Solid-State Drive Web Server Test - World Usability Day - Blog Marketing - Top Sites Review Website Optimization Book - Optimization Week of October 20, 2008
Optimization Week Issue #101, October 20, 2008
In this 101st issue we've got a number of new items for you. As promised, we've benchmarked our new server and written up the results. The new server, tricked out with solid-state drives and faster more numerous processors, tested significantly faster than the old machine. We've also moved the Web Page Analyzer to its own server, to offload the work and make the main WebsiteOptimization.com server more responsive and reliable. Early results look good, we'll be testing the new dual-server setup shortly.
We'll be taking part in World Usability Day in November, hope to see you there. We've added a new blog marketing service to our natural search-ranking repertoire. In web performance news, we ran across an interesting article on CSS performance by Jon Skyes. In book-related news we've been reviewed by three top sites, including our old site WebReference.com, ClickZ.com, and most recently About.com. Finally, we've acquired the domain WebsiteOptimizationSecrets.com for the book companion site.
- Solid-State Drive Web Server Test
- We test a new server with solid-state drives and faster processors. Upgrading our dedicated server improved performance by 35% to 50%.
- World Usability Day
- Andy King will be participating in World Usability Day in November. Mr. King will man a table in East Lansing, Michigan on November 13, 2008. He'll be giving away his new book to random entrants plus offering discount coupons. Hope to see you there.
- New Blog Marketing Service
- WSO has added a new blog marketing service that builds inbound links faster to raise search engine rankings. The new service uses the power of thousands of blogs to generate targeted, in-context links for select clients.
- Website Optimization Tips Article - CSS Performance Tests
- In our never-ending search for the latest website optimization news, we ran across Stephen McKinney's 10 Easy Steps article. In his article, he mentions some CSS performance testing done by Jon Skyes that reveals different rendering speeds depending on the type of CSS selectors you use and the type of browser rendering those selectors. We'll be exploring this in a future tweak.
- Web Page Analyzer Moved to Own Server
- Due to high demand, we've moved the Web Page Analyzer to its own dedicated server. The gateway form will remain where it has always been, but the script proper resides on another server to offload this resource-intensive tool from the main site.
- About.com, ClickZ.com, and WebReference.com Review Website Optimization Book
- Since our last newsletter three top sites have reviewed the Nighthawk book. ClickZ.com, our former site WebReference.com, and most recently About.com reviewed our new book. See what all the fuss is about at our companion site blog.
- WebsiteOptimizationSecrets.com
- Speaking of the book companion site, we've acquired a new domain name. Feel free to link to this domain name when you reference our book, which redirects to the secrets directory.
