestingly, is somewhat competitive as there are many companies of the same name).
Anyway, I have been working on better optimizing infinFX for the phrase “Scottsdale web design” as that is where my business is based and the local market is very competitive. I am happy to report that if you type in “scottsdale web design” into Google, I am now fluctuating between the bottom of the first page and top of the second page of SERPs. In the next few weeks, I am sure I will be ranked within the top 5 listings, consistently. On MSN, infinFX is ranked #1 for “scottsdale web design.”
Most of our business comes from referrals, so it will be provide for an influx of new clients when we start to rank well for local “web design” search results.
Coincidentally, today we received our first call from someone who found our company through Google. Apparently they typed in “e-commerce design in scottsdale” and found our web site and proceeded to call us. I quoted them a great price on an e-commerce setup and it looks like it will result in a new client. That is the benefit of SEO pure and simple – more people can find you.
Integrating a Blog into infinFX
Perhaps the biggest reason I wanted to redesign infinFX was so that it would be easy to turn a portion of the site into a WordPress template as I plan on integrating a company blog very soon. The company blog will cover general marketing and web development tips. However, I will still be posting the majority of my web development articles on this site. The blog will actually feature a few guest bloggers, so if any of you are interested in guest blogging on the infinFX Web Dev blog, please contact me.
Rewriting the Copy
The final step for the infinFX web site will be rewriting a majority of the copy so that it will lead to higher conversions. I plan on installing Interspire’s SendStudio email marketing software here soon so that I am able to follow up with prospective clients on a regular basis and distribute a company newsletter.
Premium Web & Blog Design + Guranteed Satisfaction
Finally, if anyone is looking for web site and/or blog design, infinFX offers competitive rates and and guarantees client satisfaction.
Visit www.infinFX.com for more information…
