Note! Owing to a change in the the source of the rates used, versions of this tool below 1.01 will no longer work. You must use that version (or later) for correct results!
One of the points on which there seems to be general agreement in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) community is that search engines--and especially Google®--like to see fresh content--which is to say pages whose content changes frequently.
There is a package on this site--Freebie--that can provide you with thousands of relevant, daily-changing pages. But those pages are more or less a world unto themselves; what would also be useful to most webmasters is something simple they could just paste into their "regular" site pages that would automatically provide frequently changing content of a sort that would actually be at least interesting and possibly useful to their site visitors.
The tool provided here is the second of what is projected as a series of possible answers for that need. (The first, Weather, displays varying size dropins of weather conditions for virtually anywhere in the world. This one, Rates, provides a one-line statement that you can place on any web page that will drop into that page a box showing the exchange rates to and from some selected currency (any one of the nearly four dozen that the International Monetary Fund reports can be selected) and a selectable set of other currencies; you can even, if you choose, display cute little national flags.
(Obviously, this too's usefulness to you depends on the degree to which international currency-exchange data are relevant--or at least not obviously irrelevant--to the theme of your site. I hope to soon have yet other such tools, so that the chances of your finding one that will marry well with your pages increases.)
To give you an idea of what the dropin looks like, here is an operative sample. Remember: you can customize not only the currencies, but the block background color and block text color.
| To convert values in U.S. Dollars to foreign currency: | ||||||
|
To get: Multiply USD by: |
EEC Euros 
0.6448 |
U.K. Pounds 
0.5136 |
Japanese Yen 
104.41 |
Canadian Dollars 
0.9996 |
Mexican Pesos 
10.487 |
Swiss Francs 
1.049 |
|
|
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| To convert values in foreign currency to U.S. Dollars: | ||||||
|
Multiply: by: |
EEC Euros
1.5509 |
U.K. Pounds
1.947 |
Japanese Yen
0.0096 |
Canadian Dollars
1.0004 |
Mexican Pesos
0.0954 |
Swiss Francs
0.9533 |
| (Data via NY Federal Reserve Bank | Code by SEO Toys) | |||||
|
(Here is the "Rates" v. 1.01 tool package as a single ZIP file.) |
Change History:
0.10: initial release
0.11: removed forgotten (non-critical) non-php from imfsee.php
0.20: substantially upgraded install routine and docfiles.
0.30: major rewrite to imfget.php to accomodate (unannounced) drastic change in IMF exchange-rates data file.
0.40: major rewrite to take advantage of the IMF's now updating data throughout the business day (instead of once daily); combined two old scripts (imfget.php and imfsee.php) into a single new rates.php that grabs live data at evry call.
0.41: fixed dumb error so flags will now display OK.
0.50: changed timeout values so if IMF datafile is missing altogether toy will not hang unduly long (c. 15 secs.).
1.00: major rewrite: much smarter caching, added in new currencies from IMF, greatly simplified installation, added "transparent background" option.
1.01: major rewrite: switched from IMF to NYFRB as data source. Lost a few minor currencies, but data is much more reliably available.
To link to this page, please copy and paste this exact code:
<strong><a href="http://seo-toys.com/currency-rates-tool/rate-exchange-tool.shtml">the "Rates" SEO Tool </a></strong>
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Tools, Toys, and Packages:
an introduction to SEO principles and the SEO Tools offered on
this site
The SEO Tools, Toys, and Packages:
the actual free SEO Tools offered on this site
"Freebie"--
several thousand relevant, no-maintenance, daily-changing site pages
"Validate"--
make sure all your web pages are searchbot-readable HTML
|
several sizes of page drop-ins for weather anywhere in the world
--this is the "tiny" form; there are other samples available |
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|
exchange rates for (almost) any currency
versus (almost) any others-- this is just a sample of what it can look like: |
|
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"Know"--
very small, very simple, modest but tantalizing "freshness" dropin suitable
for any site or page whatever:
What do you know about OmniKnow?
"ReDate"--
make sure the searchbots know that your pages are fresh
SEO Tips:
useful explanations of SEO Basics
SEO Tips #1:
"What Is SEO?" - an explanation of what SEO is and of some of
the more important basic concepts in doing it
SEO Tips #2:
"Don't Let the Tail Wag the Dog" - basics of good site design that
co-exist with, but transcend, sheer SEO
SEO Tips #3:
"That Pesky www" - how to keep from losing backlink value on
all your pages
SEO Tips #4:
PR versus SERPs - keeping your eye on the
right ball
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