Good web design course with SEO for a complete novice

UngratefulWhelp

Hi,
I'm a journalist thinking of setting up a little sideline website, so I'm looking for a good course in the Dublin area which will educate me sufficiently to do this. I suppose I'm probably looking at a year-long thing? I know there are sites out there which will probably enable me to do this as a layman, but I want to know the ins and outs of it so that I can set up and edit my own.

Journalism is changing and many papers in the States have web developers in as part of their news teams now. What happens in the US inevitably arrives here down the line and I'd like to be as tech-savvy as possible when that happens.

Google throws up a wide range of courses even within Dublin, so if someone could recommend a few (probably class-based to prevent laziness getting the better of me) I'd be obliged. Alternatively, if anyone has a set list of what to look out for in such courses (SEO, I gather, would be key), all information would be gratefully received.

doopa

Maybe just keep an eye on this page:

http://www.thejournal.ie/jobs/

UngratefulWhelp

I have a job, thanks. Anyone with course recommendations?

stapolinhosting

Try lynda.com - it provides online video tutorials in just about anything.. I have completed a number of courses on there in many aspects of website development. I think they are offering a free 30 day trial at the moment, so would be no harm to register and have a look at whats on offer.

_ciaran_

+1 for lynda.com, great tutorials that cover pretty much everything. A bit pricey but I think you get a free trial

unseenfootage

For your own personal website you could do something in Wordpress. For a company you'd be better off learning joomla or drupal.
These are both Content Mngmnt Systems. If you want to go the full wack meaning, PHP, MYSQL, Javascript, python, Ruby on Rails etc...then that would take a while to learn but essentially as a journalist you would probably just need to learn a CMS.

red_ice

Sorry lads, lynda.com is crap. As far as SEO goes for a website - its all down to knowing the basics of how a site functions in relation to a search engines algorithm. Most of the time, good SEO comes from very basic HTML.

To learn html/css or another language the best sites going (imo) are phpacademy.org, Codecademy and thenewboston. Them's the good stuff.

_ciaran_

red_ice wrote: »

Sorry lads, lynda.com is crap.

Horses for courses I guess. Different people find different methods of learning effective. Lynda.com is a good resource that covers a lot of ground. as are the sites you have mentioned. I'd recommend the OP checks them all out

Either way, I'd definitely recommend learning the basics using an online resource before handing money over for a college course in case it's not your thing.

Re SEO: interesting article on smashingmagazine.com recently

stapolinhosting

red_ice wrote: »

Sorry lads, lynda.com is crap.

I have to disagree, I have gotten a lot from some of the tutorials on there, and even picked up some new knowledge on stuff I hadn't even intended looking at, but I was drawn in!

As far as SEO goes for a website - its all down to knowing the basics of how a site functions in relation to a search engines algorithm. Most of the time, good SEO comes from very basic HTML.

Yes, agree with you there.. on-site seo is actually not as daunting as people think, its actually very simple to do on-site seo.

To learn html/css or another language the best sites going (imo) are phpacademy.org, Codecademy and thenewboston. Them's the good stuff.

These are also good places to look, but can be a bit confusing for a complete novice/newbie.. which is who a lot of the lynda.com tuts cater for.

cill01

red_ice wrote: »

Most of the time, good SEO comes from very basic HTML.

Sorry to hijack this thread and possibly drag it off topic (maybe I should start a new thread, just found this forum, its very informative) but the quote above caught my eye... could you elaborate a bit on it?

Some background info: I created website for my workplace a couple of years ago. It isn't perfect, but the bosses were/are happy with it. I learnt a few bits on HTML, CSS etc using online tutorials (wc3 school mainly) and wrote out the code using notepad as opposed to a more graphical programme like dreamweaver (wasnt really aware of CMS at the time). It was a learning process, I started out doing HTML tables! then picked up on CSS. I suppose I wanted to understand the code behind it so if anything broke I could try and fix it.

Whether its the nature of the climate we are operating in at the moment or not we now regularly get cold-called with offers of SEO etc. We've no interest in this but I would like to optimise it/ensure its reaching its full potential if possible. When you search our service in our location/area competitors are higher in the google rankings and appear on google maps (I've tried repeatedly registering on Google places but the promised postcard with PIN doesnt materialise) I've read about linking to other sites etc but it is all static information - portfolio of projects etc. there is no blogging, linking to other sites. I understand keywords, meta-tags aren't really picked up on anymore by the search engines? To cut a long story short is there any tips, dos&don'ts /good practice in terms of reviewing the HTML code now that would/could improve SEO? I know an expert would probably want to look it over but I don't particularly want to give out the link publically here at the moment (ye'd only laugh )

PS I get that smashingmagazine article about importance should be on providing content as opposed to craving google rankings but with the way things are at the moment every little helps. It is the first port of call for Joe Bloggs.
PPS Sorry for long post, appreciate any input!

KonFusion

cill01 wrote: »

To cut a long story short is there any tips, dos&don'ts /good practice in terms of reviewing the HTML code now that would/could improve SEO?

Good, semantic markup.

Here's a style guide http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/htmlcssguide.xml

And then make sure it's all valid

Here: http://validator.w3.org/nu/ & here: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

stapolinhosting

KonFusion wrote: »

Good, semantic markup.

Here's a style guide http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/htmlcssguide.xml

And then make sure it's all valid

Here: http://validator.w3.org/nu/ & here: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

This probably should have been one of the first replies...

smcelhinney

Wordpress (should you choose it) also has a good plugin, the All-in-one SEO pack, which covers some of the more menial tasks for SEO (keyword generation, page title optimisation etc). It will give you a good insight into some of areas to concentrate on, when developing a fully optimised website.

Annasopra

Same question as op

Is there an offline course anyone would reccomend

billyduk

mango salsa wrote: »

Same question as op

Is there an offline course anyone would reccomend

All a course in SEO will do is charge you for information readily available with a little research. Good SEO is the sum of multiple parts like valid standards compliant semantic markup, good copy, relevant backlinks, spying on your competitors SEO efforts etc. You can find tools that will breakdown your sites SEO efforts (and your competitors )

Front end development (html, css, JS) isn't too hard to learn if you put a small bit of time into it, but again, not something you'll master in a couple of tutorials. If its just an understanding you want then I would check out some of the following:

Lynda.com (good in depth tutorials with a lot of variety)
Teamtreehouse.com (fun in-depth tutorials and tuts on design theory (typography, ux considerations) and a decent SEO workshop)

I would also recommend buying a few of these books off amazon (or you local bookshop if they stock them) as they are a good reference to have while learning:

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2012/05/html-books-for-beginners.html

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2012/11/best-javascript-jquery-books.html

These should put you on the right track to understanding how a basic page is put together and how basic dynamic features work.

If its an understanding of PHP, Rails etc. you're looking for then start with the above and then set aside a LOT of time over a long period to learn and fully understand this level of development. You have to remember that web design and development are professions that take years to fully understand and master, but starting with the above suggestions should get you on your way.