After 2 month of careful preparation highly anticipated SEO Contest for the top prize of $1000 on UK Webmaster World is officially on.

The only requirement to compete for the title and prize money is to be a registered member of UK Webmaster Forum. Participation is limited to 300 entries and filling up fast.

To win in this February SEO Contest members will need to optimize theirs registered pages for the targeted search term: seocontest2008.

Who’s page gets highest rankings on Google for that term at the end of the contest - will take home the cash…

Right now search on Google returns no results for the term seocontest2008 so let’s how many pages will be able to get indexed and ranked for that term on April 1st…

To follow current standings and learn more about UKWW SEO Contest you can visit official SEO Contest page.

UKWW SEO Contest accumulated a lot of interest among webmasters worldwide and UK Webmaster Forum activity has been increasing every day.

In addition to the $1000 first prize three runners up will get cancellation prizes of $100 each.

So if you consider yourself to be SEO expert or just want to test your skills - check SEO Contest thread and register to participate before 300 spots are taken…

As a prize winner will be offered great promotional package: free banner advertisement on UK Webmaster World home page, review article in the UK Webmaster Blog, featured listing in UK Webmasters Directory and as an extra bonus World Web Directory chipped in with a free listing rated at 25 points.

This is a great opportunity to get free Worldwide exposure for your website. Nominees are required to be a member of UK Webmaster World community so don’t miss your chance - register now.

UK Webmaster World is one of the most active European webmaster communities with thousands of registered users. Many well known web developers, internet marketers and SEO experts are dropping by to answer questions and share knowledge.

Even if you don’t win the contest prize - I am sure you still can benefit from the membership in the UKWW community.

Why do you think it was done? Three letters: SEO…

Every details page is now optimized for specific search terms related to the listed site. To get maximum benefit you have to make sure that submitters provide long detailed description. Look at it this way - if the owner can’t find more than 3-4 words to describe his site why would anyone else want to visit it?

When SE spiders crawl your directory these details pages will be indexed for search terms related to the listed site and you may get top SERP position where you would not even think of.

I regularly analyze traffic statistics and check search terms that brought visitors to my directory. Probably only 20-25% visitors actually came looking for “directory” related terms… That means I actually succeeding in my goal - delivering targeted traffic to my submitters.

Rarely people will go to general directory looking for some specific info. Most of the time they will use search engines and that’s why you want your directory to rank high for as many terms as possible. The best way to do it - with highly optimized details pages.

Few years back over 90% of web surfers were using Microsoft Internet Explorer but nowadays other browsers fast gaining share of the market. Most popular are Mozilla Fairfox and Opera.

Even Internet Explorer has released new version (IE7) which works much different from the preceding version (IE6).

Layout and styles configured to work fine in IE may appear all broken or not readable in other browsers. I can guarantee - no one will open another browser just to see your site, so you will loose potential customer.

Multiple browsers can be easily installed on your computer without any interference with exception of IE versions - you can have only one version running.

This is even more important if your site has anything to do with web design services. I know a pretty good graphic designer whose site is all messed up when viewed in Fairfox and he refuses to fix it. Than he is wondering why there is no new business and no one wants to advertise on his site…

So… Take your time to make website multi browser compatible or hire someone to do it for you - you will appreciate it later.

Unfortunately in the current script version to work properly RSS feed files have to be updated manually. The changes are minimal - just follow simple instructions below.

There are 5 XML.php files that need to be updated:

- categxml.php (provides feeds from categories pages)

- listxml.php (provides feed from alphabetic categories pages)

- linksxml.php (provides complete feed of listings sorted by high bid)

- newlinksxml.php ( provides complete feed of listings sorted by date submitted)

- linkstopxml.php (provides feed of top listings from the home page)

In all 5 files you are looking for the same section near very end:


<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title><?php echo("$sitetitle");?> - Alphabetic Listings Feed</title>
<description>Alphabetic listings in Your Directory</description>
<link>http://Your_Site.com/list.php</link>
<copyright>Your Company</copyright>
<?php do { ?>
<item>
<title><?php echo $row_lista['title']; ?></title>
<description><?php echo $row_lista['descr1']; ?>. <?php echo $row_lista['descr2']; ?></description>
<link><?php $wsn = $row_lista['title']; include(’template/Your_Template_Name/page_name.php’); ?>http://Your_Domain.com/<?php echo $row_lista['dtu'];?>/<?php echo(”$wsseoname”); ?>.html</link>
</item>
<?php } while ($row_lista = mysql_fetch_assoc($lista)); ?>
</channel>
</rss>

Remove parts of code marked in BLUE

Instead of parts marked in RED insert actual data for your site. Save all files and you are done.

To make sure RSS feed is working just click on XML icon on one of the pages.

One more thing that may cause feed not to work - make sure none of your listings using symbols like “$” or “&” that can be interpreted as a part of code and break the feed.

The website may be gorgeous but if it takes forever to load there is a good chance than the visitor will be gone before it opens.

The problem is that graphic files are usually the largest ones and if not optimized properly will take long time to load. This is why I said many times that great graphics designer may not be your best choice for website design.

If you experienced similar problem with your own site here is a little trick how you may be able to speed-up page loading.

Open your slow loading image in Adobe Photoshop. Click on the “file” tab in the top menu bar and select “Save for web” option.

On the next page in the right column you will have drop-down box:

on the bottom of the page in the left corner you will see size of the file and aproximate time it will take to load on the slow internet connection:

Try to change file types in the drop-down box and see how size of the file and loading speed will change with it.
If you select JPEG you will also have an option to choose image quality. Try move % slider to the lower number until you can see image destruction.
When you find the option with minimal file size without loosing too much image quality - save it and replace existing image on the remote server.

Keep in mind that highly optimized JPEG images and PNG images may not display properly on colored background especially in IE.

Same way you can decrease size of digital photo when trying to send it to friends or relatives as an email attachment.

Database creation is pretty much self explanatory and can be done with few simple clicks from practically any hosting admin panel. The step many users seems to have problem with is importing SQL file.

Here are step-by-step instructions how to get it done.

From your hosting admin panel (in many cases it will be cPanel) go to MySQL management (sometimes it may say Database management).

Click on phpMyAdmin link for the desired database. Some hosts using individual phpMyAdmin interface for every database and some have only one for all databases.

In the left column you will have list of the databases available for management from this interfase. Right below the database name (still in the left column) will be list of existing tables (none for new database) in the selected database.

Click on the name of the database you want to work with.
In the right column on top of the page you will see number of tabs: Structure, SQL, Search, Query, Export, Import, Operations.
In some versions of phpMyAdmin tab “Import” may be missing…

If you version of phpMyAdmin has “Import” tab - click on it, if you don’t have it try to click on “SQL” button.
What we are looking for is text “Location of the text file:” with the text field box and “Browse” button next to it.

Click “Browse” button, select lbs.sql file from your local disk where you extracted LinkBidScript archive and click “open”. Now location of lbs.sql file will be shown in the text box. Click “go” button somewhere below.

If everything worked as expected you’ll get the message: “Your SQL query has been executed successfully” and detailed list of performed operations. Also you will see list of new created tables below the database name in the left column.

That’s it. Your new LinkBidScript database is ready to use.

To avoid any problems please follow this EXACT order when installing new LinkBidScript version on your remote server.

1. Download ZIP archive and extract it locally on your computer.

2. Create new database and login to phpMyAdmin. If you are using existing database you can login to phpMyAdmin for that database and drop existing tables.

3. From phpMyAdmin for this new or cleaned database execute SQL query to import lbs.sql file that came with the script - this will create all necessary tables and populate initial data into it.

4. In the “To_Upload/Connections” folder open file apound.php and insert actual info for accessing your new database, save file.

5. Find and open .htaccess file from the “To_Upload” folder. Right after the line:

RewriteEngine on

insert this line:

RewriteBase /

If you are installing LinkBidScript in the subfolder insted of “/” write the name of your subfolder after the forward slash. For example: /linkbid

This step may not be necessary for some servers if you are installing LinkBidScript in the Root directory.

6. Upload ALL files and folders from the “To_Upload” folder to your remote server.
(files and folders from the “To_Upload” folder, not the folder itself…)

7. Login to your new LBS admin panel: yourdomain.com/lbs_installation_folder/linkadmin/index.php . You must type index.php in the end or .htaccess file will redirect you to an error page.

Default userName and password included with the download package.
In the admin panel click on the “Site Configuration” link - this will take you to General Directory Setup page. Enter your info in all required fields.

IMPORTANT!

- In the field “Path” leave “/” if directory is installed in the root folder or change it to “/subfolder_name/” if installed in the subfolder.

- Leave field “Path mail” empty.

8. That’s it! You are ready to make some money!

Now your directory is installed and should work properly.
I will describe how to use admin panel in details in another post

On top of my list is definitely improved listing details page. Now submitting webmasters have a benefit of creating mini website instead of standard cold statistics page.

Details page will have meta title, meta description, and meta keywords that belong to the listed website which are entered during submission process.

Url of listing details page will have descriptive web address generated from the listing title. This was changed from the domain name used by previous version.

Extended description lets you give more information about listed website and benefits of visiting it.

Three deep links can lead to internal pages of the website with individual keyword anchored titles.

Social bookmarking buttons allow easy easy submissions to popular bookmarking networks.

New “Latest listings” page will give newly listed sites better chance to be found by search engine spiders of owners chose not to pay for higher positioning.

There are also some new useful features to benefit LinkBidScript directory owners.

Now administrator is able to add new listing directly from the admin panel. Domain and IP banning feature can help to get rid of annoying spammy submissions. almost all directory settings can now be done in the admin panel. It includes:
- minimum bid and minimum upgrade
- maximum length allowed for titles, descriptions and other listing fields
- meta titles, meta descriptions, and meta keywords for all pages
- database back up

There are more new features that you will find after installing the script. Few of them still need fine tunning and don’t find some of them particularly useful but no matter what - script has improved and the best part - it’s still FREE!

The problem is that some time ago most of roll-over elements were controlled by javascript which used “onLoad” command but now more and more webmasters using CSS to control roll-overs.
Background images for “hover” state are not loaded initially that is why you see this little delay - image start loading after you hover mouse over that element.

Here is a little simple trick to avoid this delay.

In the end of your page right before closing </body> tag insert code for your roll-over background image in the following format:

<img src="exact_image_path/menu_hover_image.gif" class="preload" alt="" />

where: exact_image_path - is location of your images folder and menu_hover_image.gif - is the name of background image for “hover” state of your roll-over element.

Now add this line to your CSS file:

img.preload
{
display: none;
}

That’s it!

Now these “hover” background images will load in the background while page is accessed first time and will be ready to display without delay.

The images will be pre-loading in the background so it will not affect your page loading time.
Same way you can pre-load any other images you want to have ready when particular page is accessed…

I hope you find this little tutorial helpful.