While search engine optimizing can be a great tool for increasing your website’s visibility, there is a dark under belly to this practice. There are SEO (search engine optimizing) “gurus” who are looking to take advantage of those without the knowledge of how this process works, or what can be expected from such a “service”. These unscrupulous people make millions of dollars each year by duping the uninformed. 

They begin by promising a great search engine results position (known in the online marketing sector as a “SERP”). Keep in mind that these are people who are out to drive their own revenue streams, not to help you build your business. They will take your money without doing anything to deliver on the service that is promised to you - the unsuspecting client. This will ultimately make them richer while possibly getting your site black-listed by major search engines. Before we understand how this scenario plays out though, let’s cover the basics.

In this entry we’ll be covering the data structure of Studio Shadowlight. We know what’s needed as far as our tools of communication are concerned, but now we need to figure out how to organize the content.

Let’s start with a main feature list. The things I included in this list are:
-Forum
-Blog
-User Gallery

I decided that a user gallery would be a great addition to the line-up. This would be a fantastic way to put all inspirational works created by members on display. This also gives us all a reason to do our best and show off our skills.

With these main features decided on, we’ve just created our first level navigation.

So I’ve decided to create a series on the design of this website. This is (of course) the first entry. In this series we’ll not only cover the reasons behind the the design decisions, but also the research and implementation of new ideas. As an added bonus, I’ll review some of the HTML, CSS and Javascript that I’ve used to craft the site. So, can it really get any better? You’d better believe it can! I’ll also be revealing how I implemented everything in ExpressionEngine, the most flexible content management system I’ve ever used (and my CMS of choice!).

I also have some big news regarding future development of Studio Shadowlight.