End of Year Target

By the end of the year I would like to have 300 visitors per day that visit 2 pages each and remain on the site for 120 seconds on average.

What happened in the past months

Although www.wwohn.com is already online for a few years, it was not before three months ago that I made it into this weblog. Unfortunately, the stuff I had online before this weblog did not result in any visitors.

During April I had only 336 visitors looking at 1.65 pages for 93 seconds. The time people spend on this site is therefore increasing. Unfortunately I did not post many articles which should change in the near future.

Most read during the past two months:

1. Captcha Alternatives
2. The 15 rules of quality hyperlinks
3. Real Time Validation of Website Forms

What’s next?

My most important target for this month is to write more articles that are interesting to my readers.

The numbers

April 08

• 336 visitors
• 1.65 pageviews per visitor
• 92 seconds on the site
• 3 subscribers

March 08

• 387 visitors
• 1.65 pageviews per visitor
• 73 seconds on the site
• 3 subscribers

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

User statistics April

The book provides tips & tricks and insights on how to optimize the use of Adsense on your website. When I learned the fourth version had been released I wanted to check it out. I must admit I had some difficulties before I ordered the new book.

The first time I opened up his page I was welcomed with a movie I could not stop and someone telling something. I am a reader and dislike websites that start talking to me.

Next I saw that the book only costs 9,95 dollar. That is 6 or 7 euro so I wanted to give it a try. I ordered the book and it is currently being printed.

The thing that bothers me is that Joel is able to give this book away for free, propbably only because he tries to sell you all kind of newsletters and online courses. I get annoyed by these kind of things. I start to read less and stop listening to the person that is telling me something on almost every page. I just go straight for the 9,95 dollar book.

His book is my bible when implementing Adsense. It shows how you can determine which formats, colors and places you should use. It helps in getting more revenue and analyse how to improve this. I hope to provide a review shortly.

Order Adsense Secrets

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Joel Comm: marketing genius?

But my question is: what does it doe for SEO?

SEO and valid websites

Several websites claim that HTML valid websites (can) improve your ranking in Google:

• Marketingdefined: Valid HTML Code Crucial to SEO
• New Sun Graphics: Why Valid Source Code Matters for SEO
• hobo-web.co.uk: SEO Test - Google Prefers Valid HTML & CSS

Opposite, there are several articles stating that it does not make a difference.

• Searchenginejournal: W3C Compliance Impact on SEO en SEO & Importance of Valid Source Code (W3C validation)
• SEOContest2008: W3C Code Validation is NOT Important In Search Engine Ranking

There are several remarks about the articles that state that validation is important for SEO. For example the article of hobo-web.co.uk is a nice read but it is not clear whether the test is done correctly as is mentioned in the comments to that article. The piece marketingdefined is too radical. They have the opinion that if you miss a bracket this could cost you indexation. I think that such situation is too hypothetical.

The articles written on Searchenginejournal and New Sun Graphics seem to be the most balanced.

Searchenginejournal
Searchenginejournal emphasizes that valid code does not necessarily help. They emphasize however that non valid code can damage your ranking. If the errors are too frequent or too large, searchengines may have difficulties indexing your site.

New Sun Graphics
New Sun Graphics also notes that small errors probably do not kill your ranking. Nevertheless, the indexing by spiders may be interfered be certain errors. Since SEO is a game of details, why would you take the risk of using non valid code?

Matt Cutts
Matt Cutts seems to follow the same route as the last two articles. In his video, Optimize for Search Engines or Users?, he answers a question about valid coding. He says “normal people write code with errors”. Moreover he notes that it is not a signal yet but could be in the future. He concludes by saying that you probably have more effect by working on good content instead of valid code.

Other reasons to make valid websites

Non valid websites trust the error correction of browsers. You could help the rendering by providing valid code.

Valid code does not mean that your website will look the same in all browsers. Different browsers have different interpretations, often of CSS rendering. Valid code does not prevent these errors but may minimize errors.

If you would like to test the compatibility of your website with other browsers, use browsershot.org. You can test your website on several platforms, such as Linus, Windows, Max OS en BSD. Secondly, you can select several browsers and other settings such as resolution.

Concluding

There are several reasons to make your website W3C valid.

• Better chances for good rendering in different browsers.
• Decrease dependency on error correction of browsers.
• You could give a speed boost to your websites.
• A small group of users values good coding. Especially if your target audience are webmasters and scripters.

Bottom line is that valid coding in principle does not improve your ranking. It is bad coding that can decrease your ranking if the errors are so big that the spider has difficulties reading your page. Why take the risk? Hire a scripter for a few bucks to repair the worst errors.

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Does W3c validation provide benefits to SEO

Although I do not think that Google reads my posts I was happily surprised when I discovered that Google is working on the implementation of item 1 on the list.

In the Dashboard you can now choose to visualize the daily, weekly and monthly stats. Below I included some screenshot of the one of my websites per November 1, 2007. You will note that it is a lot easier to spot trends since the weekly and monthly stats have a lot less noise.

Visitors per day (1 Nov - 3 April)

Visitors per week (1 Nov - 3 April)

Visitors per month (1 Nov - 3 April)

I am not sure how you think of this feature but I think it is a great added feature. Thank you Google, let’s start with the second item of the list.

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Google analytics beta: visitor graph per day, week or month

Below I describe why a top 10 ranking alone is not sufficient. Subsequently I show how to measure click through rate and how to influence this.

What should be added to a top 10 Google rating

Higher positions in Google generally get more clicks. But does your site get all the clicks it deserves?

Visitors that search in Google can see your title, description and URL to determine if they are going to proceed to your site. Look for example at the following search results and how the title and description influences your perception.

Change the title and description?

Title and description can be changed on your own site and will in principle be used by Google.

Title

The title is a HTML tag that is used by Google. You will also see the title in the left upper corner of your browser. If you open your HTML template it looks as follows.

<title>title of your website</title>

If you spot this line, change it. If it is missing, add it to your HTML and adjust it.

Try to have a different title on all pages. Many software products have the possibility to adjust the title dynamically and have it show the title of the post or content on that page.

For example in Wordpress, you can add the title of your post into the HTML tag.

<title><?php bloginfo('name'); ?> <?php if ( is_single() ) { ?> » Blog Archive <?php } ?> <?php wp_title(); ?></title>

Try to minimize the title to less than 60 characters.

Description

Google uses the meta tag description to present a short summary in their search results. Look in your HTML for the following line:

<meta name="description" content="Your description“>


Try to add a different description on all pages.

Google Webmaster tool: Evaluate the title and description

If you end up in a good spot in the Google search results it is quality knowledge to know if people click on your link. You can use the Google webmaster tools for this purpose.

First sign up and verify your website. After you have signed in, go to statistics and look for the overview of top 20 search results. I can only open the Dutch version from which I have taken a screenshot.

On the left side you will see part of the top 20 keywords for which your website is shown in the search results. The right side shows the top 20 keywords on which your visitors have clicked and visited your website. You can now see for which keywords your site is shown in Google and on what keywords visitors click to your website.

As an example, you will note that the keyword “captcha alternatives” is shown in the top 2 of both lists and leads to my article about alternatives for a captcha. This is a good result.

The keyword “pound key” is shown a lot of times but for some reason it does not pop up in the list of clicks. This is bad since I would expect the top 20 of keywords on the left also show up in the diagram to the right. From Google I get the following result on the word “pound key”.

Not only did I misspell the word “pound” in the URL, I know note that I forgot to make an unique description for this page. So the description shown by Google is some random line of text from the article. There is obviously room for improvement here.

Concluding

Please open up this overview and look at the top 20 in both lists. Watch for keywords that are listed in the search results but do not lead to visitors. Go to Google and search these keywords. Make sure that you have done everything to attract those visitors and adjust the title and description if necessary.

I am wondering how many people don’t even have unique descriptions and titles.

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Do people click on your website in Google?

End of Year Target

By the end of the year I would like to have 300 visitors per day that visit 2 pages each and remain on the site for 120 seconds on average.

What happened in the past months

Although www.wwohn.com is already online for a few years, it was not before two months ago that I made it into this weblog. Unfortunately, the stuff I had online before this weblog did not result in any visitors.

During February I had only 151 visitors looking at 1.56 pages for 47 seconds. During March the site statistics showed some improvement. I had 387 visitors looking at 1.65 pages for 73 seconds. So the line is up but there is still a long way to go.

Most read during the past two months:

1. The 15 rules of quality hyperlinks
2. My message about the bug in the Google analytics graph
   
3. The new benchmark feature added to Google Analytics

What’s next?

My most important target for this month is to write more articles that are interesting to my readers.

The second target is an update to Wordpress 2.5.

The numbers

March 08

• 387 visitors
• 1.65 pageviews per visitor
• 73 seconds on the site
• 3 subscribers

February 08

• 151 visitors
• 1.56 pageviews per visitor
• 47 seconds on the site
• 0 subscribers

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

User statistics March

A discussion on your weblog should not be taken for granted. You need an interesting subject on which people have an opinion and are prepared to give a reaction. Moreover, interaction with your visitors may convert a new visitor in a regular visitor.

Take in mind that not all visitors will regularly come back to search new comments on earlier discussions. It is important to make the path back to your website as smooth as possible.

Luckily there are many ways to make your weblog into a frequently visited place for discussion.

E-mail updates for visitors

One of the best methods to involve visitors is by providing them a subscription to the comments on a post.

With the Wordpress plugin subscribe-to-comments you can add a checkbox to your comment form by which a visitor can opt to receive e-mail updates if another visitor leaves a comment.

The Wordpress plugin also provides an unsubscribe link.

Comment feed

If your weblog software does not support this feature, make sure you have a comment feed. Visitors can subscribe to the comment feed and receive updates on new comments.

Please note that some comment feeds only lead to a feed of all comments in stead of the comments of a single post.

This weblog has a comment feed for every message. Look at the post “google analytics graph behind” and the associated comment feed.

Recent comments in your template

Include the most recent comments in your template and show them on every page. This method will not attract new visitors but may help visitors to get involved.

Also, active discussion will be fueled by internal links and traffic because every recent comment will be posted on all pages.

Participate in discussions

You are a member of your own community, so participate in any discussion and help visitors where possible.

You could off course make several users and make a discussion yourself. I think however that this is black hat and may damage trust of your visitors in you and your weblog.

Promote active discussions

If one of your posts leads to a heated discussion, it is probably an interesting piece of work with an emphasis on the comments. If you see the same subject on another page, mention the interesting discussion on your own blog.

Also use social media and promote active discussions on your Facebook, Myspace or other social page. You may even use Twitter as Problogger also mentions.

Other items?

What are the tips and tricks you use to help visitors to start and participate in discussions on your weblog?

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Involve visitors in discussions

To help your visitor even more to quickly find your website you can add the logo to the address bar of the browser. You can read how to do this in our article “make a favicon“.

Another way of using a logo is as a hyperlink to your homepage. Since more and more websites are making their logo clickable, more people are getting used to using the logo to return to the homepage.

If you get used to using a clickable logo it immediately draws attention if a site does not provide this functionality. Try microsoft.com to find out yourself.

Although many people may know of the clickable logo, not everybody knows about it (or wants to use it). Make sure that you also make a regular hyperlink named “home”.

How do you make a logo clickable

In most cases it is annoyingly simple to make the logo clickable, especially if the tag <img> is used to load the logo. It requires a little bit of HTML knowledge to do the same if the logo is a background picture of a cell in a table or a <div> Nevertheless, with some patience you should be fine.

Clickable image

Look in your HTML for the <img> tag used to load the logo. It looks something like the line below:

<img alt="your website theme" src="www.yourwebsite.com/logo.gif">

To transform this into a link, use the following line of code:

<a title="return to the homepage" href="www.yourwebsite.com"><img alt="your website theme" src="www.yourwebsite.com/logo.gif"></a>

I added a title tag to the hyperlink. If visitors hover the image, a tooltip will be shown with the line “return to the homepage”.

Make a <div> or cell in a table clickable

If you cannot find the <img> the logo is probably the background image of a <div> or <td>. this would mean that you should make the entire <div> or <td> clickable.

You can make a <div> clickable with the following line of code:

<div onclick="location.href='http://www.yourwebsite.com/';" style="cursor: pointer;"></div>

You can make a <td> clickable with the following line of code:

<td onclick="location.href='http://www.yourwebsite.com/';" style="cursor: pointer;"></td>

In the examples above, pointer of the mouse changes if the mouse hovers the <div> or <td>. This provides visitors an indication that the area they are hovering is clickable.

Emphasize hyperlinks

An experienced visitor may recognize a hyperlink by the cursor changing into a hand. An additional indication may be the tooltip that shows a line of text if the visitor hovers a hyperlink. To make a tooltip you use the title tag, for example:

title="Return to the homepage"

The experienced webmaster/designer can use other hover effects to emphasize hyperlinks. For example Facebook, who has added a little homepage icon if you hover the logo.

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Make your logo clickable

1. Monthly and weekly stats: It would be a lot easier if you could select weeks or months as timescale. It would improve the possibilities to spot monthly and weekly trends and could eliminate the daily fluctuations.
2. Trend lines: Many number crunching aps have this available. A line running through your diagram could show (for example) the 30-day average and the 10 day average. It not only enables you to visualize the trend (going up or down) but also gives an idea about the speed in which this happens (10 day average tops the 30 day average).
3. More selection criteria in columns: It is possible to to sort tables. This could however be improved by features like eliminating the 100% bounce rate pages that only have 1 pageview or by sorting data by multiple columns, such as highest bounce rates of top content.
4. Long tail graph. Rand of Seomoz came up with a post on a statistics program enabling you to visualize the longtail of keywords. I would like to do this in Google Analytics.
5. Directly change the date range: Most of the times I start analyzing my monthly numbers. Sometimes I note a sudden increase in for example the referring sites. I would like to be able to look at the figures of that day by only clicking the dot in the graph. Currently, hovering or clicking this dot shows an alert box with minimal information
6. Spice up the site overlay: If you are familiar with crazyegg.com you know what I mean. They have a heatmap showing the visitor clicks on a page. By increasing size, color and intensity of the area on which visitors clicked you can instantly see what attracts visitors. Moreover, they also show clicks on areas that are not hyperlinks. It shows if visitors are somehow confused on where to click. Very useful information.
7. Compare sources: You should be able to put multiple sources in a graph. For example, this enable you to compare paid and non-paid visitors. Or to compare multiple referring sites into one graph. Is it a seasonal drop or limited to one source only?
8. Include Feedburner data: Both Feedburner and Analytics are owned by Google. Why not include the Feedburner data into Google Analytics?
9. Custom tags: I would live to give my comments to spikes or drops in the graphs by adding markers with comments. You could mention that the spike originates from Digg or for example take up changes you made in the design. Ideashowever has a very interesting post in this respect.
10. Include Adsense data: On the wishlist of many people but probably on the secrecy list of Google.

If you know of features I forgot, please leave a comment so that I can extend this list.

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

10 features that should be added to Google Analytics

There is however something else you should keep in mind when thinking about your ad placement.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

Thanks to Seth Godin.

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Ad blindness, how does it work?

The website should check the provided input and determine if it validates based on a pre determined set of rules. E-mail addresses should for example contain a “@” and an extension. Usernames should be unique and passwords may have safety requirements such as a minimum number of characters.

What is retro active validation

If validation is done retroactively, the visitor gets an error en the opportunity to change the input. Hopefully the visitor is not required to completely fill in the entire form again. Moreover, the visitor should be aware what went wrong to be able to give the correct input.

A good example that guides the visitor retroactively is the registration page of Pownce. After clicking “Okay, done” it shows which field did not validate. If you click on a field it will tell you what you should do.

Real time validation can be of help here since it provides feedback to the user at the moment the visitor is completing the form.

What does real time validation look like

A good example is the registration page of Twitter.

I tried to register under my own username. The live validation system provides immediate feedback and shows that the username has been taken. Also, the required course of action is stated, ie choose another username.

A missed opportunity is the validation of the password. I would expect Twitter to use real time validation to verify that the username requires the minimum number of characters and to verify that the two password boxes contain similar passwords.

You can find other examples of live validation below:

• Sign up with Digg.com
  This form not only validates that my e-mail address does not have the right format, it also validates that the re-type e-mail address field is not similar to the first e-mail address field, and so on. It seems quite extensive.
  
• Register at Basecamp
  Note that live validation only regards the URL and its availability. Moreover, it does not verify the other requirements such as “letters and numbers only - no spaces.” Another missed opportunity. Finally this validation does only show errors, it should also show if a field is filled in correctly.
  

Advantages of live validation

There are several advantages, many lead to an improved usability such as:

• The visitor will know instantly why a field is not filled in correctly.
• There is an interaction with the visitor.
• The visitor can adjust immediately.
• The visitor will not be forced to again submit the form over and over.
• Moreover, live validation forces you to rethink your input fields and information you expect from the visitor.

Requirements for a successful implementation of live validation

These kinds of real time validation processes can really help your visitor. As always, there are some things you should keep in mind:

• Use clear questions. Ask somebody to use your form and react to it.
• Explain what went wrong. If the passwords do not match or if the password is too long, let people know so that they can adjust it accordingly.
• Real time validation often happens client side, this is not safe. It cannot replace server side validation, it only helps your visitor to fill in the form correctly.
• Make sure that the software used for the validation process does not significantly slow down the site.
• Be consistent, use validation on all fields or none.
• Do not only show if something goes wrong, also show if a field is filled in correctly.

How to implement real time validation

The easiest download seems to be livevalidation, a Javascript file of 12.5kb. This files should be inserted between the <head></head> tags on your webpage. You can then validate the forms using some specific commands. The website provides an example and a tutorial on how to do this.

Another, more complex solution uses AJAX. It allows you to validate with PHP or ASP. Particletree has a complete tutorial on this.

Why is live validation rare on web forms

I am starting to wonder why I rarely see this kind of live validation. Moreover, the website that have real time validation sometimes only use it for part of their forms.

Will this become popular or are there disadvantages I am missing here? What do you think?

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Real time validation of website forms

Google Analytics graph one day behind

Today, March 13, 10am (GMT+1), I would like to start analyzing my website stats of yesterday. I start Google analytics and select March 12. Normally, the analytics graph runs up to and including March 12 and the data presented below the graph represents my visitors on March 12. Today I got the following screenshot.

Screenshot March 12

On the screenshot above I selected the last day of the graph. You will note that the graph only runs up to and including March 11. The figures below the graph are from March 12. This is rather confusing to me.

When I select March 13, I get the screenshot below.

Screenshot March 13

Again I selected the last day in the graph. You will note that the graph now runs through March 12. The figures below the graph however represent March 13.

What is exactly the problem?

Because the graph is one day off I need to make a choice between looking at the figures of yesterday, or looking at the graph of yesterday. This leads to a lot of unnecessary clicks to get the information I want. Only if I go back 2 days, the graph is on target again.

Since I can look at the data of yesterday I can only conclude that this data is available. For some reason, Google does not show this data if you only select yesterday as date. On Google groups this point is also recognized.

Is this happening to more people?

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Google Analytics graph one day behind

Recently I came across a discussion about the comparison between a book and a website. The main point of this discussion was the use of a welcome text in a similar way as a foreword in a book.

Thinking about this discussion I would like to digg a little bit deeper into the comparison between a book and a website.

What are the elements of a book that have an online twin.

The cover page of a book and the splashpage

The cover page of a book is extremely important. It attracts the potential reader to look at the book and further investigate the content and summary. A coverpage gives a first impression and feeling of the entire book.

The online version of a coverpage could be the splash page. This is an entry page that contains basic information about the website and sometimes even flash animations.

A nick name for these kind of pages is the “skip intro page”. The name says it all. You are not helping your regular visitors by presenting them the same page over and over. Although new visitors may value the splash screen (provided that they enter your site via the homepage), another part of the visitors will get annoyed by the splash page or even leave your website.

What you should use to attract visitors to further explore your website are your theme and layout. Make use of the grid and acknowledge the value of white spaces. Do not underestimate the use of color in your webdesign.

The foreword of a book and the welcome message

When publishing a book, the foreword is used to explain more about the book and its author. It may help to better understand the book itself.

On a website, the use of a welcome message is a waste of space. Although it is good to help people better understand what you are doing, you should limit this to the “about us ” page and your title tag.

I think that most visitors are looking for a webpage and not a website. If anybody enters your site I would take all effort and web space to direct that visitor to the correct piece of information.

The Table of Contents and the website navigation

Many books are divided into chapters. To find a chapter you use the table of content that is normally included on the first pages of a regular book. This helps you to quickly find the page that you are looking for.

There is a special kind of book that could do without a table of content, ie a reading book. Normally I start a reading book at page 1 and finish page by page.

On the internet such a table of content is crucial. Most websites have a navigation menu that directs visitors to several sections of the website. For a more detailed table of content you could upload a sitemap.

The summary and the meta tags description and keywords

The summary at the back of the book helps the potential buyer/reader to determine the content of the book. Many books also put credentials on the back of the book.

In a website, you could publish a short summary using the meta tags description and keywords. These tags give every single page on a website a specific summary and highlights the most important keywords/tags.

A website is not a book

Several elements of a book are aimed at potential buyers/readers looking at your book as a whole. A website however can be consumed in smaller parts.

A visitor could search and visit only one webpage of the entire website. This increases the pressure to help visitors to find their what they are looking for before they leave your website.

Maybe I should start comparing books to webpages instead of websites?

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

A website is not a book

Benchmark your own website

Take for example the screenshot to the left (taken from the analytics weblog).

You will get a dashboard with visitors, bounce rate, time on site, etc. The blue dotted line represents the data from your own website. The black line represents the data of the benchmark.

Based on this information you should theoretically be able to determine if your visitors perform better or worse than the average.

The big question however will be how the benchmark is determined.

How is the benchmark determined?

If I see it correctly, there are two variables here.

1. You can pick your own industry/category to be compared with. If you look in the screenshot of the paragraph above you will not an option “open category list” at the top of the page.
2. Google divides the market into small, medium and large.

Eventually, this leads to categories with a minimal of 100 websites divided by size and category. Since the service will be anonymously, you will not know which sites you have been compared with. Not sure how this will work out.

How can you opt in?

To be able to use these benchmarking services you have to accept that your won data will be used to fill the benchmarking database. If you log into Google analytics the top of your screen will show a message about data sharing. You have to accept the data sharing to benefit from the benchmarking services.

As a side note, it can take a while before you can use the benchmarking service after you opt in. According to the benchmarking FAQ the reports should be populated first.

My opinion

I am going to participate with my own websites. The only thing to find out the advantages of this service is trying myself. It would for example be fantastic if I can confirm that certain seasonal variations occur throughout my industry.

The thing that worries me is that it is unclear how the benchmark is determined. You will never know if the benchmark is really comparable to your own website.

Eventually, I think this may prove to be a worthless service due to a lack of transparency. Not surprisingly though since few competitors would appreciate it if Google would distribute their stats onto the public web.

What do you think about this? What can this service be used for?

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Benchmark with Google Analytics

Help your visitor to easily identify your website. For his reason, many websites add a favicon. This is a small logo or icon that is displayed in the address bar of the browser when visitors visit your website. Also, if the visitor decides to bookmark your website, the favicon is displayed in the list of bookmarks. If a visitor opens his list of bookmarks, the favicon will help to easily identify your website.

How can you add a favicon?

Although this is a must have for every website, not all websites do have a favicon. It is very easy to add a favicon with a few steps.

1. Make an icon or logo sized 16×16 or 32×32 pixels.
2. Name the file “favicon.ico”.
3. Upload the picture to your website.
4. Add the following code in your html, between the <head> and </head> tags.
   

   <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://url-to-the-favicon/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">

If you have a Wordpress website you can add the favicon.ico file directly in your theme directory, in the same place as the index.php. Use the following code to have Wordpress automatically fill in the right url.

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_directory');?>/favicon.ico" type="images/x-icon">

If this is all to technical, use the favicon manager wordpress plugin. You can now upload the favicon from your admin panel.

How do you make a favicon

So uploading is the easy part. Making a logo or icon can be challenging.

There are a few websites that can help you make a favicon.

• Easy to use on-line favicon generator. Pick a color and type in some text. The generator will do the rest.
• If you already have an image you can use the favicon maker. You can also merge the favicon with a desktop icon.
• For the real perfectionist there is this favicon editor. In a 32×32 grid you can set the color of each pixel separately.

For the professionals there are also the specialized software products.

• Try using the demo of Microangelo toolset.
• Download the pixeltoolbox
• Use the freeware program Goldicon to edit and make your own favicon.
• Use photoshop starting with this tutorial to make a favicon.

If you are lazy, you could use existing favicons. Look at the following sites to download examples of favicons.

• Large collection of free icons.
• Download free icons from Yellowpipe.
• Fantastic paid for icons
• Download single icons for a low price starting at a few dollars.

Update: animated favicons

I forgot to mention the animated icons. As far as I know this is a firefox only possibility. You can use animated favicons just as you would use normal favicons. So the code is the same, only the image is different. It is advisable to use the html code above to include the favicon image into your html, you can then also use other filenames and other extensions.

You can find free animated favicons at this website.

Post from oeroek at wwohn.com

Make a favicon