Kyle Williams.com

What are heading tags?

The HTML tags <h1> through <h6> are used as headings when creating text content. H1 should be the largest of the tags, and is generally used to surround the title of the page or the title of you site. H2 could be used as a secondary header, highlighting specific sections of the page.

The basic structure of heading tags

<h1>LCD TV Review</h1>

(a paragraph or so introduction)

<h2>What about Plasma TVs?</h2>

(content)

<h3>Plasma TV Review</h3>

(content)

<h2>How are LCD TVs different than computer displays</h2>

(content)

<h2>Future of LCD Technology</h2>

(content)

You can use as many, or as few heading tags as your overall web design requires. When it comes to specific SEO advice, I always recommend sticking with the original intentions of the given HTML tag. I do not recommend making the h1 tag smaller than the subsequent tags. So don’t be tricky when stylizing heading tags with CSS.

Advanced SEO techniques using heading tags

The following thoughts have not been tested, however they are logical. When it comes to SEO theories, I prefer to stick with the factual fundamentals, and then expand on the fundamentals with a good user experience. These opinions follow that mindset.

Lets look again at the example above, a review of LCD TVs. In this example, the primary keyword phrase we’re going after is “lcd tv review”. Logically, the H1 tag should state “LCD TV Review”. This helps us communicate to Google that the purpose of this article is to review the LCD TV. Ideally, we should incorporate the words “lcd” “tv” and “review” in the h2 and h3 tags within the article. But what if we feel the article doesn’t read nice with too much keyword repetition? Often times, repetition in writing for search engines can get out of hand, and that hurts the user experience. Are there other words we could use, that may benefit the goal of targeting “LCD TV Review”?

Go to Google and enter: ~lcd -lcd. This query looks for words that Google feels are similar to LCD, but will not include the word LCD. If you don’t add the -lcd in the query, your results will be littered with the keyword LCD which makes research more difficult. I also recommend setting the number of results to 100, for quicker reading. Words in bold are words that Google associates with LCD. We have now found a quick and easy way to find confirmed related keywords, direct from Google.

This technique does not stop with heading tags. It should be considered and used in every aspect of your content writing. The good news – most of this keyword selection will happen naturally because it makes sense to use related keywords when talking about a given topic. It isn’t like we’re going to have an <h2> within our LCD TV review that says <h2>Poker is fun</h2>.

After being with Mosso for a few months, I have decided to move to Wired Tree. All of my original opinions about Mosso in previous posts are still true, and I am not moving due to any negative reasons. It has more to do with my technical interests, and enjoying the highest performance possible when developing and managing my websites.

Reasons I am moving to Wired Tree:

• At Mosso, databases are stored on separate machines from web files/content. While performance overall is still good, having your database on the same machine as your web files makes a significant difference.
• Wired Tree is located in Chicago where I live. The connection speed between my home and the servers at Wired Tree is extremely fast, just like a local network.
• I’m immediately launching an old project that has high usage requirements (vbulletin, storage needs, etc.). I don’t have any interest in implementing caching plugins in either WordPress, or Vbulletin instances in order to minimize “compute cycles” at Mosso. I am currently well under the compute cycle requirements at Mosso, but as soon as I re-launch this old project, it will only be a matter of months until I get close to that 10,000 cycle limit.

I’ll offer a more detailed review of my experiences with Wired Tree in a month or two.

I haven’t been reading enough lately. So I purchased the Kindle 2 to help change that. I also find the e-reader market interesting, especially when looking at the various features offered by the gadget that go beyond reading books. This post will briefly summarize the primary questions and concerns I had before purchasing the Kindle 2.

The Kindle Screen – Eye strain?

My first reaction to e-readers was concern for screen clarity, and eye strain. I had my doubts that reading on a device would be comfortable in my hands, and on my eyes. However all these concerns were gone as soon as I turned on the Kindle. The E Ink technology is amazing. It would not be fair to demo this by showing you a screenshot of a Kindle screen on your computer. I can only recommend that you demo one in person. If you don’t know anyone who has a Kindle, bug someone at your local trendy coffee shop.

Buying Books and Archiving. What happens to my books if I lose my Kindle?

Anyone familiar with Apple’s iTunes system should have concerns about other commercial digital content providers. With the crappy iTunes system, all the music you download cannot be re-downloaded in the future. So it is your responsibility to back up your music after purchased. Apple does not keep a helpful archive system of the music you own, in case you need to download it again in the future. Amazon’s digital content system is much better. They keep a history in your online account of everything you have purchased (from books for your Kindle, to episodes of your favorite TV show). You can re-download content as needed. I’m not sure if there are any limitations on this, but I have a TV episode in my history that I purchased 2 years ago that is still available for download. If you lose your Kindle, you can de-register the device online, buy a new one, and send all your books over to the new Kindle. The process is very easy.

Reading Comfort

I definitely do not miss holding an actual book, like I originally thought. It is so comfortable being able to lay the Kindle down on my desk, and hit the Next Page button. No more having to hold the book open. There is not much more I can say…the transition has been way better than I expected. Oh ya, and changing the font size doesn’t suck either .

Built in Dictionary

This is so awesome. It is not practical having a dictionary by your side when not knowing words. With the Kindle, you move the joystick to the word and you wait about 2 seconds and the definition comes up. You don’t have to click to get the definition, just move the cursor in front of the word. Very smart.

Kindle Web Browser

First, I want to point out that this device is for reading books. So appreciate the fact that the Kindle even has a simple text browser that is FREE to use on your FREE wireless Internet connection. You can really only browse simple mobile friendly websites. But this does include Gmail, and checking/navigating through email is fast and fairly painless (and again, FREE!). While writing this post, I decided to test out the mobile version of the NHL website (http://wap.nhl.com). The page and images look great. Had no problems navigating the site, checking scores, etc.

Why did I pass on the Kindle DX?

When I first decided to get a Kindle, I immediately pre-ordered the DX. Why wouldn’t you want the newest technology? After some more thought on my desire for portability, and the lack of important new features on the DX, I decided it wasn’t for me. The DX screen is bigger, you can read horizontally or vertically, but that’s basically it. It has a PDF reader, but I rarely read PDFs to begin with. The DX does not have any new features I really care about. The Kindle 2 screen is big enough for me, and the size is friendly – it is neither too small or too big. I would rather save my money, and upgrade when the 3rd generation of Kindle comes out.

Angels & Demons is the first book I bought to read. It took only a few seconds to instantly purchase and download.

[Addition] Please read comments for most recent updates to this topic. [/Addition]

I host a friend’s personal WordPress site on Mosso, and it receives enough traffic to run some estimations. Overall the numbers look pretty safe. These numbers are only estimates based on the limited data I have. I will definitely publish additional data as I receive it.

First, let me point out that if your site is made up of static pages with no database connections, you shouldn’t have any compute cycle usage concerns. Roughly 20,000 unique visitors to www.surviveoutdoors.com = 100 compute cycles. It would take tons of traffic to go over your limit.

The personal WordPress site is averaging 100 compute cycles per 1733 unique visitors. So if your WordPress site receives 1733 unique visitors a day, over a month you will use up 3000 of the 10,000 compute cycle limit. A WordPress site that receives 5718 unique visitors a day will be right around the 10,000 compute cycle limit for the month. So how can I recommend Mosso, when we all know you could move a 5718 visitor/day WordPress site to a typical $10/month hosting account?

Why I still highly recommend Mosso

Mosso is still a great entry-level to mid-level hosting option. The support and communication has been wonderful. Being able to host both Windows and Linux sites through the same account is great. Mosso is the ideal option for someone who doesn’t feel comfortable having a managed VPS or dedicated server. Mosso is perfect for someone who wants an easy interface, to test out dozens to hundreds of small projects, moving the projects that take off to a different environment. While 5700 unique visitors a day to a WordPress site may seem like a low limit, it is plenty of room for general project startups and numerous small businesses.

However, when a low-bandwidth 5700 unique visitor/day WordPress site could simply pay $10/month somewhere for hosting, this does show that something is weird when it comes to the compute cycle method. Either that, or shared hosting companies take a loss on low bandwidth, high CPU usage sites.

This post will be an initial review covering both the positives and negatives experienced with Mosso.com cloud hosting. I have only been using them for a week, but I feel one week is long enough to offer a preliminary review, with subsequent thoughts to follow pending future incidents. Keep in mind that this is being written from an independent web publisher’s perspective, and not from a resellers perspective. Defining custom hosting packages, prices, and usage tiers is a big part of your Mosso.com account, but only applicable if you plan on reselling hosting. I can only state that from the surface it looks as elaborate as anywhere.

Mosso.com is a hosting environment based on ‘cloud’ technology. Basically its large network of servers, offering distributed hosting services. It is a high performance shared environment, focused on easy scalability. The cloud can handle growth much better than typical shared environments. I’m sure it still has its limits, where a dedicated server eventually becomes required, but it appears that resource limit is much higher than your typical shared environment. I’ll let everyone know when I reach it .

• Performance – So far the speed has been great. Maximum speeds during FTP transfers or simply accessing pages in my browser are definitely at or near 100mbps speeds. Static pages load instantly, and pages that connect to a mysql database take a few extra milliseconds. Those of you who are moving from an environment where apache and mysql are on the same server may notice a slight decrease in performance when moving to Mosso. But it is far from slow, and extremely fast all around.
• Control Panel and Organization – Adding new websites is quick and painless, specifying whether you want it in a Linux or Windows 2008/IIS7 environment. MS SQL Server is not freely included with Mosso.com, and there is a small fee if you wish to use this. When accessing your sites via FTP, you only need one account to access everything. It is even cross-platform, which is a new experience for me. I can see sites from both Windows and Linux environments in the same starting root folder. You can of course create additional FTP or client accounts for more specific permissions.
• Support – Now I don’t know if Mosso was started by or acquired by Rackspace, but what I do know is the support so far has been amazing. Rackspace is famous for their dedicated support staff, and so far this has been the same for their sister company. Every chat support experience so far has connected quickly, and each staff member has been knowledgeable. I’m sure there will be occasional hiccups down the road, but so far my experiences have been flawless.

Shared IPs

From an SEO perspective, going to a shared IP environment may raise some initial red flags. I had been paranoid for the majority of my web publishing life regarding shared IPs. Being penalized or banned from Google was a much more serious concern a few years ago. I feel that the recent changes to Google’s communication methods with webmasters has helped alleviate that paranoia. There have been numerous official responses from Google regarding shared IPs and bad neighborhoods. I am going to dig up some old research into this, and add links to official posts later on. Until then, do some digging on your own, and don’t worry about hosting in a shared IP environment. Save the dedicated IPs for sites that truly need it (SSL).

Conclusion

There are still some areas I have to monitor. For example, Mosso isn’t crystal clear on what a ‘compute cycle’ is. Each account is given 10,000 compute cycles a month. Once 2 of my higher trafficked sites have more history with Mosso, I will share traffic data and how that translates to compute cycles. My initial reaction from just a couple days of data shows I have nothing to worry about. I am still a long way from hitting the 10,000 compute cycles/month mark.

I decided to give my inactive blog a fresh start, after moving to Mosso.com hosting. I had been paying for both a dedicated Linux server, and individual shared Windows hosting accounts, and decided it was time to downsize the monthly cost. I honestly wasn’t even coming close to using half of the dedicated server’s resources. Hopefully this first post won’t jinx my great experience with Mosso so far.

When deciding to switch to Mosso.com, the biggest hurdle for me personally was dealing with the shared IP environment. I had been paranoid for years about keeping each site on a dedicated IP, not in any way connected with other random unaffiliated websites. However, after re-researching the topic, and reading numerous official responses from Google on the subject, I decided to drop my paranoia. The Mosso.com benefits are well worth the loss of dedicated IPs.

My next post will be a complete summary of my initial experiences with Mosso.