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Those subscribers who have been with us for a while will remember that I mentioned our plans as a family to leave the (sometimes) grey shores of the UK and head for the lighter brighter climes of NZ.

Just as a quick update, it's a long process and we're still here - but our intention to get 'over there' as soon as we can is undiminished.

In fact, we can hardly wait.

We're hoping to put the house on the market within the next month or so, and from there get the visa and do some travelling, keeping the business going on the 'open road' (now there's a challenge!).

There's some changes afoot on the business side too.

In response to the valuable feedback we received from the special May issue of The Takanomi Newsletter, we're going to focus in the future on the technology behind e-marketing.

If you think about it, what's e-marketing all about? Basically, marketing that is channelled through one of the most fantastic technologies in current existence, the Internet.

This is not about turning everyone into programmers, but about making you aware of technological issues, solutions and a whole range of possibilities that can have a significant impact on your e-marketing. This is stuff you need to know about, that your techs aren't going to tell you (probably because they don't know either).

If you hire techs to do your programming, web design, etc. for you, I'm sure they'll be skilled in the technologies they use - but it doesn't always mean they'll think about the marketing impact of what they do, or make allowances for your marketing needs.

I've worked with a lot of programmers and other techs, and the vast majority didn't have the slightest clue about marketing on the Internet - sure they could write HTML, clever JavaScript, and funky server-side code. But start talking marketing-speak, and they don't want to know. They just want to write the code, damn it!

Of course they'll be exceptions - I just haven't met them yet.

If you take care of all or most of the technical side yourself, this is all stuff you definitely need to know about.

We start today with an article that shows you two easy ways to optimize the JavaScript on your web site for better search engine positioning, faster load times, and easier script maintenance. If you're not doing this now, you're losing valuable visitors and sales.

We'll also be devoting a section of the newsletter to your technical questions - in each issue, I'll pick a few questions out of my mailbag and answer them directly. If you have any questions on anything to do with the technical side of effective e-marketing, please send them direct to steve@takanomi.com with the subject line 'TechieQuestion', and your question might be picked for publication in a future issue, together with your name and web site address.

The survey in the last issue also indicated that the majority of you would prefer a more regular edition of The Takanomi Newsletter. We're looking at the possibilities for this and you'll certainly be the first to know of any changes to our schedule.

1. Two Easy Ways To Optimize Your JavaScript

^Top

Many web sites, even those owned by people we all think of as gurus in the Internet marketing business, have large blocks of JavaScript code at the top of their web pages, sometimes running to dozens of lines of code.

But did you know that this common practice can have a negative effect on your search engine listings, by pushing your major keywords down the page?

In terms of search engine ranking, it's generally accepted that the higher your keywords are on the page, the better.

This easy-to-follow article will give you two easy ways to make the JavaScript on your web site more search engine friendly, improve your search engine position, and give your traffic levels a nice boost.

1. Move the script to the bottom of the page

This is the easiest method. A lot of JavaScript code can be moved to just above the closing body tag on your web page, without affecting the functionality of your web site.

The best way to do this is simply to test it out and see if it works - if you don't experience any adverse effects and your site appears to continue to perform normally, stick with it.

Your keywords will suddenly be much higher up the page, and your site may even load quicker too with all the code at the bottom.

If you wish, you can also combine this method with the second method as described below.

2. Externalize the script into a .js file

This method has the added advantage that the external .js file containing your JavaScript is often cached in your web visitor's browser, meaning that on subsequent visits your web page will load faster.

It also means you can have the same code on a number of different pages, yet only have a single file to modify and maintain when you want to adjust the script.

Here's how you do it:

• Your JavaScript will look something like the following:

  <script language=JavaScript>
  <!--
  your script here - copy this bit into a .js file
  //-->
  </script>
  

  Ignoring the opening and closing script tags, and the comment tags if you have them, copy the code in the middle into a brand new plain text file - for example, paste the code into a plain text editor like Notepad (don't be tempted to use something like MS Word).

• Save this file with a .js extension, for example, 'mycode.js', and upload this page to your server to the same directory as the web page.

• To make your web page reference this new .js file, replace the existing JavaScript as shown in the example above, with a single line in the following format:

  <script language=JavaScript src=mycode.js></script>
  

  Just replace 'mycode.js' with the name of your own .js file.

• Upload your modified web page to your server and test.

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