As you may have noticed… the website has changed. Hugely. This is for several quite significant reasons which will improve the site both aesthetically and also the performance of the pages. If you compare the two websites (this one at gmcrf.co.uk and the other at web.me.com/dan_barker) you can see two differences to begin with; the URL.
The URL is one small change and will help increase the ease of sharing specific pages. The old version of the system we ran was a forwarding system. This is where you would go to the ‘advertised’ domain (gmcrf.co.uk) and it would go to a database server with a list of what that specific URL directs you to. Then it would make your browser go to web.me.com/dan_barker… which would be the ‘genuine’ URL. So with my preliminary tests, I have experienced a slightly faster time in loading pages because of the lack of having to redirect to the other ‘genuine’ URL.
Moving on, if you look at the website you may notice the lack of ads. This is because advertisement has ruined the internet along with SEO (search engine optimisation). I shall start with the second point that I put forward (whilst is off topic, it is important). Search engines are now been ruined to a point where you cannot find a good source of information for the subject/product you initially searched for, this leads to you going through tens of pages to find something of value.
Wikipedia has a far superior explanation than I could write, it reads;
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.
So this means that if I wanted to search for, let’s say, “Peggy Mitchel official fan club” (this is a pure example, may not fully work). I will possibly get a lot of unrelated links for this that have nothing to do about it and on page 233 I will get the page that should be on top. They are entire websites which are in existence solely to be at the top of the ‘un-paid’ links and then sell advertising on the side.
But back to advertisements which we used on the previous web site design, I don’t like to see them. At all… So much so that I use Ad Block Plus; I dislike (hugely) the way ads track your activity online to tailor advertisements towards something you have a higher chance of clicking on. But something else annoyed me the other day. This advertisement at the bottom of the old site.
The scientology advert
Scientology advertising on our website! I am aware that you can take it off but the allowing of ‘religions’ to advertise on Google has taken the advertising issue over the edge. It will not be implemented on this website again.
And finally, we are now using wordpress. This means that we are not tied down to one computer to update the website and can update it from any computer with internet access. It has an online CMS (Content management system) which makes it far easier than the desktop CMS application we used for our previous site. In addition, this means more than one person can add content if we need to (so if one of us is taken out the other people with a login can add content too). Also, with this huge update we have greater ability to do more with the website than we did with the more closed systems before. It also means that the design will be harder to implement than previously. The website design we have on this page is not one I have built. It is a template. Therefore, it will be tweaked… but very similar to the one at the moment (after all, it is almost identical to my preliminary plans). This is because I need to learn a lot about wordpress template design before I feel confident on placing it onto ta frequently updated website which a few people look at.
Overall, I am confident that the changes in servers and the other changes outlined above will improve the website exponentially. I anticipate in getting back into placing my writings up on the website with a more satirical (if possible) slant on the news, both gaming and political wise… Like the podcast really.