BUSINESS EDGE 4.0 RECOMMENDATIONSeisnj.com/docs/Recommendations.pdf · DNN VERSION It is recommended to use DNN version 4.8.1 as the base version of Business Edge. ... • SEO Pack

BUSINESS EDGE 4.0

RECOMMENDATIONS

The purpose of this document is to outline the high level components of the Business Edge 4.0

product, with special consideration given to Search Engine Optimization and Web Analytics.

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BUSINESS EDGE 4.0 BASE PACKAGE

DNN VERSION

It is recommended to use DNN version 4.8.1 as the base version of Business Edge.

(http://downloads.sourceforge.net/dnn/DotNetNuke_04.08.01_Install.zip?modtime=1204

113951&big_mirror=0)

This is the most current, stable release available, including new versions of all packaged

modules. This is widely seen as the last major release before DNN 5.0.0 (Code Name:

Cambrian)

HOSTING ENVIRONMENT

Our preferred hosting environment is CrystalTech, but any business-grade hosting

environment supporting ASP.net 2.x will suffice as well.

We recommend using the Intermediate Hosting plan located at the top of this page:

http://www.crystaltech.com/dotnet.aspx

CrystalTech also offers a reseller program allowing IC’s to get a discount on purchases

that fall within a volume discount range. More details here:

http://www.crystaltech.com/resellers.aspx

As a side note, we strongly recommend to avoid installing DNN using the portal/subportal or

“Mothership” concept. While this functionality is very useful in very specific situations, it’s not

intended for deploying solutions across a wide range of customers.

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DATABASE

To maximize performance potential, we strongly recommend using MS SQL 2005 as a

database backend. MS SQL 2005 Express will also work, but we strongly recommend

SQL 2005 for its performance benefits.

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EXTRAS

CORE MODULES

It’s recommended to include all core DNN modules as listed below:

• Account Login

• Banners

• Feed Explorer

• Links

• Search Input

• Search Results

• Text/HTML (We recommend using the standard FCK Editor instead of the Cute Editor)

• User Account

• Announcements

• Events

• Blog

• FAQs

• Help

• NewsFeeds

• Documents

• Feedback

• Survey

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The modules below are part of the standard DNN install but can be removed (or NOT installed)

as part of the base installation.

• Google Adsense

• Forum (this should be optional)

• Media

• Repository

• UserDefinedTable

• IFrame

• XML

• Store

• UsersOnline

• Wiki

• Reports

Additional Recommended Modules for the base package

• CSS Menu – we strongly recommend NavSuite (Navigation Suite) as a replacement for

the standard SOLPart menu in DNN. This module requires installation plus additional

skinning for it to function, but implementing this module allows your site menu to be

search engine friendly. Information about NavSuite can be found here:

http://www.snowcovered.com/snowcovered2/Default.aspx?tabid=242&PackageID=9428

• SEO Pack – this module should be installed as a core part of Business Edge. It allows

the following enhancements to DNN

o Friendly URLs using configurable full path URLs with support for dashes. (URL’s

can be configured as full path or flat).

o Support for SEO Friendly 301 Redirects

o Addresses the issue of Domain Cannonicalization allowing domain.com to

automatically redirect to www.domain.com

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o Rewrites Login, Register, Terms and Privacy links to static SEO Friendly format

o Implements web keep alive

o Support for modifying page extension to be anything (ie. .aspx can be modified to

.html if needed)

o Set Custom 404 Page Not Found messages

o Set desired page name to any URL (different than the menu name)

More info about SEO Pack is available here:


• Drag & Drop Form Builder

o This is easily the simplest form builder available

o Literally build forms in minutes

o AJAX Based

o Available with payment integration with Authorize.net, Paypal & Google

Checkout

o More info abou the Drag & Drop Form builder here:

Standard Version:

http://www.snowcovered.com/snowcovered2/Default.aspx?tabid=242&Pack

ageID=9486

Payment Version:

http://www.snowcovered.com/snowcovered2/Default.aspx?tabid=242&Pack

ageID=9487

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MODULE LIBRARY

Here are the modules we recommend putting in a Module Library that should be available to ICs.

These are all modules that we’ve used and would recommend to others.

• News Articles

This module allows advanced articles to be created with functionality such as multi-

page, publish/expire dates, categories, comments, ratings, etc. Security can be

broken down to allow other registered users to submit and approve articles. Other

tools such as RSS, Search are also provided.

Link: http://www.ventrian.com/Products/Modules/NewsArticles.aspx

• Simple Gallery

The module allows photo(s) to be uploaded, thumbnailed and displayed. Advanced

functionality includes approval of photo(s), albums, bulk upload, search

integration and syndication via RSS.The key to the module is "Simplicity", a key

differentiator between this module and similar photo modules available.

Link: http://www.ventrian.com/Products/Modules/SimpleGallery.aspx

• CSS Tabs

Simply put CSS Tabs allows you to show Virtually Any Content in tabs; whether it's

Text/HTML, existing module on your portal, or an existing web page. Support for

AJAX saves bandwitdh and provides content on demand. Tabs are CSS driven

which allows complete customization to match the look and feel of your site.

Link:

http://www.snowcovered.com/snowcovered2/Default.aspx?tabid=242&PackageID=

7347

• Content Rotator

(3 modules in 1) Rotator / Tabs / Flash Rotator. Rotate content and existing

modules. Includes many transitions and role based security.

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Link:


8783

• Content Builder

DNNMasters Content Builder Pro is an advanced content management module that

allows flexible content organization, publishing, presentation and syndication.

Common content such as articles, news, announcements, press releases, etc can

be organized into unlimited levels of categories. The content can then be presented

and filtered by any combination of categories in as many module instances as

desired and made available publicly or by subscription. Content layout can be

further customized via HTML Templates and CSS. Articles can be published and

archived on set date. New and Featured icons can be set for display by date.

The module provides rating and commenting functionality for an interactive

experience. A variety of roles such as Subscriber, Author, Approver and Publisher

can be defined and linked to native DNN roles. You may also share content across

DNN parent and child portals. The module is fully localized and seamlessly

integrates with DNN search.

Link:


8534

• Ultra Video Gallery

Link:


9110

• Ultra Media Gallery

Link:


9514

• Form Master

Full featured form builder

Link:


7539

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• Sitemap (with Google sitemap)

DNNMasters Site Map is an advanced Site Map and Google Site Map

module with wealth of layout and design options.

Google Site Maps creation is automated with scheduler.

The module can also create Google Site Map from Blog entries.

Layouts and designs can be saved in templates to be applied at will.

Templates can be edited and created directly from the module.

Graphic files can be uploaded and stored in default or custom

localization.

Link:


10130

• Dynamic Font & Screen Resizer

The Dynamic Screen & Font Resizer allows the user to dynamically change the font

and/or screen size of your DNN site, with a click of a button. This module allows

you to empower your users to adjust the font/screen size of your site to suit their

individual needs.

Using this module, a user who is squinting to view the font on your site, can easily

increase the font size with an easy click of a button. Similarly, if a user has a large

screen monitor and wants to view your site to fill the width of their monitor, they can

easily expand the width of your site. (this particular feature requires the site skin to

be setup to expand/contract properly, otherwise the module will not work)

The product comes packaged as a DNN skin object, so it will need a good

understanding of skins to be able to install/manipulate it’s features. The module

can be setup to resize either fonts or screen width or both. The settings can be

setup configured in the module’s CSS file and the provided instructions illustrate

how to accomplish this.

Link:


9488

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• AJAX Accordion

The AJAX Tabs module allows you to display content in a space efficient manner

by displaying them within an Accordion style control with collapsible panes.

Link:


8063

NetSignature is about to introduce a similar version of this module (with additional

features/enhancements) in the coming weeks as well.

• Live Content

Live Content is an Web 2.0 Presentation module for DotNetNuke Platform...Live

Content uses Web 2.0 approach to provide a Rich User Interface and streamlines

content presentation by overlaying content on current page. Inspired from our Live

Images/Videos module, Live Content allows to overlay images, videos, text/html

content, dotnetnuke modules, and external content on current page. Driven by CSS

and Layout Templates; this module is limited by your imagination to create

Image/Video Galleries, Product Showcase, ToolTips, Module Popper, etc...

Link:


8925

• Engage: Publish

Engage: Publish allows you to organize and display your content within

DotNetNuke. Configurations options are limited only by your imagination. All

content entered and managed through Publish uses our custom versioning and

workflow process so you can rest assured that administrators have the ability to

approve content before it shows up live on your production website. You also get

the ability to rollback to any previous version of content through our expansive

versioning system. Uses for Publish include, but are not limited: Online Magazines,

Newsletters, Product Catalogs, Blogs and many more types of content.

Link:


9843

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• Document Management

There are two very good options for Document Management available based on the

needs of the client

OpenLibrary:


9237

ACIA Document Management System 2.0:


9903

NOTABLE EXCLUSIONS

Email Management:

We’ve intentionally left out modules such as those which either collect or send out marketing

emails. The process of capturing emails is a complex process best left to services tailored for it.

The process of sending bulk emails is futile unless done by professional companies which are

white listed by ISP’s. Instead of any onsite module to capture/send emails, we recommend

integrating with either Constant Contact or iContact.

Content Localization:

This item requires more in depth research before making recommendations. There’s been a

wealth of changes in the DNN community on this area.

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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) GUIDELINES

EVERY PAGE SHOULD HAVE APPROPRIATE TITLE AND META TAGS.

A title tag should accurately describe what the page is about, the meta keywords tag can

include your various keywords and also misspellings, and the meta description tag

should be considered a click through factor just like the ad text in a Google paid listing.

Title tags should be less than 70 characters long, the meta keywords tag should

normally have up to 15 keywords, and the meta description tag can be as high as 160

characters long.

On any Business Edge site, you can edit these three items on a per page basis by

clicking on the Settings link. Look for Page Title, Description, and Keywords.

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EVERY SITE SHOULD HAVE A SITEMAP.

A sitemap is great for both users and search engines; from one page on a site you can

get to all the pages or major pages of that website. A sitemap should be designed for

usability first and be structured accordingly. Also, the text links of a sitemap help search

engines understand what each section or page of your site is about.

The New York Times has an excellent sitemap you can use as a reference:

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/siteindex.html

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EVERY SITE SHOULD HAVE GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SOMEWHERE, SUCH AS

THE CONTACT US PAGE.

This geographical information helps search engines associate a site with searches that

include any sort of geography such as a city name or street. The most obvious place to

have this is the Contact Us page since that is where people tend to go when they are

looking for all types of contact and location information.

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HAVE A MODULE TO REDIRECT (301) REQUESTS FOR HOME.ASPX AND NON-WWW.

This is part of a very important topic known as URL canonicalization. For example, in a

Business Edge website the homepage might be accessed using several different URLs:

http://domain.com

http://domain.com/default.aspx

http://domain.com/home.aspx

http://domain.com/Default.aspx?tabid=73

http://domain.com/tabid/73/home.aspx

http://www.domain.com

http://www.domain.com/default.aspx

http://www.domain.com/home.aspx

http://www.domain.com/Default.aspx?tabid=73

http://www.domain.com/tabid/73/home.aspx

https://domain.com

https://domain.com/default.aspx

https://domain.com/home.aspx

https://domain.com/Default.aspx?tabid=73

https://domain.com/tabid/73/home.aspx

https://www.domain.com

https://www.domain.com/default.aspx

https://www.domain.com/home.aspx

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https://www.domain.com/Default.aspx?tabid=73

https://www.domain.com/tabid/73/home.aspx

These are all different URLs but they load the exact same page. To a search engine,

the value of the homepage might be very low because the same content is on the site

several times. To combat this, you have to adopt a philosophy of “one and only one

URL for each page on my site.”

Ways to implement this philosophy:

• You must make sure all links to the homepage (in your logo, menu, footer,

content) go to exactly http://www.domain.com

• All links should include http:// unless the link has to be https://

• Requests to http://www.domain.com/home.aspx are 301 redirected to

http://www.domain.com/

• Requests to any page on your site without www are 301 redirected (with a

module) to the www equivalent.

• Check your header, menu, footer, and page content for links and make sure they

are using the right URLs. It is very easy to end up with URLs that include “tabid”

and “LinkClick.aspx”

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URLS SHOULD HAVE DASHES BETWEEN WORDS, UTILIZE A FOLDER STRUCTURE, AND

BE IN LOWER CASE.

For example, http://www.domain.com/about-us/our-mission.aspx.

Dashes between words is a best practice for readability and SEO. If dashes are not

possible, then underscores will have the same SEO value but is considered a little less

readable.

Using a folder structure makes your URL more descriptive to your visitors. They will

know how the page they are on fits into your site structure. The extra keywords can

have an SEO benefit as well. Also, the more elaborate URLs make it easier to analyze

reports if you are using web analytics software.

URLs being in lower case will help with the URL canonicalization problem. It is also a

best practice for web analytics software to help keep duplicate URLs from showing up in

reports.

USE H1-H6, PARAGRAPHS, AND LISTS TO ORGANIZE PAGE CONTENT.

Page content should be organized in a logical fashion using specific HTML tags.

Content that is organized in this way rather than being table elements will be much more

search engine friendly. It will also be easier to apply future content updates.

Every page should have one and only one H1 tag. Having more than one H1 tag is like

having more than one large headline on the front page of a newspaper – it just doesn’t

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make sense. Sub headlines can be organized using H2 through H6. CSS can be

applied to ensure that the use of header tags does not interfere with the site’s visual

design. Text content can be organized using paragraphs and lists. A table of data can,

of course, be displayed using table elements.

On this page you see some content:

And here you can see the source code that generates this content – with an obvious

emphasis on logical formatting:

<h1>SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING</h1>

<ul>

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<li><a href="http://www.wsinetsense.com/interactive-marketing/search-

engine-optimization.aspx">SEO: Search Engine Optimization</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.wsinetsense.com/interactive-marketing/pay-per-

click.aspx">PPC: Pay Per Click</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>Build Traffic: Search Engines, Banners and Beyond</h2>

<p>By now you may have noticed a recurring theme on this website; the

fact that an Internet presence is worthless unless people - your

customers - can find it. It's a critical component of any Internet

Solution. Fortunately, the Internet offers many affordable ways to

increase your online visibility.</p>

<h2>Five Reasons You Need a Search Engine Marketing Strategy:</h2>

<ul>

<li>Build an ongoing stream of profitable traffic to your website</li>

<li>Connect with customers when they're making a buying decision</li>

<li>Maximize your ad spending by targeting only relevant keywords</li>

<li>Most cost effective way of expanding your market</li>

<li>If customers can't find you they'll find your competition</li>

</ul>

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USE A CUSTOM ERROR PAGE THAT LOADS WITH AN HTTP STATUS OF 404 (PAGE

NOT FOUND).

Let’s say Google comes across a link to your website and the link is actually to a page

that does not exist. In this situation, Google should receive a 404 (Page not Found)

error and possibly be taken to a custom error page. It is unfortunately too common to

see beautiful error pages loading with the wrong HTTP status code of 200 (OK).

The problem is that 200 (OK) tells Google that this is a valid page on your site when it

definitely is not. Google indexes the page but since the page has no meaningful

content, the value of your site drops.

Your server and Business Edge settings must be fine tuned to produce an HTTP status

of 404 (Not Found) for these scenarios:

i. Vanity URLs and directories that don’t exist (ex. http://www.domain.com/abcdef)

ii. Non-ASPX pages that don’t exist (ex. http://www.domain.com/mypage.htm)

iii. ASPX pages that don’t exist (ex. http://www.domain.com/about-us/our-

fishing.aspx)

Remember, a custom error page can still be used to help keep visitors engaged with

your website, even when they run into problems.

This tool can be used to verify what HTTP status your server is returning:

http://www.seoconsultants.com/tools/headers/

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USE A CSS MENU.

A CSS menu ensures that search engines will be able to see all the elements in your

menu and the link associated with each menu element. From a search engine’s

perspective your site structure becomes more like a web instead of a tree. Your site’s

crawlability will improve dramatically. Also, the text associated with each menu element

will have an SEO benefit.

The alternative, a JavaScript menu, is not something a search engine would understand.

They would not be able to decipher any of the text or links on the menu and your site

crawlability will be drastically reduced. No matter what text you put on a JavaScript

menu, you will not get any SEO benefit.

If you are unsure whether you have a CSS menu or if your CSS menu is actually search

engine friendly, you can run a page like your homepage through a text browser such as

this:

http://www.yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/lynx/lynx_viewer.php

If you see your menu as numbered and structured links at the top of Lynx Viewer’s result

window, it means you have a CSS menu and it is also search engine friendly.

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ROBOTS.TXT FILE.

Whenever a search engine comes to your site, the first thing they look for is a robots.txt

file in the root of your domain. This file is a guide to search engines as to how to crawl

your website. At the very least, you can put up a two line robots.txt file that says all

search engines can crawl everything on your website.

User-agent: *

Disallow:

Another use of robots.txt is to disallow access to all search engines if your site is in the

development phase or in a staging area. This way, your website will not be released to

search engines until you are ready. Note that this is not a password control mechanism,

only a guide that major search engines will obey.

User-agent: *

Disallow: /

You can also use a robots.txt file to disallow access to individual pages on your website,

such as a login page and possibly PPC landing pages that have borrowed content from

other pages on your site.

User-agent: *

Disallow: /landingpage1.htm

Disallow: /login.aspx

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Last but not least, you can use robots.txt to advertise the presence of an XML sitemap.

An XML sitemap is a special sitemap intended to help search engines understand your

site and improve it’s crawlability.

User-agent: *

Disallow:

Sitemap: http://www.wsinetsense.com/sitemap.xml

For more information on XML sitemaps and some useful information for webmasters,

you can check out Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer, and Live Search

Webmaster Center.

http://www.google.com/webmasters/

https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/mysites

http://webmaster.live.com/

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NAVIGATION SYSTEM SHOULD BE ON EVERY PAGE.

With a navigation system on every page, search engines will be able to get to a large

portion of your site no matter where they start. But this is important for more than just

SEO. Having a navigation system on every page is critical to helping your visitors get

the information they need and ultimately fulfill your website’s objective.

Everything from your home page to your landing page to your shopping cart to your

Thank You page needs to have some sort of navigation system. Usually, maintaining a

consistent navigation system on your whole site is least confusing to visitors and also

gives you a greater SEO benefit.

INTERLINKING.

Interlinking is the process of adding links within page content. These keyword-rich links

are great for providing highly contextual resources for readers and also for associating

keywords with pages as part of an effective SEO campaign. Check out a few Wikipedia

articles and you will very quickly realize how useful and powerful interlinking can be.

On your own site, it is best to interlink systematically and with an objective in mind. For

example, your home page could link to three subpages with a specific keyword for each

subpage. Then in turn, your subpages would link to your homepage with a specific

keyword in mind. Search engines place a lot of importance on links – a smart

interlinking strategy will help search engines associate each page on your website with a

certain keyword or set of keywords.

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WEB ANALYTICS IMPLEMENTATION GUIDELINES (WA)

ACCOUNT SETUP:

1. Ensure the "Default Page" field of your profile settings is configured so Google

Analytics knows what your home page is.

2. If your site has a search box, enable "Site Search" and let Google Analytics know

what the query parameter for your searches will be.

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GOAL TRACKING:

1. Use Head Match unless you know for sure you need to use one of the other

match types.

2. Include http or https in the "Goal URL".

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3. Get a reasonable "Goal Value" from the client.

4. If there is a certain series of steps leading up to the goal (for example, a

shopping cart leading to a checkout complete page), you can enter those steps

into the Define Funnel section.

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FILTERS:

1. Filter out your own traffic to client sites with a static IP address filter or a cookie

based filter.

2. Filter our client's traffic if they have a static IP address.

Apply a lowercase filter to URLs on your website that are collected by Google Analytics.

This way you won’t see the same URL twice (or more) in reports because of uppercase

and lowercase mixing.

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INSTALLATION:

1. Use a Script Injector module and insert your analytics tracking code as close to

bottom of page as possible.

Please refer to this URL for more information about Script Injector for DNN:


Or

2. Edit default.aspx by ftp and insert your analytics tracking code right before

</body>. This method of installation is more technically involved but is preferred

because the placement of the tracking code is more precise.

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</dnn:Form>

<script type="text/javascript">

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ?

"https://ssl." : "http://www.");

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-

analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));

</script>

<script type="text/javascript">

var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-xxxxxxx-1");

pageTracker._initData();

pageTracker._trackPageview();

</script>

</body>

</html>

3. Use the new ga.js instead of the legacy urchin.js You will see the choice of JS

files when you finish adding a profile or whenever you click on the Check Status

link from within Google Analytics. The new ga.js will eventually include new

features that the legacy tracking code will not support. Also, Google will stop

supporting accounts that use the legacy tracking code.

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FORMS:

Use a form module that lets you go to a Thank You page of your choosing.

Here is an example of a form module that lets you specify you want to go a certain

Thank You page. Configuring your form this way has the added advantage of this thank

you URL also being your Goal URL.