Since we installed dasBlog, we've been wanting to create our own theme so that it ties in with the rest of the site. Hopefully, this step by step guide will help you if you ever need to do this. Creating a new dasBlog theme NOTE: We are assuming you have already set up and got the blogging engine running if you are wanting to add your own theme, so those instructions are not covered here. As dasBlog is all file based, all of the configuration you have to do is purely created on the file server. Go to your installation folder (e.g. C:\dasBlog) and have a look in the "themes" folder where you should see all of the default themes that are shipped with dasBlog. To create your own theme, either copy one of the existing themes and modify that, or create a new folder with the name of your new theme (the configuration sections will automatically pick up any new folders you create as an option for the them you or your users choose). We chose to start by just copying one of the existing themes as it gives you a good starting point and makes sure you don't break any of the layout or structure of the site (and it means all of the files you need are in place and it's then simply a question of modifying whatever you choose to). Once you have your new theme, the files that we recommend you concentrate on are: yourtheme\theme.manifest yourtheme\homeTemplate.blogtemplate yourtheme\css\base.css yourtheme\css\colors.css yourtheme\css\dasblog.css yourtheme\css\fonts.css yourtheme\css\pagelayout.css The "theme.manifest" file is where you set the details about your theme such as it's name, title and paths to the css and image files. The "homeTemplate.blogtemplate" is the actual HTML that is used for the main pages (not the admin section, as this has it's own file within the "admin" directory). We left most of the HTML intact however we did modify the header and footer sections to add our own menus and custom text. For the actual styling, you can simply modify the CSS files that we listed above. We just used Firefox's "Web Developer Toolbar" add-in to find out what css was being used by each section, and then go into the relevant file and modify the css element to what we wanted. I'd say that this whole process took around 15 minutes which is pretty good going, so I'd like to thank the dasBlog developers for making it very easy!

When you create a new website, one of the first and biggest choices you will have to make is to pick a domain name. This isn't actually as easy as it sounds as what you choose could have a major impact on how successful your site becomes. The Top-Level Domain (TLD) The top-level domain (TLD) that you choose is very important. It needs to reflect what you do, what you are trying to achieve and who you are aiming your site at. For example, if you are a local UK business that is targetting UK customers, a "co.uk" TLD would be the perfect choice as it shows you are a uk company. It also means that you could get better rankings in the search engines, especially as UK based users are more likely to get relevant hits if you show that you are also UK based. Equally, if you are a site that is showcasing something that is personal to you as an individual, a "name" domain would be ideal to instantly reflect this. The Domain Name If not more important of a choice, the domain name you choose should be something that is easy to remember, highlights who you are or what you do and/or makes you stand out from the crowd. To make this a little bit more relevant lets take a simple example scenario: Company "XYZ123" provides printing services to the local area of Leeds and are looking to set up an online presence to their already established high street outfit. There are quite a few different options they have, with some of the most relevant and popular being:    1. Using their company name with a UK domain (e.g. http://xyz123.co.uk)    2. Using their company name with a international domain (e.g. http://xyz123.com)    3. Use the services they offer (e.g. http://printing.co.uk or http://printingservices.co.uk)    4. Use the services they offer along with the area (e.g. http://printingleeds.co.uk or http://printingservicesleeds.co.uk)    5. Go for a more "funky" marketing based name (e.g. http://print.it)    6. Name it something fairly random but memorable (e.g. http://printmonkey.co.uk) Most people choose to go with option #1, it's a simple and safe choice that your customers will expect, will make you easy to find and will help you get better UK based search results. Option #2 is just about on a par with the first option but it doesn't necessarily give you that instant UK look that perhaps they would want. Option #3 is equally as good as it describes exactly what you do at a glance. Option #4 is also quite a good choice as it describes what you do and where you do it, however it does have the downside of limiting your growth; what happens if you become a national/international company? Option #5 is quite a clever choice and people will probably like it once they see it. However, it's probably a smaller minority of websites that actually make it successfully make it with this approach so it could be a bit more of a gamble. Also, in this particular case, the "it" TLD could indicate to search engines that you are an Italian company so you may not do as well in UK based listings. The last approach, option #6, is also a bit of a gamble but it does give you a theme to base the website on and that's something that those "marketing folk" would like as it instantly give you a sense of the brand. I don't believe that any of the above choices are actually worng, or would do you much harm, but there are some that are perhaps more relevant than others. In this particular case, and if it were my choice to make, I'd probably go with options #1, #3, #5 or #6 and weighted in the order I just listed (so #1 would be my first choice).

Here's a list of 5 SEO Tips that we've come up with based on some of the things we have done recently for our customers. They aren't in any particular order, and we're obviously not saying that these are a definitive list of SEO tips, but they are generally just good practice that will eventually help your search engine rankings. Some of them just sound like common sense, but if you start by covering the basics then you give yourself a much better chance of doing well in going for that #1 ranking! 1. Create unique and quality content This seems like a very obvious thing to say, but content really is king when it comes to the search engines. There's no point just having the same old content that can be found on other sites across the web as you need to stand out from the others! Even if you are looking to dominate a fairly local market, make sure that you have things on your site that your competitors don't. We're a fairly small, local web design company and whilst there are lots of good companies who offer the same services as us, we are trying to be different and do things they don't (like for instance we have this blog, and our Twitter account). This all goes a long way to uniquely identifying your site and giving it that little extra reason to stand out get amongst the rankings. 2. Use the correct html element When it comes to ranking a page, or defining what the page is about, search engines will look at what elements you have used to describe your content. For example, a <h1> tag will tell the search engine that you are placing more emphasis on the text in that tag than in perhaps a <h6> tag. When you use <h[1-6]> tags, also make sure that you keep the text consise and to the point, there's no point stuffing the tag with a long piece of text; simply describe what the following section is about in a short manner with your keywords/keyphrases in it. Remember to back the next section up with the same words and phrases as well! 3. Make sure your site is crawler friendly As the search engine crawlers visit your site, please remember that there's just some things that they can't do. They can't:

I've seen quite a few new start up websites sitting around, hoping that they'll appear in Google soon and start to get some good rankings. Why the wait though? Get listed now, today!

When analysing your Google Analytics account, it's more beneficial to see the statistics excluding your own visits to the site as this may skew how you interpret how your customers are finding and using your website. Fortunately, Google have made this fairly easy with the option of being able to add filters. To add a filter to an account, log into Google Analytics and then click on the domain name for whichever account you want to add a filter for:

Google have been generating sitelinks for websites for a while now, but it seems last week they added a new feature where sitelinks appear in one line underneath the website listing: