In an attempt to improve security and privacy on the Internet, Google is encouraging websites to secure their site with an SSL certificate, aka https:// instead of http://
As you may have noticed, I just officially updated my domain to be under SSL. As I described in my It's LEMP not LAMP post that I use nginx for my web server. I thought I would share how easily I was able to convert my website to use SSL with nginx.

Before you begin, be sure you have already created your SSL certificate and have your certificate and private key files ready and uploaded to your server (I got my SSL cert free with my domain registration at Porkbun).

Since I've recently moved from WordPress to a custom solution I've missed a few things about the WordPress stats – more specifically which links were clicked in.  I think it's a good thing to know whether or not people like the links I often include in my blog articles.  I try not to link out too much, as the whole goals of my articles are for you to stay and read them!  Crazy concept, I know…

Like most people, I rely on Google Analytics to provide me the stats about my website.  I certainly don't have the traffic that requires a custom solution!  The nice part is that Google has made this very easy through Custom Event Tracking.

Below is an excerpt of a chapter from my new book: 20 Recipes for Programming MVC 3.

In today’s heavily fought battles for search engine supremacy, it’s quite difficult to winthe race with a website address that looks like:

http://www.example.com/books/details?id=4.

Using routes, the website can look like:

http://www.example.com/20-recipes-for-mvc3

which provides much more context, both to the user and the search engine.

Two of the biggest things that will improve your search engine rankings are keyword rich website titles and keyword rich links to your content. Today’s lessons will cover both of these topics.

Objectives

• Improve our search engine rankings


• Set a title tag


• Map a specific URL to a custom controller and action


• Avoid using ids or numbers in our URL

Before I start, I would like to make it clear that this article is and does not intend to be a be-all-to-end-all of the SEO necessities for your website. It is meant to describe some excellent techniques to quickly and easily improve upon CakePHP to make it more SEO friendly.

Using the right keywords are important, but don’t let this drive your content.  It’s important to remember what your first goal should be and not your second.  Your first goal is write and provide useful content to people who do find your content.  Your second goal is for search engines to rank it well.

So, how can this be done?  Start by thinking about what your keywords are for your content.  Once you have your keywords decided, create a title for your content and integrate your keywords into them.  Make sure your title is intuitive, keyword rich, and catches people’s eye.  This can be done through good keywords, a secret, and/or a descriptive title describing exactly what the user wants.