Simple Find and Replace PHP Script

PHP Quick Find Replace Script

I was working on a client who had an older website with about 100 pages and they were all “full html.” By full html I mean the entire layout was stored in every html file, so any change to the layout required a lot of time. So I created a quick and dirty script to load into the directory I was working in, it pulls all files with the defined extension then finds and replaces one string for another.

This script is very easy to setup and run.

Instructions:

• 1. Download script here
  (http://www.warnerdata.com/freeDownloads/FindAndReplace.zip)
• 2. Unzip and open replace.php in notepad or your choice of editor
• 3. There are three variables that must be defined

a. $ext = “php” – Set this to whatever extension you wish to edit. Currently it is only setup to do one extension at a time. I usually run it on php and then the html files, then css if urls needs to be changed.

b. $current = “123456” – Set this to whatever your pages currently say. This is what you want to replace/get rid of.

c. $new = “ABCD” – Set this to whatever is to replace $current.

d. An example of replacing info@warnerdata.com to support@warnerdata.com would be:

$ext = “html”
$current = “info@warnerdata.com”
$new = “support@warnerdata.com”

• 4. Upload your edited replace.php to whatever directory contains the files you wish to edit
• 5. Point your browser to: http://yoursite.com/directory/replace.php
• 6. Repeat for any other extension
• 7. Delete replace.php

Things that could be added later:

GUI interface with password protection
Do more than one directory at a time
Do more than one file extension at a time
Create backup of files to be edited with an undo button

Hope this helps!

Salt Lake City Web Design

Not enough traffic? Here are some simple tips to advertise for free

Web Forums
Web forums have been around a long time. If you don’t know what a web forum is, it’s just a place with where people go and post their thoughts or opinions on certain niches. There are car forums, gardening, dog, SEO…. Whatever your business sells or does there’s a forum dedicated to it. Start posting in these forums, don’t write sales letters as posts right off the bat. Become a part of the community and slowly start selling people on your product. On most forums you can even add your link to your signature. You get free advertising and a free link back to your site.

Articles
Articles are the foundation to any good traffic campaign for your website. Typically I suggest to my clients to take a few hours every Monday to type up 3-4 articles to post throughout the week. Add the articles to your blog and also to sites like ArticleBase.com and EzineArticles.com. Again more links to your site and free advertising. Be careful sometimes these sites can rank above you on your search terms.

Social Networks
Join any of the ever growing social networks. Find your friends, colleagues and some complete strangers. My networks are pretty large and usually I can post a link and get 50-100 visitors from it.

Offline Marketing
A lot of people tend to forget about the offline world when they get involved with their online businesses. Make sure to advertising where ever you can offline. Add your URL to your business cards, brochures and handouts. I like leaving my card everywhere; you never know who might need a website.

Search Engine Optimization
The best part of all the above free advertising (minus the offline) is these help build your ranking with the major search engines. The more links you get, the more content you have, the more Google will like your site and move you up in the search results. And what is better than being ranked #1-3 in Google? Talk about free advertising!

Ranking in Google Local Search

Dominating Google’s Local Search
First off, for those who don’t know what Local Search is lets explain it. Local Search allows users to find products or services in their defined geographical area. You’ve probably seen in on Google before if you’ve searched for anything in your town, for example “Salt Lake City Dog Walkers” shows a map of about 10 true local listings. It also has the normal advertising listings and organic search below the local search.
First thing to start ranking on Local Search make sure all of your business data is correct. Visit: https://www.google.com/local/add/ to add or edit your business listing.
After that here are my suggestions for your profile:
• Make sure to use your business name in the name section, this is what people see but I have yet to see any major change in keyword loading the company name.
• Load your description with your keywords
• Add photos like your logo, business building, and products, anything you can. The more content you have the more Google seems to like this.
• Have your customers write real reviews of your product. You can then take those reviews and copy them to your website or whatever you may need those for.
• Create a couple coupons. They probably won’t ever be used but Google seems to like them.
I added my business to local search a few months ago and I was getting a lot of business from it. The main keywords for Web Design are pretty tough to crack. But through local search I’m able to “out rank” these long time businesses and web directories. At first I was ranking really well and then suddenly I disappeared off the listings and my business also disappeared--which is a good point to not rely on one source of traffic!
I went in and added a bunch of examples of websites we’ve done, along with adding a few coupons and having a couple reviews written for the company. As of now we are ranking again but now in the top 1-3 spots for local listings.
I’ll keep you updated on what I do to keep my ranking in local search.

Site Re-design done!

We've completed a site redesign for Blue in red Zion. Redesign included migration from blogger platform to Word Press including all posts and comments (about 500 in all), new layout, new hosting and a domain name. We've added this new package to our services! It runs for $45 includes blog posts & comments moved over, similar or better theme, domain name, and one year of hosting.

At any rate check out the new site: http://www.BlueinRedZion.com

[[will upload before and after later today]]

Create Your Own Quality Backlinks For High Google Rankings

If you have done any research on how to rank highly in Google you'll have come to two conclusions. The first is that content is King, the more unique content your site has, the more Google loves your site will receive. The 2nd is pretty simple; if your website is worth ranking high in Google then there will be plenty of sites freely linking to you.

Getting backlinks can be some hard work, lots of emailing, submitting, hunting and lots of coffee. I've found a great way to create a quality backlinks to your site without must of the headaches in getting normal back links.

What I do to create instant backlinks is pretty simple; it does require some work though. With my website looking great and having loads of content, I open 3-4 blogs on free blog hosting websites like Blogspot, WordPress and a few others. Each blog focuses on a different niche of my niche. I usually type up 2-3 articles for each, ranging from 250-500 words. I then add a link from each blog to my website I'm trying to promote. At this point, do not link the new blogs together. Submit each blog to your favorite blog pinger, submit to Google, MSN, and Yahoo. There are 3-4 instant good links, the bonus to this method is sometimes all my blogs plus my site will rank highly for my keywords. So if done correctly, I have 2-3 sites in Google that all belong to me and promote my business or affiliate programs.

You've probably also heard about all these Web 2.0 properties like Squidoo, Facebook, Hubpages and a few others. If you are ambitious create a semi-unique site on each property and link to your main site and your three blogs. These Web 2.0 properties can all interlink to provide juice to each other and then to your blogs and main site. Just keep adding layers, links and most importantly unique content to all your sites. Within no time you will see a dramatic increase in your Google rankings, traffic and the end goal: sales.

$3.95 Hosting

We are kicking off our new hosting section of Warner Data Solutions with an intro price of only $3.95 a month, no contracts. We will never raise the price on your site!

To get more information on the hosting check out our new site at: http://www.WarnerDataHosting.com.

We are also working on a lucrative referral program for anyone looking to make a few extra bucks!

Site Completed

We've finished Colonial First Lending, Inc.'s new website.  Check out: http://www.colonialfirstlending.com/

This is a Salt Lake City based mortgage company.  We convereted their site from an old clunky frame website.  It is now using Joomla 1.5 so that their staff are able to easily update and modify any part of the website with a click of the mouse.

Make sure to check out our website for your site's redesign! We are also offering a hosting special at $3.95 a month, no contracts, no fees!

Warner Data Solutions a Salt Lake City Web Design Company

How I Cut My Clients Google Adwords PPC in Half

Often when taking over a clients Google Adwords campaign, I find that they load one Ad Group with all their keywords.  If this is you, I highly suggest you go PAUSE your campaign right now!

Before we get into how to setup your account to lower your costs, we will go over how Google decides your bid price.  If you go into your “Keywords” area, and hover your mouse over the magnifying glass to the right of the keyword you’ll see a Quality Score.

What is ‘Quality Score’ and how is it calculated?
The AdWords system calculates a 'Quality Score' for each of your keywords. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query. A keyword's Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).
-adwords.google.com

A lot of people are losing money on Google Adwords because their ads get a “Google Slap”.  A Google Slap is a bad quality score.  When Google Slaps your account you’ll have to pay more money to be able to have your ad show at the same spot that it was… say a week ago.  Having a bad quality score can cause your cost per click (cpc) to go from (this is a real example!) $0.12 a click to $1.00 a click. 

So the obvious route is to increase your Google Adwords Quality Score!  Now the fun part:

Instead of having that massive list of keywords you’ve researched (or just selected from Google) we’re going to bring that up into multiple Ad Groups.  For our example we’ll use is a company that sells blue widgets in Miami, Florida.

We need to break up that large list of keywords into related Ad Groups.  For example, the first Ad Group will be “Miami Blue Widgets” within this ad group we place all keywords with the words Miami, Blue and Widgets.

Miami Blue Widgets
Buy Miami Blue Widgets
Affordable Blue Widgets
etc.

Now the part that will help increase our quality score, ads tailored to our keywords.  This will help us in two ways one increase quality score and two bold the keywords searched.  We want the words “Miami Blue Widgets” in our headline and in our product description, if nothing else at least the headline.

Miami Blue Widgets
Make sure to check our store
before you buy Blue Widgets!

You should make three or four different ads to test which converts the best, we’ll save that for another lesson!

Now go through the rest of your keywords and lump them base on similar keywords to take advantage of keywords within your ad to boost your quality score.

If want to boost your score even more there is one more thing you can do.  Design a landing page for each Ad Group.  A good idea would be something like: www.domain.com/miami-blue-widgets.html.  On this landing page make sure to have the title and h1 tags have your keyword in it.

It may seem like a lot, but in the end these simple steps can save you hundreds of dollars.  Having targeted landing pages can also increase conversions (another post).
 

-Guy

Salt Lake City Web Design