Austin SEO and Web Design

The following post is a counterpoint to the Outspoken Media post titled “Would I Recognize Your Blog In A Dark Alley“, and exists to offer an alternative path to land of unicorns and rainbows. First off there’s nothing wrong with running a community driven website or blog, in fact in many cases it can be an [...]<p>This post originally came from <a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/about-graywolf/'>Michael Gray</a> who is an <a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/information/consulting/'>SEO Consultant</a>. Be sure not to miss the <a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/blogs/thesis-wordpress-theme-review/'>Thesis Wordpress Theme review</a>. </p> <p><a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/leadership-blogging/">Leadership Blogging, It’s All About Leading</a></p> Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/video/michael-gray-video/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Michael Gray on Video'>Michael Gray on Video</a> <small>While most</small></li></ol> Related posts brought to you by <a href='http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/'>Yet Another Related Posts Plugin</a>.

This weekend I was doing a little housekeeping on some of my domains and hosting accounts and decided to test and see if it was possible to get a website indexed using XML Sitemaps and no external links. Since some piano player in New Jersey owns the domain MichaelGray.com I had a few options but the [...]<p>This post originally came from <a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/about-graywolf/'>Michael Gray</a> who is an <a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/information/consulting/'>SEO Consultant</a>. Be sure not to miss the <a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/blogs/thesis-wordpress-theme-review/'>Thesis Wordpress Theme review</a>. </p> <p><a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/website-indexed-no-links/">Can You Get a Website Indexed with No Links and XML Sitemaps?</a></p> Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/figure-out-what-parts-site-arent-being-crawled/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: How To Figure Out What Parts of Your Website Aren’t Being Crawled'>How To Figure Out What Parts of Your Website Aren’t Being Crawled</a> <small>When Googl</small></li><li><a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/google/google-guide-seo-social-media-links-death-row/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Google Guide to SEO – Are Social Media Links on Death Row?'>Google Guide to SEO – Are Social Media Links on Death Row?</a> <small>I was read</small></li><li><a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/news/website-viralconversationscom/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: New Website ViralConversations.com'>New Website ViralConversations.com</a> <small>So if you</small></li></ol> Related posts brought to you by <a href='http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/'>Yet Another Related Posts Plugin</a>.

I’d like to say thanks to the people who sponsored the blog this month, without them there wouldn’t be regular posts here. Text Link Ads – New customers can get $100 in free text links. CrazyEgg.com – Supplement your analytics with action information from click tracking heat maps. Clasione Directory – Quality directory for listing your business Interested in [...]<p>This post originally came from <a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/about-graywolf/'>Michael Gray</a> who is an <a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/information/consulting/'>SEO Consultant</a>. Be sure not to miss the <a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/blogs/thesis-wordpress-theme-review/'>Thesis Wordpress Theme review</a>. </p> <p><a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/sponsors/months-sponsors-june-2009/">Thanks to this Months Sponsors – June 2009</a></p> Related posts:<ol><li><a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/sponsors/months-sponsors-february-2009/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Thanks to this Months Sponsors – February 2009'>Thanks to this Months Sponsors – February 2009</a> <small>I’d </small></li><li><a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/sponsors/may-sponsors-2009/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Thanks to this Months Sponsors – May 2009'>Thanks to this Months Sponsors – May 2009</a> <small> I’d</small></li><li><a href='http://www.wolf-howl.com/sponsors/sponsors-april-2009/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Thanks to this Months Sponsors – April 2009'>Thanks to this Months Sponsors – April 2009</a> <small> I’d</small></li></ol> Related posts brought to you by <a href='http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/'>Yet Another Related Posts Plugin</a>.

<p>For such a large industry, not much is written about video game web site design.</p> <p>The only article of note in my recent memory is one by <a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/21/game-sites-design-survey-examples-and-current-practices/">Smashing Magazine</a> which offered some useful insights into good and bad game web site design practices.</p><p>Working for an online game publisher, this is an area of interest to me and I try to stay on top of what's happening in this part of the web design industry, although usually within the <span class="caps">MMORPG </span>sub-genre.</p> <p>To that end, I have collected together over 75 examples of <a href="http://www.smileycat.com/design_elements/video_games/">creative video game web site design</a>.</p> <p>Not surprisingly, if you click through to many of these sites from the showcase you should be prepared to encounter Flash pre-loaders, age gates, country selectors, sound effects, and auto-playing music.</p> <p>However, this is far from being always the case and there is actually a surprising variety in the presentation of these sites. Oh, and lots of good design — take <a href="http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com/">The Beatles Rock Band</a> as a 'for instance.'</p> <div class="image"><a class="image" href="http://www.smileycat.com/design_elements/video_games/" title="Video game web site design gallery"><img width="540" src="http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/images/videogames/beatles-rockband.jpg" alt="The Beatles Rock Band" /></a><p>The Beatles Rock Band</p></div> <p>So, enjoy the <a href="http://www.smileycat.com/design_elements/video_games/">video game web site showcase</a> and let me know if I've missed off your favorite game.</p> <p>Oh, and my favorite gaming site? It's not original but it's still got to be <a href="http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/">Diablo 3</a>. The art direction is incredible.</p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?a=FFkTN5Jr4CQ:kcAsiUg_qTQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?a=FFkTN5Jr4CQ:kcAsiUg_qTQ:dnMXMwOfBR0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?a=FFkTN5Jr4CQ:kcAsiUg_qTQ:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?a=FFkTN5Jr4CQ:kcAsiUg_qTQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?i=FFkTN5Jr4CQ:kcAsiUg_qTQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/smileycat/~4/FFkTN5Jr4CQ" height="1" width="1"/>

<p>The best way to lay out a list of links — say, like those you would find in a footer — is typically to code them as an <span class="caps">HTML </span>list and use <span class="caps">CSS </span>for the presentation.</p> <p>However, sometimes this is neither convenient nor practical (can you say, "legacy <span class="caps">CMS</span>"?).</p><p>In which case, here are some variations on how you can separate a list of links, starting with the old standby, the vertical bar or pipe.</p> <p>1. Vertical bar</p> <p><a href="">Copyright</a> | <a href="">Privacy</a> | <a href=""><span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed</a> | <a href="">Sitemap</a></p> <p>2. Broken vertical bar</p> <p><a href="">Copyright</a> ¦ <a href="">Privacy</a> ¦ <a href=""><span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed</a> ¦ <a href="">Sitemap</a></p> <p>3. Medium list dot</p> <p><a href="">Copyright</a> · <a href="">Privacy</a> · <a href=""><span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed</a> · <a href="">Sitemap</a></p> <p>4. Big list dot</p> <p><a href="">Copyright</a> • <a href="">Privacy</a> • <a href=""><span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed</a> • <a href="">Sitemap</a></p> <p>5. Colon</p> <p><a href="">Copyright</a> : <a href="">Privacy</a> : <a href=""><span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed</a> : <a href="">Sitemap</a></p> <p>6. En-dash</p> <p><a href="">Copyright</a> – <a href="">Privacy</a> – <a href=""><span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed</a> – <a href="">Sitemap</a></p> <p>7. Forward slash</p> <p><a href="">Copyright</a> / <a href="">Privacy</a> / <a href=""><span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed</a> / <a href="">Sitemap</a></p> <p>8. Generic currency symbol</p> <p><a href="">Copyright</a> ¤ <a href="">Privacy</a> ¤ <a href=""><span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed</a> ¤ <a href="">Sitemap</a></p> <p>9. Lozenge</p> <p><a href="">Copyright</a> ◊ <a href="">Privacy</a> ◊ <a href=""><span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed</a> ◊ <a href="">Sitemap</a></p> <p>10. Diamond</p> <p><a href="">Copyright</a> ♦ <a href="">Privacy</a> ♦ <a href=""><span class="caps">RSS</span> Feed</a> ♦ <a href="">Sitemap</a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?a=gmvYBYQ8O2c:2yv42t-XlqY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?a=gmvYBYQ8O2c:2yv42t-XlqY:dnMXMwOfBR0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?a=gmvYBYQ8O2c:2yv42t-XlqY:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?a=gmvYBYQ8O2c:2yv42t-XlqY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/smileycat?i=gmvYBYQ8O2c:2yv42t-XlqY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/smileycat/~4/gmvYBYQ8O2c" height="1" width="1"/>