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Speeding Apache up using Compression
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Loading ...As of late I started to notice my little VPS server had more difficulty keeping up with the amount of data it has to sent to the webbrowsers. I knew that the amount of requests increased and after some tracking I found out that the average page size also increased.
Keep in mind the average page size is not only the size of the HTML but also adding the external CSS, JavaScript and images. Which could dramatically increase the amount of data the users are downloading. So I started looking in the compression options of Apache 2.0
First I looked on the official Apache page, but as usual the data is probably available but not very user friendly. So after some testing and crashing I found out the following procedure which seems to work fine to enable compression per Virtual Host.
Firstly enable the module that supports compression by executing:
:> ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/deflate.load /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/deflate.load
This will instruct Apache to load the needed library (module) for compression using GZip. The second thing you will need to do is add the following lines to every single Virtual Host you want to use compression on.
<Location / >
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
BrowserMatch \bMSI[E] !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
</Location>
This will enable the compression for output (everything sent to the end-user) but not for incoming requests, which in my case is enough compression for right now. It also exludes some browsers that do not support compression.
Now restart or reload your apache by running the statement below and your website should support compression. This will make the loading of pages faster, though the client software needs to decompress the pages from this point on.
:> etc/init.d/apache2 reload
If you have any trouble enabling compression just leave a message and I’ll try and help you where I can.
Google Doesn’t Like .0 extension
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...We all know that search engines have strange quirkes when it comes to filtering the indexes they have. Well very recently it came to my attention that Google has added some new extensions to the filter list.
We already new that files with .exe, .dll and .lib were being filtered from the search results. Which I think is a good thing, as it protects the visitors from potential harm. But just a few days back I got word that Google is now also banning or blocking pages ending on .0.
Some examples are:
- The wikipedia page Web 2.0 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0) ending in .0 is no longer showing up in the search results, rather the page ending in 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2).
- The Seomoz page for Web 2.0 has disappeared from the results. Instead the summary page is listed.
After some chatter about the issue around the internet and blogs Matt Cutts wrote a quick entry in his blog as to why they have been removed from the search results. Read it at http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/dont-end-your-urls-with-exe/.
So for know try to avoid ending Url’s with .0 or any of the already known blocked extensions.
Refining a Website based on Visitor Statistics
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Most webmasters or website owners fill their website with content they believe the visitor will like. After all you want them to come back for a second time. But how can you make sure that the content you make is attracting visitors and inspiring them to come back.
Well there are a few ways to find out what the people visiting your site are interested in. When you have this information you can start refining the content on your website. If you for instance wrote something about a Ferrari. And you get a lot of visitor searching for ferrari tires, you may want to add some content about that.
Finding the needed information
Lets first go into where you can find the information you will need to refine your website. No matter how, you will always end up trying to pursue your visitors to give more information then they might like.
One way of doing this is by using polls or questionairs. This is a very useful tool, but with one major drawback. If you don’t already have a steady visitor base it won’t work. How often have you entered a website and clicked away an anyoing popup asking you to answer some questions. Most new visitors don’t like questionairs.
A second way is by tracking every move a visitor makes on your website. This will provide information on how they navigate through the site. Which in turn indicates which information they find highly relevant. Big downside is that it requires a lot of disk space. Even worse you have to make some type of mention of this in the privacy policy. Last drawback is that it doesn’t provide information on what the visitor was looking for when he came to your website.
The third and far better way, at least I think so, is to log how the visitor came to the website. Some questions could be:
- For instance did he originate from a search engine. If so what keywords did he search with. What could he be looking for.
- Was the visit from my own website. If so did he use a search feature and what keywords. If not what related page did he come from.
- Was the visit from an external website. What is the content of that page. How does it appeal to the visitor.
This logging can be done quite easily as all the information is stored in the HEAD information sent by the visitors web-browser. (Please note that you can’t fully rellie on this as it can be manipulated). Various other tricks are available as well to get this information, but more on that in a follow up article about data mining.
Using the information to refine the content
Now that you have the information you still need to put it to good use. So lets asume that your website is about cars. And it has a section on Ferrari. You have a lot of content on the various cars. But you don’t have information on the various parts of the cars.
Now in your data-mining (the steps described above 
) you find out that a lot of visitors come to your site through search engines. But they are looking for tyres that are for the Ferrari 250GT. Initially when creating the website you never thought this might be useful information.
After making this discovery you could decide to add new content to the pages of the various cars with details about the tyres. How they perform and which are best for which models. By doing so you appeal to your visitors as they now find information they are interested in.
A second type of discovery you may encounter is that your website structure (including navigation) may be wrong. For example people looking for the tyre information never found the content on the website. But it does exists. This may mean they just can’t find any navigation to it. Keep in mind that most visitors only spend a few seconds looking for ‘useful’ information before moving along.
So make sure your information is easy accessible!!!!!
Now that you now some basics of refining your website you can start. But start with some small things first, just to try it out.
Importance of Consistancy
(1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 6) Loading ...When visiting a website of a company, wether corporate or commercial, you may sometimes have had the feeling that something just isn’t right. Can’t quite put your finger on it, but you do notice it. Well in many cases this has to do with the text of the website (sometimes graphics as well, but not in this article ).
So what is it you noticed. Is the text wrong. Does it not appeal to you. Or do you simply don’t like what they say. Maybe even all of the above. It really doesn’t matter since any would drive you away from the website. What does matter is why did it feel off.
Discovery of the problem
In most cases you will have found one simple problem. The creator of the website forgot to keep his audience in mind when writing all of the text. Or maybe he didn’t even consider you part of his audience (bad him 
). But what does this mean to conversions of that website. Well for one you will be unlikely to buy anything because you probably don’t trust it completely.
Knowing that text could cause problems with your targetted audience what is it that makes the text on a website right. Well the following list could make a text unattractive for your readers.
- Wrongly using complicated words,
Using difficult words may be hot in your niche, but it won’t attract the John Doe from the street. Most of them don’t even understand what they are reading. Something that won’t help you selling products to them. Always keep your audience in mind when writing texts. - Using he, she, you incorrectly,
This is especially important in other languages then English. If you look at German for example they have ‘Sie’ or ‘du’ which both means you in English. But one is polite and the other isn’t. Make sure you know which your audience prefers and stick with it. Don’t do half with ‘Sie’ and the other have with ‘du’. - Missing call to action,
One of the most common mistakes is that the text doesn’t tell your visitors to actually do something. If you want them to buy something don’t stop at how good it is. Also inform them of how to buy it (and don’t use ‘Buy now’, thats just wrong in so many levels). - Annoying calls to action,
On the other end of the scope is a to agressive call to action. This will rub your visitors the wrong way. Making them anger or dislike you. Both not good things if you still want them to buy.
Solving the problem
If you know the problem then you can solve it. Right…..
Well not necessarily. The problem may be a bit more complicated. You may not know your audience well enough. Prehaps your audience has changed over time. So make sure to keep updating your information about the visitors of your website.
If you have something to say about this article, don’t hesitate to comment….
Using Google Sitemaps
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...The Google Sitemap tool has been around for a while now. It allows you to make an XML file with all the pages on your website in it. According to Google it’s supposed to help you get indexed faster and better.
Just recently I read a post that adviced against using this service. Now I’ve always been a sceptec in other peoples advice, especially when it comes to SEO. But they do make several points.
A clipnote version would be:
- You don’t know if you have indexing / linking problems
- Pages that aren’t worthy may be included in the index, which again prevents you from finding out they aren’t worthy
- Search engines loose the natural way of flowing through the web
I think they are right on all of these points. You can use the sitemaps to check the indexing status of you’re website, but I wouldn’t submit a XML file with all my pages to it. That will only work against me in finding potential problems.
