Lance F. Carpenter: Graphic Design, Web Design and Logo Design in Athens, GA

Dreamweaver: Make Your Site Search-Engine Friendly

Lance Carpenter — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:32:10 +0000

The best way to make your site search-engine friendly is to design your site so that it’s easy for search engines to ”read” your pages—doing things like adding alternative text behind your images and using the meta description tag. In this tutorial, you’ll find a few search engine optimization (SEO) tips and discover the features in Dreamweaver that will best serve your SEO efforts.

1 NEVER LEAVE A PAGE UNTITLED
When you create a new page, Dreamweaver automatically adds the word “Untitled” at the top of every page, but don’t ever leave it that way. Although the title text doesn’t appear in the body of your webpage, it’s highly valued by search engines (so be sure to include your best keywords). Title text also appears at the very top of the browser window and that’s the text that’s saved when someone bookmarks your site. It’s easy to change a title in Dreamweaver; just click in the Title field at the top of the workspace and type your own text.

2 USE ALTERNATIVE TEXT BEHIND IMAGES
The HTML image attribute for alternative text (alt text) lets you include a text description with your images. The spiders and bots that search engines use to crawl your site’s content can’t see words saved in an image, but they can read alt text in the code. When you insert an image, Dreamweaver prompts you to add Alternate Text in the Image Tag Accessibility Attributes dialog (unless you’ve turned it off in Preferences). You can also add alt text by clicking to select any image and then entering text in the Alt field in the Property inspector.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/EKATERINA MONAKHOVA

3 ADD A META DESCRIPTION
The meta description tag appears in the head area at the very top of your HTML code. Humans never see this text because it’s not displayed in a webpage, but meta descriptions are often used in search engine results and they can make a big difference in whether someone clicks on your site or not. To add this text in Dreamweaver, choose Insert>HTML>Head Tags>Description and then type a description. You can add different descriptions to any or all of the pages in your site. Although search engines vary, most will only display the first 250 characters.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/JOSE ELIAS

4 INCLUDE META KEYWORDS
Many search engines ignore the contents of the meta keyword tag because it’s been so badly abused by Web designers’ trying to trick search engines with unrelated or misleading terms, but adding keywords can’t hurt your pages (as long as they match the content), and it’s good practice to include your most important keywords on every page. While you’re adding the meta description tag, it’s easy to throw in a few keywords with the meta keyword tag. The two dialogs are accessible from the same menu in Dreamweaver, just choose Insert>HTML>Head Tags>Keywords.

5 USE HEADING TAGS TO SHOW HIERARCHY
Heading tags—HTML tags h1 through h6—are designed to format headlines with graduated levels of big, bold text. Although there are many ways to style text so that it stands out in a webpage, heading tags are considered especially valuable because they help identify the importance of information on a page using a clearly defined hierarchy. Format your most important headline with the h1 tag, less important text with the h2 tag, and so on. Although there’s no guarantee this will improve your rankings, it’s widely believed that text formatted in heading tags gets special attention from search engines.

6 STYLE HEADING TAGS
If you’re not happy with the bold, Times Roman style of the heading tags, you can use CSS to change their appearance. By creating CSS Rules using the Tag selector, you can change the font, color, size, and other formatting options of any or all of the h1–h6 heading tags. To do so, create a new style (Format>CSS Styles>New), choose Tag as the Selector Type, and then select any heading tag from the Selector Name drop-down list. Define the style you want and save it into your stylesheet. Once you do, any text formatted with that heading tag will display with the formatting rules defined in that style.

7 USE COMPOUND STYLES FOR HEADING TAGS
You can create different styles for the same heading tags using compound styles. For instance, you can create a style for the h1 tag where the formatting changes when it appears in a sidebar so that it’s different from text formatted with the h1 tag when it appears in the main content area. For example, to create a style for the h1 tag to be used on an area of the page already styled by the ID #sidebar, you’d create a compound style that looks like this: #sidebar h1.

8 ATTRACT THE RIGHT LINKS
Search engines view links to your site as a vote of confidence. But it’s not just the link that counts; it’s also the text in the link tag. If the link to your site includes keywords, it can improve your ranking even more. Say I were to link to the fictional pet site featured in this tutorial, I’d serve them better by including keywords, such as pet grooming and boarding, in the link text with their domain name. Ask your friends to do the same when they link to you.

9 HARNESS THE POWER OF INTERNAL LINKS
Most search engines also put higher value on keywords that appear in internal links on your own website. When you link from one page in your site to another, use words that have relevance to your content and avoid wasted phrases like “click here.” If the pet site puts the words, “Pet Grooming Services” in a link, most search engines will recognize that those words have special value. Although this alone may not make a big difference, the combined effect of many small changes like this can add up to valuable improvements in your search status.

©ISTOCKPHOTO/DIANE DIEDERICH

10 CREATE A NAVIGATION BAR OF KEYWORD LINKS
The more times the same keywords are linked to the same page, the more attractive it becomes to most search engines. As a result, one key to search engine success is to pay special attention to the way you create navigation links—the links to the most important pages of your site. Make sure to include good keywords in the links and use text, not images, for the links. If you must use graphic buttons to achieve the design you want, repeat navigation links by adding a row of text links to the bottom or side of every page.

11 CREATE DESTINATION PAGES FOR POPULAR TOPICS
Many visitors who discover your site through search engines will enter through an internal page in your site because it matches a specific search string better than the front page of your site. With this in mind, many Web designers create “destination” or “landing” pages optimized for popular keywords and designed to attract people searching for those terms. Once they find the content on those pages, you can then lead them into the rest of the website.

JANINE WARNER

12 USE TEMPLATES TO REPEAT KEY ELEMENTS
When creating a website in Dreamweaver—even if the site only has a few pages—using the Web templates in Dreamweaver can make it easier to repeat (and update) key elements, such as navigation bars, and the alt text behind commonly used images, such as banners. You can create templates in Dreamweaver by saving any page as a DWT file and then create and update the rest of the pages in your site using that template. (You can find instructions for creating templates in Dreamweaver at www.layersmagazine.com/category/dreamweaver.)

13 MAKE EXISTING SITES SEO FRIENDLY
Considering the best options for SEO from the start is best, but if you’ve already built your site in Dreamweaver, you can always go back and make adjustments. Most search engines, such as Google, visit websites regularly (it can vary from a daily occurrence to more than a month between visits depending on your site’s popularity and how often you refresh the content). If you’re not familiar with Google Webmaster Tools, the many reports, charts, and graphs on this page make it a great place to learn more about how your site ranks and how to make it better.

10 Important Tips to Improve Composition in Your Photos

Lance Carpenter — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:25:02 +0000

Here are 10 tips to help you improve the composition in your photos. Whenever you’re stuck figuring out how to compose a photo, you can use any one of these tips to get you started.

Rule of odds
In simple terms, the “rule of odds” is to have an odd number of objects in your photos. It could be a photo of just one object or a group shot of three people. This technique makes the photo more appealing and interesting to the human eye.

This photo of four strawberries is quite bland and boring. It is difficult to find the center of focus in this image.

A similar image but with just three strawberries. Although just the image is similar to the previous photo, the odd number of strawberries make it significantly more interesting.

Limiting focus
Limiting the focus is an easy way to add focus. It may not be necessary in all photos but is useful whenever you have distracting objects that you want to hide. The most common use of this technique is to blur distracting backgrounds. Blurring the background turns any distracting backgrounds into a pleasing one. You can minimize the depth of field in your photos by using a large aperture (ex. F1.8), zooming in, and using a camera with a larger sensor (ex. full frame DSLR).

If the trees in the background were in focus, it would have distracted the subjects of this photo. By blurring out the background, the focus is emphasized on the couple.

Blurring out the background helps draw the attention to this persons eyes.

Simplification
The best way to improve the center of focus is to create simple looking image. The easiest way to do this is to limit the amount of objects in your photo. You can also use the previous tip to blur out distracting details.

The simplicity of this photo makes the story clear. A simple photo gets attention and makes people look at it longer.

Centering
Centering an object gives the photo balance. Centering works best on simple photos with few objects.

You can improve the emphasis on the subject by keeping the spacing around the subject clean.

A boring object made interesting by keeping it simple and centered.

Rule of thirds
This is one of the most effective and popular ways of composing a photo. You can improve your photos compositions simply by using this technique. The “rule of thirds” adds interest to the photo by aligning the subject on one of the four points of an imaginary 3×3 grid in the photo.

A simple image made more interesting by positioning on the rule of thirds.

When shooting portraits, you can use the rule of thirds to add focus to the eyes. Simply position one of the eyes or the area between the eyes on the rule of thirds to create a great portrait.

Lead room
Lead room is the the space in front of an object. This element is usually used with the rule of thirds to create a more interesting photo. By leaving room in front of the subject, the viewer will see that it has someplace to go.

The snowboarder is positioned on the rule of thirds with some lead room in front of him.

Leaving some lead room in front of the runner makes the photo look more active. It also puts more attention to the sunset.

Leaving room behind the runner makes her appear to be almost done running.

S curve
S Curve is an imaginary line in a photo that is in the shape of an S. This type of line makes photos look more interesting by additing motion guiding the viewers eye in the shape of an S. S curve can also be used in posing to improve the appearance of the models figure.

An example of a highway with an S curve. This photo of a simple scenery is made more interesting with the S curve.

A similar photo of a highway but without the S curve is less dynamic.

S curve can also be used in posing. The earliest examples of S curve can be found in Greek and Roman sculptures.

Foreground
Most photos have a middleground and a background but very little foreground. You can improve your landscapes photos significantly by including some foreground objects. This is a great technique for creating a sense of scale and making the viewer feel like he/she is in the photo.

The rocks in this landscape photo gives the photo a sense of depth and scale.

Adding more foreground to the photo creates the feeling being there.

Fill the frame
When you think you’re close enough to the subject, try going closer. Fill most of the frame with the subject and you got another composition.

Getting closer and filling the frame with the wolfs head gives more emphasis to the wolf and creates more drama. Both photos are of the same wolf but the story it tells is completely different.

Framing
Here’s a creative way to add a foreground to your photos! Use elements around you to create a picture frame of the subject. This technique is a great way of adding interest and making a photo stand out from the rest.

This photo uses a silhouette to create a frame around the Taj Mahal.

Frames don’t have to stand out or be perfectly shaped. They can be natural like the two trees in this image.

By Denny Tang. Originally posted on: www.photoshoptutorials.ws

Reflections Without Transparencies

Lance Carpenter — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:39:34 +0000

Difficulty Level: Advanced

This tutorial looks very very complicated at first glance, but it’s only repeating the same steps over and over. Once you get used to working without transparencies it becomes second nature; it just takes a little planning as you work to sort out how to ‘fake’ the look in a way that anyone can still edit the file.

For this illustration, I wanted a couple dancing while reflected on a highly polished marble floor… I just had no idea how to draw it without using transparencies. Luckily the trusty Pathfinder tools came to the rescue.

Drawing Your Characters
First off, draw in your ‘main’ characters using simple shapes (it helps to sketch the body positions out beforehand). Then add some silhouettes in the background to give some perspective. We also added some simple arches and columns along the back wall just so it’s not a flat color.

As you work, you’ll want to ensure you’re grouping each collection of shapes properly and organizing your file with layers. This makes things much, much easier to edit later on. This is particularly important if you’re planning on selling your vectors through microstock sites: Customers always prefer clean, well organized files. For this illustration we have 3 layers so far: The couple in the foreground, the silhouettes in the background, and the background itself.

(*Tip: Don’t give in to the temptation to merge all the silhouettes in the background: we’ll need each one editable later on down the line).

Drawing The Floor
Now for the floor. Draw a square, then put a random squiggly shape on top in a lighter color. Duplicate the square (Command-C on Mac or Control-C on PC to copy the shape, then Command-V on Mac or Control-V on PC to paste the shape directly in front of itself), select the squiggly, and use Pathfinder’s ‘Intersect Shape Areas’ to trim the squiggly neatly to the edge of the square:

(*Tip: Make sure you use Global Spot Colors and assign them easy to remember tints, such as 10%, 20%, etc. This way it’s easy to match a shade when drawing later down the line, rather than having to guess at whether you used 7% or 8%… Or wait, was it 9%?)

Repeat these steps with one or two more squiggly shapes, group everything and you end up with a simple 3 or 4 colored ‘marble’ tile. Draw a couple more simple tiles then change them up by switching the colors and rotating them. To rotate, enter 90 degrees in the Transform palette.

Once you’ve got a few different looking tiles, align them so they’re spaced equally using ‘Horizontal Distribute Center’ button under the Align palette:

From here, keep duplicating and changing around the tiles’ colors until you get a whole floor (use ‘Vertical Distribute Center’ to align the tiles vertically).

To add a little more depth you can add a drop shadow effect under the tiles to make them look 3D. Select all the tiles, copy them and paste them onto a new layer. Select them all again and click ‘Add to Shape Area’: This will merge all the shapes into one solid object. Offset them slightly and move them under your original tiles.

Creating Perspective
Now to bring in some perspective. Select everything and use ‘Envelope Distort > Make With Warp’ on this entire tile layer and play with the vertical distortion until you get the roughly the perspective you want. Expanded to convert everything back into editable shapes.

Smoosh the floor down to get it into a good enough perspective. (*The perspective won’t be perfect but since most of the floor is hidden behind people, there’s no point in fiddling with it to make it completely accurate).

You can clean up the bits of floor that are hanging off the artboard using Pathfinder’s ‘Subtract From Shape Area’. Draw a rectangle on the outside of the pasteboard along where you’d like to trim the shapes, copy it, then select the shape you’re trimming and click the ‘Subtract’ button.

The only caveat here is whatever shape you’ve trimmed will jump to the front of the group, so you’ll need to send it to the back (Command-[ on a Mac, Control-[ on PC; conversely, just switch the '[' with ']‘ to bring shapes forward). Your other option is a clipping mask, though since we’ve still got a lot to do with these shapes it makes sense to just clean them up while we’re here.

Trim off any excess bits using the Pathfinder > Subtract From Shape area like we did on the tiles to keep things neat and clean. Here’s our file now:

Adding Reflections
Time to start making the reflections. We’ll start with the background silhouettes.

Copy and paste the silhouettes onto a new layer and transform them vertically (under the Align palette’s drop down menu). Here’s why it was a good idea not to merge them earlier: you’ll need to line up their feet so they don’t look like they’re floating in space. The common mistake when flipping objects vertically is often the shapes don’t line up right, but people don’t take the time to fix it. But remember: It’s the little things like this that make an illustration look ‘right’.

Now let’s make this shadow reflective. Duplicate the floor layer, and cut and paste the reflection from the silhouettes over it. Change the opacity of the silhouettes until you’re pleased. Wait a minute, you say? Transparencies?! I thought this was about NOT using transparencies. Don’t worry: They won’t be transparent when we’re done:

Select everything on this layer (tiles plus transparent reflection) and go to ‘Object > Flatten Transparency’, making sure the raster/vector balance slider is at 100%:

Voila. Transparencies gone. But we still have some cleanup to do: Flattening transparencies will cause shapes to open, plus we’d better ditch all the original tiles outside of our shadow (remember, we copied the tiles onto a new layer so there’s no point in leaving them here).

Use Select > Same Fill And Stroke on all bits of tile that weren’t covered by the shadow. Again, this is where limiting our color tints earlier really helps. Since we only used a few tints, we only need a few mouse clicks to delete them. Since the transparent shapes are darker than anything we used on the tiles they’ll remain behind.

File Cleanup

From there, you’ll need to clean up the open shapes in your reflection (boo, hiss!). Using the amazing Open Shapes Select plugin, find out what’s open (under Select > Object > Open Shapes). Click on each shape then select all shapes of that color (Select > Same > Fill and Stroke) then hit ‘Merge’ under your Pathfinder. Yet again, this will only need to be done a handful of times since you’re only working with a few color tints.

Tadaa!

From here, duplicate these steps with the couple in front. We’ve chosen to make their reflection darker than the silhouettes in the background to draw the viewer’s attention. Also, to keep things simple, we didn’t try for any colors in the reflection: We wanted the red dress to pop. Having a lighter red in the reflection would have led the viewer’s eye out of the frame, plus would have taken way longer!

Here is the final illustration:

>> Purchase this file on iStockphoto.com
© 2009 Jennifer Borton