Web site functionality Archives

by Jonathan Ginsberg on March 19, 2017

How to Fix the YouTube Subscribe Widget

I am currently updating my WordPress sites to add security certificates to each one. Secure sites offer enhanced protection to users submitting personal information and browsers like Google’s Chrome are now showing a red warning icon in the address bar if your site is unsecured.

A secured site’s address begins with https as opposed to http. Given Google’s concern with cybersecurity, I think it is fair to assume that over the months and years to come, unsecured sites will lose traffic and search engine position as well.

Any experienced WordPress developer should know how to update your site to make it secured. In addition to buying and installing a security certificate on your hosting server, you will also need to update internal links to point to the https version of pages on your site.

You will also find that many WordPress plugins will no longer work once you convert from unsecured to secured. Over time, this situation will resolve itself as plugin developers offer updates but there are some very useful plugins out there that can still be used if you are willing to make a couple of minor changes.

One plugin that I use on many of my sites is called the YouTube Subscribe widget plugin. I use this plugin as a sidebar widget to encourage visitors to subscribe to my YouTube channel. You can see this widget in action on the right side of my site https://www.meetalisting.com, just below the contact form.

This plugin was authored by Milena Dimitrova back in 2013 and hasn’t been updated, but it does what I need it to do for the time being.

However, when you update to secured site status, the plugin will disappear – this is because the php code in the plugin references the http version of your YouTube page as opposed to the https version.

The fix is simple but, as always, back up your site and any file you intend to modify so you can restore any original files if you make a mistake:

Access the back end of your site using an FTP program.
Navigate to the wp-content/plugins directory and find the subdirectory called “youtube-subscribe-widget” and double click on it.
Look for the file named youtube-subscribe.php and transfer it by FTP to your computer.
Using a text editor like Notepad or Notepad ++, open the youtube-subscribe.php file and search for all instances of http:. You will find at least 3 – one is a link to flatrocktech.com (the developer’s website) and 2 others reference YouTube. Change all http links to https and save the php file.
Upload the modified youtube-subscribe.php file back into the youtube-subscribe-widget subdirectory.

Once the plugin has been “fixed,” your YouTube channel button and link will work as it did originally.

One other tip about using this plugin – as configured, you can only use in one widget location. In other words, you can use it on the page sidebar but not on the posts sidebar or home page sidebar.

The workaround to this problem is simple:

install the widget to a sidebar and confirm that it is appearing as it should.
Next, use the “reveal code” or “view page source” function of your browser to show the back end code for your site.
Move a blank text widget to your sidebar (or where you want the YouTube graphic and link to show).
Search the code for “Youtube” and you will find the code generated by the plugin. Copy the lines of code beginning with <div id=youtube” and ending with </div> and paste this code into a text widget. Make sure that the code references your YouTube channel name.

When I have time I will look for a more robust and updated YouTube channel widget but in the meantime, this old plugin is now functional.

by Jonathan Ginsberg on October 13, 2014

Create Attractive Buttons for Your Site

Recently I was working on a site for which I needed buttons. These buttons were to be used in a sidebar widget – in this case red buttons that looked like this:

You would think this would be an easy task to accomplish, and my first thought was to go to Fiverr.com and get these buttons created for $5 each. It occurred to me, however, that this task ought to be simple enough that I could do it myself. I work with a wonderful Fiverr designer in Indonesia but because of the time difference, the turnaround time is 8 to 10 hours.

I started looking around and I discovered that it was difficult to find online button makers. I did find sites like BestCSSButtonGenerator.com and ButtonMaker which create attractive buttons but they create CSS files that you have to upload. The CSS component allows you to choose different looks when a user hovers over the button and after a visitor has already visited. These are neat features but not essential to my needs. In any case, I prefer not to mess with the CSS files in my WordPress installs so I kept looking.

Another interesting concept is DaButtonFactory. Here, you create a button that is hosted on DaButtonFactory’s servers and you simply link to the URL. The problem with this approach, of course, is that if DaButtonFactory.com goes dark or if they suddenly decide to start charging for hosting all those buttons, I would have a problem.

I had also tried an online button generator at http://jirox.net/AsButtonGen. This was a site maintained by a Japanese company and it did everything I needed – but now it has gone away.

So my search continues….

by Jonathan Ginsberg on September 18, 2008

Another Reason to Add Multi-Media to Your Web Site or Blog: Google Adds Audio Indexing

For several years, I have advised clients and colleagues to add audio and video to their web sites and blogs. From a user’s standpoint, audio and video personalize the experience and help establish a relationship between you, the publisher, and your visitor.

I also suspect that audio-visual content will serve to establish your site as an authority site for search engine purposes. While I obviously am not privy to Google’s search algorithm, I do find that on my own sites, the ones with audio or video tend to climb the search engines faster and go higher than the sites that are purely text.

Now, Google has begun implementation of something called “audio indexing.” According to Google Labs:

Google Audio Indexing is a new technology from Google that allows users to better search and watch videos from various YouTube channels. It uses speech technology to find spoken words inside videos and lets the user jump to the right portion of the video where these words are spoken.

Right now, Google is only using audio indexing on political videos and election related videos. But I suspect that within the next few months, Google and the other search engines will add audio indexing features to all video and audio content.

If you would like more information about adding audio or video to your web site, please feel free to contact me.

by Jonathan Ginsberg on August 17, 2008

How Much Will it Cost to Optimize my Website?

It is no surprise that the question of cost often comes up early in my discussions with potential clients of my search engine optimization consulting practice. This is perfectly understandable – there is something of a “wild west” element to the search engine optimization business, and there are no real standards about what it should cost.

This past week alone, I discussed SEO with two friends – one is a lawyer who lives in my neighborhood and the other is the promoter of a non-profit charitable organization. Both could benefit from improved search engine positioning and both asked me early in the conversation “what is this going to cost me?”

Asking an SEO consultant how much his services cost is like asking a travel agent how much a business trip will cost. The travel agent will respond “where do you want to go and what is the purpose and length of your trip?” which is exactly what I would ask. Generally search engine optimization involves modifying or creating web site pages so that they will appear in the top five to ten search results for one or more desired search phrases. Search engine optimization is not a “thing” – instead it is a process that includes among other things:

site topic market evaluation
search phrase (key word) research
site structure outline creation
content creation and planned release of new content
existing content modification
on-page optimization (adding title tags, header tags, page description tags, etc.)
Yahoo search monkey codes (new technology)
quality link building
site conversion analysis
adding analytic software and setting up conversion funnels and tracking reports
sitemap creation and submission
content rewriting services for article marketing and press release marketing
blog development
creation of audio and/or video segments for web site

A web site in a minimally competitive niche may only require a few of these techniques and a minimal investment of time. A more competitive niche may require many months to fully implement the SEO strategy.

The cost will also be a function of who generates new content. If you can provide the content and/or the underlying research material, your cost will be less than if I have to write or outsource the content creation.

Generally the optimization process will take a minimum of three to six months to produce noticeable effects, although this could be longer in more competitive niches or for more competitive search phrases. Once the initial optimization is done, most clients will benefit from a maintenance program that keeps your web site in the top 10 or higher for specific search phrases, and that expands your exposure for additional search phrases.

Examples of SEO projects in which I have been involved:

local law firm looking to increase search engine visibility in one small geographic market for less than 10 search phrases – I have worked with this lawyer for close to 18 months, added video to his site, created a blog and provided new content for the blog ongoing – the initial cost was $1,500, the video components were $750 and the blog maintenance works out to $50 per month
local medical practice with three web sites looking to increase patient numbers – I have generated multiple pages of new content and worked to incorporate existing video into the various web sites. This project started 6 months ago and the cost to this client so far has been $2,500.
national home remodeling contractor looking to expand into a new (large) city. I was retained to set up a pay per click campaign and to create topics for new content – my fee for this project totaled $750
regional law firm with multiple offices retained me to create new web sites for their new markets and blogs for their new markets. My job also involves writing the content, rewriting the content on existing sites, adding analytics, and many of the other elements identified above. I personally visited this client’s new office in another city and recorded multiple video clips. This client now has #1 position on the major search engines in five large cities and we are generating dozens of potential clients weekly. This client pays me a signficant monthly retainer for on-going services
local jewelry store with two web sites looking to improve search engine positioning for less than 10 search phrases – I took over the SEO from another vendor who was using “black hat” techniques. The annual cost to this client will be around $2,000.

The starting point for any SEO project is for you to take a few minutes and brainstorm about what you want your site to do for your business, and what you expect from your site as a marketing tool – in three months, in six months, in a year, in 2 years.

When I practiced law on a daily basis, I learned early on that you can’t possibly convince a judge or jury about the merits of your case if you don’t have a working theory of your case and a defined goal for that case. You need similiar goals for your web site. I can certainly help you firm up your vision of where you want to go, while my main task is to identify the techniques that will help you fulfil your strategy in the least amount of time with the lowest possible cost.

by Jonathan Ginsberg on July 3, 2008

How Long Should Your On-Line Video Last?

Over the past year or so, I have been recommending that my clients add video to their web sites and blogs. Thanks to sites like YouTube and other free video storage sites, consumers have become comfortable viewing videos on web sites and in some cases, potential clients expect video on web sites and blogs.

I work with lawyers and other professionals and very few of these service providers use audio or video. Thus, for the time being at least, you can really stand out by adding video to your site.

My colleague Jay Douglas has been creating professional videos for clients for over ten years and he tells me that a web site video should not last more than 3 or 4 minutes. Time Magazine columnist Bill Tancer notes that the average YouTube session lasts no more than 20 minutes.

When I videotape and produce videos for law firm clients, I generally limit the segments to one to three minutes. If I have an hour’s worth of information to convey, , I’ll create 5 to 7 minute segments and stack them on the web page. I have seen knowledgeable web developers post 90 minute videos – this makes no sense to me at all.

Columnist Tancer contends that web information consumers are not willing to spend a great deal of time viewing video on a computer or laptop screen. This does make sense, given that most people consumer video on television, where content (the shows) are broken up by commercial breaks every 7 to 8 minutes and the quality of the video feed can be high definition beamed to a 55″ monitor.

So, the bottom line for me: put video on your web site, but keep the segments as short as possible in easily digested chunks.

by Jonathan Ginsberg on October 2, 2007

Getting Started With Audio Recording on Your Blog or Web Site

I have previously written about the benefits of adding multi-media to your blogs and web sites. One of the first questions I hear from colleagues and consulting clients relates to the technology issues that arising from including audio and video. I can certainly understand why a new or non-technical blogger or web site owner would be confused about how to record, edit and post audio and video.

The good news here is that the technology part about adding audio and video to your site is the easy part. Coming up with compelling, relevant content can be a different story. Both audio and video have their place. I am going to start with audio because it is easier and if I was trying to learn about how to add multimedia, I would definitely start with audio. Audio files are easier to produce and to edit. You don’t need to worry about background light or about whether your hair is combed. You also don’t need a director or to worry about video editing. I’ll talk about those things in a future post, but for now, I’d like to focus on the "how to" of adding audio to your web site or blog.

Typical Audio Applications

When I add an audio file to my web site or blog, it takes the form of a monologue (me talking) or a discussion between myself and someone else. If I am recording myself, I use a device called the Microtrack 24/96 by M-Audio. This is a digital recording device that records to a compact flash card (the same type of card that you might use in your digital camera). The Microtrack records .mp3 files, which is a compressed format usable for Internet applications. This device works similar to a handheld dictation machine, but instead of recording to tape, it records to the compact flash card.

This M-Audio device is not cheap – it will cost you close to $500, but it does save a lot of time and effort.

Once you have recorded your post, you simply transfer the .mp3 file to your computer and upload it to your application.

MicroTrack

When I want to record a conversation over the phone, I use a very handy device called the USB Phone recorder from usbRecorder.com. This device, which retails for less than $200. This device allows you to record both ends of a phone conversation and the recording is saved as a .wav file on your computer. The recording control is in the form of software which appears on your computer screen. USB recorder interface

USBrecorder

As an aside, I recently had to re-install my USB Recorder and I ran into some trouble with the actual install. The USBRecorder web site included an email address for support and I sent an email explaining my problem. Within a few hours, a person named David emailed me back and walked me through the fix (it turns out that my USB Recorder, which I have had for a few years, was an older model and it did not work with the newer software.) He directed me to the correct software and I was up and running in just a few minutes. That level of customer service was impressive, especially for a customer like me who had purchased the device several years ago.

Editing Your Audio File

Once you have captured your audio file in either an .mp3 format or a .wav format, you may need to do a little editing. There are a number of inexpensive editing programs out there. I use Sony SoundForge, which is a full featured editing program. There is a free program called Audacity that I have not used in a number of years, but I understand that it works well. I am currently testing a low cost multimedia editing suite (which includes an audio editing application) from AVS Media. Again, audio editing software has come down in price dramatically and a simple web search should yield many choices.

Getting Your Audio File On-line

By far the easiest way to get your audio recording online is to use a third party host like FreeIQ.com. As discussed in a previous post, you need only upload your audio file to FreeIQ and then wait for the FreeIQ system to generate a line of code that you can link to in your web site or blog post. FreeIQ does the hosting at no cost to you.

If you want to host the audio yourself, most blogging platforms have plugins that would allow such activity. A well known audio player for WordPress is available online. If you use Moveable Type or another blogging platform, I suspect that similar plug-ins are readily available.

If you decide to upload plug-ins and your own audio files, you will need a good FTP (file transfer protocol) program. I use CuteFTP for this purpose.

While you can use FreeIQ to host audio for your web site, you may want a little more flexibility in terms of the appearance of the audio buttons. I use Jay Jennings Sonic Memo program to add audio buttons to my web sites. Click to take a look at how I use audio to create an audio FAQ page on one of my sites.

The technical side of manging audio on your web site or blog may be challenging at first, but once you have figured out the process, it is easy to repeat. Hopefully some of the links and tools discussed above will help you in your efforts.

[tags] audio recording for web sites, audio on blog, multimedia on web sites, multimedia on blogs, Sonic Memo, usbrecorder, freeIQ.com, editing audio [/tags]