There’s still some debate as to whether or not it’s OK to use dropdowns in usable, accessible web design. I’ll definitely say that there are some dropdowns that are really well put together and are both accessible and usable. For example the Suckerfish dropdown seems to do pretty well (while not perfect).

Today I made two big changes to my site. First of all (as you may have noticed) my domain name is now robspangler.com. That’s right my friends! no more confusion brought on by the dreadful m in rmspangler.com.

I’m putting my 301 redirect lecture to the test for all of my rmspangler.com URLs.

New Hosting!

I was originally hosted on asmallorange. They treated me well, it was a very cheap and easy hosting solution, I just kinda outgrew it. Now I am hosted on DreamHost and so far so good! <plug> If you ever make the switch over to DreamHost make sure you use my promotional code: ROBSPANGLER1. You’ll get 10% more disk space, and save $20 on the 1 year hosting option.</plug>

The switch was _relatively_ easy; however, If you ever need to switch your Textpattern to a new host be sure you read Moving a Textpattern Install to a New Host. That saved me some time i’m sure. The only problem I ran into was that my Textpattern account no longer worked after I restored my database (even though I attempted to use the same username and password for my new install). I simply had to do some phpMyAdmin queries to straighten it out.

I was lucky enough to go to the IR Web Design ’08 conference in Miami early this month and do several website consultations for a wide variety of eCommerce websites (both large and small).

A lot of people were looking to do a complete redesign and/or change their eCommerce platform. Meaning most (if not all) of their URLs may be changing. I was blown away by the amount of companies that almost made that switch without being told about redirecting their pages using 301 redirects.

What Is a 301 Redirect?

A 301 redirect is basically a code that says “This page has moved permanently” and redirects any HTTP user agent (including your browser) from an old URL (ex: http://www.rmspangler.com/blog.php?blogid=389/) to your new one (ex: http://www.rmspangler.com/blog-post-new-home/).

Why Does It Matter?

Basically if you’re not redirecting your old URLs to your new URLs you’re leaving any links to your site pointing to the wrong place. This includes organic search listings and links from other websites. Not only that, but it also means that any PageRank associated with those old pages is now lost! With a 301 redirect you’re telling search engines that “the page has moved permanently, so please update your listings” (and you keep my PageRank!). At work we’ve had clients come to us, who had their redesign done by another company, go from 6 digits in sales a month down to 5 (as much as 100,000 down to 20,000). All because the company responsible for the redesign did not do any redirecting for their new URLs.

Don’t Let This Happen To You!

301 Redirects are easy to do! However, depending on how many pages you have it can be a very time consuming process… it’s definitely worth it though.

Example Using .htaccess (Linux / Apache)

redirect 301 /old-page.php http://www.example.com/new-page.php

Example Using httpd.ini (Windows)

RewriteRule /old-page.asp http://www.example.com/new-page.asp [I,O,RP,L]

For more examples of doing 301 redirects, check these sites out:

• Webweaver 301 Redirects
• TextLinkBrokers 301 Redirects

Well friends, I’m off to Miami for the “Internet Retailer 2008 Web Design Conference”:http://www.internetretailer.com/IRWD08/ with the guys at work. We’ll be doing 1-on-1 website consultations with about 22 companies and running a booth. Should be a good time.

Just added my latest three projects from Groove to my portfolio:

Kidz-Med

Worldwide Shelters

The Spectrum Group

I have a theme for sale over on the Sitepoint Marketplace:

Children of the Nations has a very cool way to give to those in need this Christmas. They have an online gift catalog where you can purchase things such as a Christmas Outfit for an orphan ($22) or even a years salary for a teacher ($113).

Browse Gift Catalog

Just a thought!

On a random note I will be taking a bit of a break, I’m getting married this Saturday and will be going on my honeymoon after Christmas, I’ll be back on the 7th day of the new year! I’ll post some pictures sometime later.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Rob

I just posted a new blog over on the eCommerce Blog at Groove. So if you’re interested in creating an accessible progress bar for your checkout process this is for you!

Who gives a crap? You can eat better tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our latest redesign over at “Groove”:http://www.groovecommerce launched today!

The site is for Mr. McGroovy’s Box Rivets, a very unique products with plenty of potential. Mr. McGroovy was originally running on a PayPal shopping cart but quickly outgrew it, we came up with a custom solution that will really take his store to the next level.

My role in the project was designer and front-end developer. So I did all of the design and front-end coding (xHTML/CSS/JavaScript).

More to follow on the Groove eCommerce Blog.