Hyper-text-pre-processor (PHP) and Active-server-pages (ASP) are the two standard programming languages for website application development and more significantly when it comes to produce database-driven websites to interrelating hugely with databases. PHP is an open-source programming language which is derived from lots of different languages. On the other hand ASP is such kind of programming languages which preferring Microsoft product mostly.
Both programming languages PHP and ASP are used to develop dynamic database oriented websites. Active Server Pages (ASP) is normally from Microsoft and is used only with Internet Information Server (IIS) that runs on Microsoft Servers also. But on the other hand you can say PHP is platform independent programming languages and can connect with several kinds of databases.
There are a lot of differences between ASP and PHP.
Expenditure
To run ASP.net programs first need to install IIS on a Windows server platform, this is not a free package. PHP programs can run on Linux, which is free package. Even the database connectivity is expensive for ASP, because it require MS-SQL product of Microsoft that needs to be acquired. Same time on the other hand PHP generally uses MySQL for database connectivity, which is freely accessible.
The Simplicity in Coding
PHP codes itself are very light in weight, a contract programmer who begins his career into PHP, does not felt any pressure to look the source code to understand. Whereas In ASP codes are not so easy to quick understand.
Database Compatibility
PHP generally being extremely flexible as it uses MySQL for database connectivity, which is freely accessible. Same time on the other hand Database compatibility is expensive for ASP, because it require MS-SQL product of Microsoft that needs to be acquired.
General Run Time
If we evaluate the running speed of PHP and ASP then PHP should gets the upper hand. Normally it is viewed that PHP code runs quicker than ASP code. Due to COM based architecture, ASP uses server space to run while PHP code runs on its own inbuilt memory space.
Background Language Support
ASP has a similar like Visual Basic type of syntax that also linked to Microsoft products as well. On the other hand PHP codes are based on generally C++ language and the syntax, which is used in PHP, is quite similar to C/C++ syntax. C/C++ is still considered by maximum software programmer is the finest programming language and people who love C++ language would certainly feel more relaxed with the PHP syntax.
Running Platform Connectivity
PHP codes can run on different platforms like UNIX, Solaris, Linux, and Windows whereas ASP codes are mostly linked with Windows platforms. Though, ASP programs can run on a Linux platform with the help of ASP-Apache installed on the server.
Further Tools Cost
Several tools used in PHP are mostly free of cost in the market and as PHP is open source a lot of codes can be available in open source forums and blogs. PHP has inbuilt attributes like ftp, encryption methods, even email also from a web page but in ASP such attributes are not obtainable and for this reason only some more features are required which are not free that increase the total cost as well.
Larger Applications Support
PHP is just as protected as ASP from coding level. The main difference is only for private data like “social security numbers”; “PIN numbers” etc. ASP is more practicable option. Organizations like government firms normally don’t have much stipulated commercial budgets and looking for required security, they really helpful ASP.net.
At the end, we can make a conclusion that both programming languages have their advantages and disadvantages specific to user requirement. It can be said that both the programming languages have their own significance depending upon the user's requirements and budgets. It is viewed that in any discussion board, ASP.net is similarly capable but many of them suggesting PHP for small business owners those who have a fixed budget and does not required superb security support. PHP cannot provide e-commerce application development, only for them ASP.net will be the best choice.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
How Enterprise Content Management Systems Store and Preserve Content
The term "storage" means temporary storage while the term "preservation" means long-term storage. Both may use the same kinds of media to store the content, though long-term storage often uses read-only media.
In addition to repositories, the "storage" component includes library services and storage technologies. Library services provide access to the content in the repositories, and storage technologies determine the kind of media used.
What Are Repositories?
Repositories are simply places where data are stored. These could be scaled to different levels, as indicated below.
"File systems" are temporary in nature, and include caches for input and output.
"Content Management Systems" use databases or other specialized storage systems as the current "operating" repository.
"Databases" help administer the stored content, in addition to storing it. Querying and access-control facilities, for example, are provided by the databases.
"Data Warehouses" are complex systems based on databases, and store all kinds of content.
Library Services
Library services manage access to the data stored in online (allowing direct access to data) or offline (data are on a medium that has been removed from the system) storage media.
Library services also maintain an audit trail providing logs of content accesses and edits.
Storage Technologies
Magnetic hard drives organized as RAID, SAN, and NAS devices provide online access to content.
Magnetic tapes are used more for backing up and storing content offline, to provide for restoration in case online content is damaged or lost.
Compact discs, DVDs and other removable media are used both for storage and distribution of content.
Preservation of Content
Preservation involves safe storage of content for a longer term. In addition to storage media, this component can also involve conversion and migration tools, and special viewers.
WORM - Write Once Read Many - is a technology used with long-term storage media. There are WORM optical disks, tapes, and hard disks. These media are protected against overwriting, erasure, and editing either through hardware (CD-R) or special software.
In addition to electronic media, microfilm is still a viable option for such long-term storage of content that is not subject to further change. Microfilm and paper are still used for long-term storage of unchanging content, and paper has the advantage that it can be read without any special aids.
To be effective, the preservation component of Enterprise Content Management must be planned in advance, and migration of content to the long-term storage must be done regularly.
Standards must be decided upon for interfaces, metadata, data structures, and object formats to ensure safe migration and continued readability of the migrated content. Migration schedules must be developed and adhered to.
In the course of migrating current content to long-term media, content that is no more needed for any purpose can be deleted. Clear criteria and procedures must be in place to identify the content that can be deleted. Otherwise, needed content might also be deleted.
Conclusion
While "storage" means keeping content in current repositories, along with "library services" to access it conveniently, "preservation" involves migrating it to longer-term, possibly read-only, media.
Proper strategies must be developed and appropriate technologies must be used to ensure that storage and preservation are done easily and conveniently, and meet intended purposes.
In addition to repositories, the "storage" component includes library services and storage technologies. Library services provide access to the content in the repositories, and storage technologies determine the kind of media used.
What Are Repositories?
Repositories are simply places where data are stored. These could be scaled to different levels, as indicated below.
"File systems" are temporary in nature, and include caches for input and output.
"Content Management Systems" use databases or other specialized storage systems as the current "operating" repository.
"Databases" help administer the stored content, in addition to storing it. Querying and access-control facilities, for example, are provided by the databases.
"Data Warehouses" are complex systems based on databases, and store all kinds of content.
Library Services
Library services manage access to the data stored in online (allowing direct access to data) or offline (data are on a medium that has been removed from the system) storage media.
Library services also maintain an audit trail providing logs of content accesses and edits.
Storage Technologies
Magnetic hard drives organized as RAID, SAN, and NAS devices provide online access to content.
Magnetic tapes are used more for backing up and storing content offline, to provide for restoration in case online content is damaged or lost.
Compact discs, DVDs and other removable media are used both for storage and distribution of content.
Preservation of Content
Preservation involves safe storage of content for a longer term. In addition to storage media, this component can also involve conversion and migration tools, and special viewers.
WORM - Write Once Read Many - is a technology used with long-term storage media. There are WORM optical disks, tapes, and hard disks. These media are protected against overwriting, erasure, and editing either through hardware (CD-R) or special software.
In addition to electronic media, microfilm is still a viable option for such long-term storage of content that is not subject to further change. Microfilm and paper are still used for long-term storage of unchanging content, and paper has the advantage that it can be read without any special aids.
To be effective, the preservation component of Enterprise Content Management must be planned in advance, and migration of content to the long-term storage must be done regularly.
Standards must be decided upon for interfaces, metadata, data structures, and object formats to ensure safe migration and continued readability of the migrated content. Migration schedules must be developed and adhered to.
In the course of migrating current content to long-term media, content that is no more needed for any purpose can be deleted. Clear criteria and procedures must be in place to identify the content that can be deleted. Otherwise, needed content might also be deleted.
Conclusion
While "storage" means keeping content in current repositories, along with "library services" to access it conveniently, "preservation" involves migrating it to longer-term, possibly read-only, media.
Proper strategies must be developed and appropriate technologies must be used to ensure that storage and preservation are done easily and conveniently, and meet intended purposes.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
An Introduction to Document Management
Nearly every business, organisation, company, charity, government department etc. rely on their documents to store data and keep information readily available. Organisations can create hundreds of thousands, even millions of documents every year, all of which has to be filed, stored, indexed, accessible and protected. It is becoming an increasingly large and arduous task for many if not most companies.
This paper trail mountain has also led to serious environmental concerns as well as cost concerns from storing and using all this paper. So with the advent of scanners, ocr and cheaper computer storage, it is only logical that organisations would look to start storing this information electronically.
Document management software, or ‘paperless office’ technology, replaces paper-based processes with electronic procedures, eliminating the printing, posting and manual filing of paper documents. There are standalone document management systems available as well as systems which tightly integrate into organisations’ business accounting software and ERP systems. With tightly integrated document management systems, directly from a company’s business accounting software/ERP system and with just a few clicks of the mouse, business documents, such as invoices and statements, are automatically created, delivered, archived and retrieved.
Document management not only cuts paper, making good environmental sense, it also makes good business sense, forming a convincing proposition for any type of organisation. Some of the key benefits include improved cash flow, cost and time savings and enhanced customer service. The secure storage of documents in an electronic archive also means that invoices, statements and debtor’s letters etc. cannot be lost or misfiled and can be accessed at a moments notice anywhere in the world
This paper trail mountain has also led to serious environmental concerns as well as cost concerns from storing and using all this paper. So with the advent of scanners, ocr and cheaper computer storage, it is only logical that organisations would look to start storing this information electronically.
Document management software, or ‘paperless office’ technology, replaces paper-based processes with electronic procedures, eliminating the printing, posting and manual filing of paper documents. There are standalone document management systems available as well as systems which tightly integrate into organisations’ business accounting software and ERP systems. With tightly integrated document management systems, directly from a company’s business accounting software/ERP system and with just a few clicks of the mouse, business documents, such as invoices and statements, are automatically created, delivered, archived and retrieved.
Document management not only cuts paper, making good environmental sense, it also makes good business sense, forming a convincing proposition for any type of organisation. Some of the key benefits include improved cash flow, cost and time savings and enhanced customer service. The secure storage of documents in an electronic archive also means that invoices, statements and debtor’s letters etc. cannot be lost or misfiled and can be accessed at a moments notice anywhere in the world
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Search Engine Optimization Google Style
While search engine giant Google has only been a player as one of the major search engines for less than a decade, it has become a goal of most webmasters to make sure that their pages are search engine optimization Google friendly, so that they can achieve the best Google ranking possible and potentially attract an avalanche of traffic.
Google now holds first place among all the major search engines, which means a lot to people who are making their livings online. Increasing numbers of marketers play by the rules of Google search engine optimization; those who do not are liable to loose significant business.
Google's success lies in how the founders created and refined the technology behind the Google search engine, because it understands what surfers are looking for and delivers better search results than competitors.
There is no doubt that their master plan worked out and at this point Google searches account for more than 60% of all the searches done online, which means that the other major search engines have to share the other 40% of searches between them. These numbers have certainly given Google the power to influence the search engine industry and has given webmasters motivation to be sure to make Google search engine optimization style a top priority.
Google primarily uses "spiders" to catalog the web, and the results are shown to the surfer. Google spiders give positive attention to quality inbound linking and content.
Pertinent links that direct users from relevant webpages to your site are important to maximize Google search results of your site. The weight of the links will vary depending on quality of the sites you're linking to, the use of text links instead of banner ads, the quality of the text on the page where your link is, and the page rank of those sites.
Using an advanced algorithm, Google checks your web pages for good quality content and easy readability, as opposed to nonsense composed of nothing but keywords without complete sentences. Google's style is to have quality content, while delivering value to a customer using a search engine.
It is no longer true that your meta description, title, and keywords are the primary factors in your Google rankings. These things are helpful, but you should utilize your time by building up good content as well as quality links.
Google employs a technology call Page Rank which measures the overall importance of a site. This rank is a result of an very complex equation that draws in information for over 500 million variables. A portion of this analysis takes into consideration the quality of the links both to a page and from it and assigning it a value. Thus making the search engine optimization Google uses to rate your web site extremely complex and hard to fool. But as in most search optimization efforts, quality content and sound optimization techniques will make your site more relevant and ultimately achieve higher rankings
Google now holds first place among all the major search engines, which means a lot to people who are making their livings online. Increasing numbers of marketers play by the rules of Google search engine optimization; those who do not are liable to loose significant business.
Google's success lies in how the founders created and refined the technology behind the Google search engine, because it understands what surfers are looking for and delivers better search results than competitors.
There is no doubt that their master plan worked out and at this point Google searches account for more than 60% of all the searches done online, which means that the other major search engines have to share the other 40% of searches between them. These numbers have certainly given Google the power to influence the search engine industry and has given webmasters motivation to be sure to make Google search engine optimization style a top priority.
Google primarily uses "spiders" to catalog the web, and the results are shown to the surfer. Google spiders give positive attention to quality inbound linking and content.
Pertinent links that direct users from relevant webpages to your site are important to maximize Google search results of your site. The weight of the links will vary depending on quality of the sites you're linking to, the use of text links instead of banner ads, the quality of the text on the page where your link is, and the page rank of those sites.
Using an advanced algorithm, Google checks your web pages for good quality content and easy readability, as opposed to nonsense composed of nothing but keywords without complete sentences. Google's style is to have quality content, while delivering value to a customer using a search engine.
It is no longer true that your meta description, title, and keywords are the primary factors in your Google rankings. These things are helpful, but you should utilize your time by building up good content as well as quality links.
Google employs a technology call Page Rank which measures the overall importance of a site. This rank is a result of an very complex equation that draws in information for over 500 million variables. A portion of this analysis takes into consideration the quality of the links both to a page and from it and assigning it a value. Thus making the search engine optimization Google uses to rate your web site extremely complex and hard to fool. But as in most search optimization efforts, quality content and sound optimization techniques will make your site more relevant and ultimately achieve higher rankings
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
E-mail Marketing - The Best Way Of Marketing Through Internet
E-mail marketing is the priority 1 tool opted by internet marketers. Email marketing campaigning software allows you to profit maximum from a well made email marketing strategy. E-mails are sent with the purpose of enhancing the relationship between a merchant and respective customers. In order to promote something immediately, emails marketing is resorted to. Companies add advertisements to their customers in emails.
There are many advantages in email marketing. First of all, it is relatively low cost. Autoresponder lists enable the distribution of mails to practically all potential customers. A high return on investment is thus possible. However, email marketing is only second to search marketing.
Emails are instant, and allow the advertiser to impose messages. Easy tracking can be done through web bugs, bounce messages etc. Advertisers promote successful businesses affordably and automatically. Easy and quick results are possible with email marketing.
There is a flip side to email marketing as well. There are companies that send spam. Illegal email marketing antedates proper email marketing. Most of spams claim to be legitimate operators, and this often confuses customers.
Bulk emails can be handled with email marketing software. Certain software programs do not require any initial investment at all. Email marketing software packages must contain templates, tracking systems, and mail listing. It should be able to handle both text and HTML messages. Read messages should be automatically marked.
For a better marketing campaign, a measurable goal is unavoidable. The non-responders should be traced. Create new messages with different style and theme for the non-responders. Make sure to re-confirm email addresses. Automating processes like subscriptions, monthly newsletters will optimize the email marketing.
Email marketing is a crucial aspect of profitable internet marketing strategy. Email campaigning is to be tracked and monitored. Enhance the subject line to attract readers. Track the responders that click the messages. Low ratio of clicks determines less quality in the messages. Email marketing software manages an alphabetical email list and promotes easy message list management. The email management software will enable the internet marketer to broadcast instant messages, for which message templates are to be designed well in time. Extra data must be put in custom fields that generate advanced features automatically. Line tracking is also to be activated for various links.
Relationship building is the underlying concept of sending emails. Other than marketing software and internet connections, there are no other substantial costs, making it a fairly inexpensive proposition. Email marketing software also benefits online working, as it allows you to pre-schedule the time and date of the mails. The mails would then be sent automatically. Comply all spam regulations and the rules of web host. Use reliable and reputed email management software. Constant contact email management system is also enabled through email marketing. This can be done by driving traffic to the sales pages.
Right implementation of internet tools promotes a rewarding business. Internet marketing strategies help in building it up. It generates leads for an online business. Such internet marketing strategies along with internet marketing software can make an internet business more fruitful.
There are many advantages in email marketing. First of all, it is relatively low cost. Autoresponder lists enable the distribution of mails to practically all potential customers. A high return on investment is thus possible. However, email marketing is only second to search marketing.
Emails are instant, and allow the advertiser to impose messages. Easy tracking can be done through web bugs, bounce messages etc. Advertisers promote successful businesses affordably and automatically. Easy and quick results are possible with email marketing.
There is a flip side to email marketing as well. There are companies that send spam. Illegal email marketing antedates proper email marketing. Most of spams claim to be legitimate operators, and this often confuses customers.
Bulk emails can be handled with email marketing software. Certain software programs do not require any initial investment at all. Email marketing software packages must contain templates, tracking systems, and mail listing. It should be able to handle both text and HTML messages. Read messages should be automatically marked.
For a better marketing campaign, a measurable goal is unavoidable. The non-responders should be traced. Create new messages with different style and theme for the non-responders. Make sure to re-confirm email addresses. Automating processes like subscriptions, monthly newsletters will optimize the email marketing.
Email marketing is a crucial aspect of profitable internet marketing strategy. Email campaigning is to be tracked and monitored. Enhance the subject line to attract readers. Track the responders that click the messages. Low ratio of clicks determines less quality in the messages. Email marketing software manages an alphabetical email list and promotes easy message list management. The email management software will enable the internet marketer to broadcast instant messages, for which message templates are to be designed well in time. Extra data must be put in custom fields that generate advanced features automatically. Line tracking is also to be activated for various links.
Relationship building is the underlying concept of sending emails. Other than marketing software and internet connections, there are no other substantial costs, making it a fairly inexpensive proposition. Email marketing software also benefits online working, as it allows you to pre-schedule the time and date of the mails. The mails would then be sent automatically. Comply all spam regulations and the rules of web host. Use reliable and reputed email management software. Constant contact email management system is also enabled through email marketing. This can be done by driving traffic to the sales pages.
Right implementation of internet tools promotes a rewarding business. Internet marketing strategies help in building it up. It generates leads for an online business. Such internet marketing strategies along with internet marketing software can make an internet business more fruitful.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Search Engine Optimising For Long Tail Search Results
The ultimate goal when search engine optimizing a website within a competitive market is to reach position 1 in the rankings for the most relevant popular search term. Whilst nothing is impossible, sometimes this goal may be unachievable with the given resources or may be more realistic as a long term goal. This is where long tail search terms become a useful way to provide a quick return and generate traffic to your website.
Let us take a website that sells football kits as an example. Now the obvious search terms and keywords that we would like to target during the optimization of the website are "football", "kits" and, of course, "football kits". So here we would be targeting really competitive search terms which, unless we manage to rank within the top 10 search engine results, are unlikely to provide any return.
The quickest way around this is to target long tails search terms, so for the above example we may look to include an extra keyword so that we target search terms such as "cheap football kits" or "new football kits". This is the beginning of the long tail. If the website sells Liverpool kits then we can start to look at terms such as "Liverpool football kit", "Liverpool home kit", "Liverpool away shirt" and even "new Liverpool home socks 07/08". Then you could also target player names like "Steven Gerrard home shirt".
So as you can see we now have a selection of search terms that we can target and use to help attract possible customers visit the website.
How do you Target Long Tail Search Results?
Sticking with the football kits example, for every kit sold on the website you would look to have an individual page which we could use to target the long tail search terms. A classic online store structure usually consists of something similar to the following format:
Home ->Categories -> Sub-Categories -> Product Pages
Now the home page could target general terms such as "football kits" and "cheap football kits" then the categories may be made up of the individual leagues and would be optimized for a search term such as "English Premiership football kits" or "Scottish Premier League football shirts", plus at the categories level you may have sections targeting the terms "new football kits" and "football kit sale". Then your sub-categories are likely to be the teams within each league which is when you target search terms such as "Liverpool football kit" or "Man United football kits". And finally each product should have its own landing page targeted for related search terms, so for example "Liverpool home shirt 07/08" or "Tottenham Hotspur 125 years home shirt". These terms are now really long tail and really targeted.
What are the Benefits of Optimizing for Long Tail?
Even though these long tail search terms may individually bring you little traffic, collectively they can provide a surge of new visitors who otherwise may never have found your website.
Taking the online store model above, lets say you have (obviously) 1 home page, 10 category pages, 20 sub-category pages within each category and then 100 product pages within each sub-category. That gives you 20,001 web pages which you can use to target individual long tail search terms. If each of those pages could bring you 1 visitor per day then you are quids in!
Long tail search terms tend to be a lot less competitive so it is easier to quickly find your website ranking within the money positions in search engines.
Long tails search terms also have the advantage of bringing customers to your website who already have a good idea of what it is they want to buy. For example, if someone typed in a search for "football kits" then they are more likely to be in a browsing mindset, not quite sure what they are looking for and possibly even looking for something your website does not offer like say American football kits. But if they type in the exact name of the product and land on your website's page which is targeted specifically towards it, then the chance is that they are ready to buy and are just shopping around for the best price. If that's your website then you have a sale.
Summary
Optimizing your website just for a few competitive search terms can be a risky business. If it works it can reap rewards but very quickly you can find your website has dropped in rankings and is no longer receiving the traffic. You should support these competitive search terms with long tail search terms to help increase the availability of your website within search engine results. By doing this you may soon find that the majority of your visitors are finding your website through the long tail search terms.
Ps. Hopefully you found this blog post by visiting Google and typing in something like "long tail search engine optimizing" ;)
Let us take a website that sells football kits as an example. Now the obvious search terms and keywords that we would like to target during the optimization of the website are "football", "kits" and, of course, "football kits". So here we would be targeting really competitive search terms which, unless we manage to rank within the top 10 search engine results, are unlikely to provide any return.
The quickest way around this is to target long tails search terms, so for the above example we may look to include an extra keyword so that we target search terms such as "cheap football kits" or "new football kits". This is the beginning of the long tail. If the website sells Liverpool kits then we can start to look at terms such as "Liverpool football kit", "Liverpool home kit", "Liverpool away shirt" and even "new Liverpool home socks 07/08". Then you could also target player names like "Steven Gerrard home shirt".
So as you can see we now have a selection of search terms that we can target and use to help attract possible customers visit the website.
How do you Target Long Tail Search Results?
Sticking with the football kits example, for every kit sold on the website you would look to have an individual page which we could use to target the long tail search terms. A classic online store structure usually consists of something similar to the following format:
Home ->Categories -> Sub-Categories -> Product Pages
Now the home page could target general terms such as "football kits" and "cheap football kits" then the categories may be made up of the individual leagues and would be optimized for a search term such as "English Premiership football kits" or "Scottish Premier League football shirts", plus at the categories level you may have sections targeting the terms "new football kits" and "football kit sale". Then your sub-categories are likely to be the teams within each league which is when you target search terms such as "Liverpool football kit" or "Man United football kits". And finally each product should have its own landing page targeted for related search terms, so for example "Liverpool home shirt 07/08" or "Tottenham Hotspur 125 years home shirt". These terms are now really long tail and really targeted.
What are the Benefits of Optimizing for Long Tail?
Even though these long tail search terms may individually bring you little traffic, collectively they can provide a surge of new visitors who otherwise may never have found your website.
Taking the online store model above, lets say you have (obviously) 1 home page, 10 category pages, 20 sub-category pages within each category and then 100 product pages within each sub-category. That gives you 20,001 web pages which you can use to target individual long tail search terms. If each of those pages could bring you 1 visitor per day then you are quids in!
Long tail search terms tend to be a lot less competitive so it is easier to quickly find your website ranking within the money positions in search engines.
Long tails search terms also have the advantage of bringing customers to your website who already have a good idea of what it is they want to buy. For example, if someone typed in a search for "football kits" then they are more likely to be in a browsing mindset, not quite sure what they are looking for and possibly even looking for something your website does not offer like say American football kits. But if they type in the exact name of the product and land on your website's page which is targeted specifically towards it, then the chance is that they are ready to buy and are just shopping around for the best price. If that's your website then you have a sale.
Summary
Optimizing your website just for a few competitive search terms can be a risky business. If it works it can reap rewards but very quickly you can find your website has dropped in rankings and is no longer receiving the traffic. You should support these competitive search terms with long tail search terms to help increase the availability of your website within search engine results. By doing this you may soon find that the majority of your visitors are finding your website through the long tail search terms.
Ps. Hopefully you found this blog post by visiting Google and typing in something like "long tail search engine optimizing" ;)
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Website Design and Development: Get to the Virtual World
The world has changed a great deal because of the advent of the internet. No where is this more true than in the world of business, where the internet has become, in only 10 years, an indispensable tool that most companies cannot live without anymore.
Nearly every company in existence has a website, and nearly every company needs someone to make that website.
This is where IMC Sites comes in. Operating out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, IMC Sites offers website design and website development to its customers through their expert staff. If your company is in need of custom website design and website development, then you need to contact IMC Media Group today, through their website at IMCSites.com.
Too many websites on the internet are designed by those who have no training in creating an effective design. New software tools allow anyone who wants to, the ability to create a website. However, there is much more to website design and web development than putting a few words on a webpage. In fact, there are many things to consider, including how people will look at your page, what to use for SEO keywords, and how to advertise the site on the internet.
Studies show that surfers will only look at a website for a few seconds before moving on. In those few seconds, you need to be able to entice the individual to go into your virtual business and check out what you offer. Having an effective website can do this.
IMC Media Group will be able to create custom website designs and developments that will not only impress you, but your potential customers as well. We are skilled in web design and we want to put that skill to work for you to help you make your company a large virtual presence on the internet.
Having designed custom websites for industries as diverse as pharmacy and racing to psychic and real estate, we have what it takes to get people staying at your website for longer than a few seconds.
However, the services on IMCSites.com go well beyond making the website, they also go into marketing it and getting it known to the people who surf the net. What is the point of designing a website if no one will see it? This is why IMCSites.com work to advertise your company through expert Search Engine Optimization that will ensure your company ranks high on Google when someone searches for keywords relating to your business.
Custom Web Design
Nearly every company in existence has a website, and nearly every company needs someone to make that website.
This is where IMC Sites comes in. Operating out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, IMC Sites offers website design and website development to its customers through their expert staff. If your company is in need of custom website design and website development, then you need to contact IMC Media Group today, through their website at IMCSites.com.
Too many websites on the internet are designed by those who have no training in creating an effective design. New software tools allow anyone who wants to, the ability to create a website. However, there is much more to website design and web development than putting a few words on a webpage. In fact, there are many things to consider, including how people will look at your page, what to use for SEO keywords, and how to advertise the site on the internet.
Studies show that surfers will only look at a website for a few seconds before moving on. In those few seconds, you need to be able to entice the individual to go into your virtual business and check out what you offer. Having an effective website can do this.
IMC Media Group will be able to create custom website designs and developments that will not only impress you, but your potential customers as well. We are skilled in web design and we want to put that skill to work for you to help you make your company a large virtual presence on the internet.
Having designed custom websites for industries as diverse as pharmacy and racing to psychic and real estate, we have what it takes to get people staying at your website for longer than a few seconds.
However, the services on IMCSites.com go well beyond making the website, they also go into marketing it and getting it known to the people who surf the net. What is the point of designing a website if no one will see it? This is why IMCSites.com work to advertise your company through expert Search Engine Optimization that will ensure your company ranks high on Google when someone searches for keywords relating to your business.
Custom Web Design
Thursday, February 14, 2008
5 Reasons Why Accessibility Is Good For SEO
1) Validation of HTML
When creating an accessible website it is essential that you use valid HTML to allow all web browsing software the best chance to correctly read and display/output your website pages.
The SEO advantage of this is that the same rules apply to search engine robots that visit and spider your website as part of the process of adding your site to their listings. If the robot is unable to correctly read the HTML then this may result in it hitting a dead end and will prevent it from listing the full web page correctly and may also prevent further pages within your website from being found by the search engine.
2) Correct Structuring of HTML
As with all programming and markup languages, there are correct and incorrect ways to structure a document. For optimal output, HTML provides tags that each have their own purpose. Some examples are: title, h1, h2, strong, em alt=, title=. For accessibility these tags should completed and used correctly to help provide users with easy to read structured information.
Search engines uses these tags to help weigh how relevant your web page is for certain search terms. So by correctly including your targeted search terms within these tags you can help your web page rank for these specific terms better than they would without using the tags.
3) Descriptive Titles and Links
To help users quickly determine the subject of a web page it is important to include relevant terms within the title of the page. It is also necessary to include relevant link descriptions for screen readers. So rather than having a link that would read "Click Here" you would use a descriptive link such as "Blue Widgets".
To tell a search engines the subject of each of your web pages it is important to include relevant search terms within in the individual page titles. By using descriptive search terms in links you help pass relevancy to the targeted page for that search term and this also helps describe to search engine what each linked web page is about. This becomes even more important when you ask other websites to link to your website as this will count as a "vote" within the search engines for your website for the search term within the anchor text.
4) Lowers Bounce Rates
The purpose of accessibility is to allow as many users as possible to correctly view and use your website without hitting barriers that prevent them from accessing information. This includes people with disabilities or temporary injuries (eg. a broken arm) and can also help people with lower spec computers or poor Internet connections.
Whether the purpose of your website is to provide a service, sell products or simply offer a source of information, then the more users who are able to use your website without hitting barriers the more chance the website will have of being successful. If users have a positive experience they will stay and use your website for longer, this can also increase the traffic to your site through word of mouth referrals.
5) Reduces Code to Content Ratio
In the early days of creating websites using HTML, tables tended to be used to structure a web page design. This causes problems for accessibility mainly due to certain screen readers outputting the information in a linear fashion rather than column by column.
Tabled structured web page designs tend to be bulky and require a lot more HTML coding than is necessary. Through using CSS to correctly style you web page design you can reduce the total HTML code whilst also keeping the exact look and feel that you want. This prevents the actual content of your website from being diluted by code and will help search engine more efficiently detect what search terms you web page is relevant to. Another advantage is that with less code the page will load quicker in a web browser making your website a better experience for users.
When creating an accessible website it is essential that you use valid HTML to allow all web browsing software the best chance to correctly read and display/output your website pages.
The SEO advantage of this is that the same rules apply to search engine robots that visit and spider your website as part of the process of adding your site to their listings. If the robot is unable to correctly read the HTML then this may result in it hitting a dead end and will prevent it from listing the full web page correctly and may also prevent further pages within your website from being found by the search engine.
2) Correct Structuring of HTML
As with all programming and markup languages, there are correct and incorrect ways to structure a document. For optimal output, HTML provides tags that each have their own purpose. Some examples are: title, h1, h2, strong, em alt=, title=. For accessibility these tags should completed and used correctly to help provide users with easy to read structured information.
Search engines uses these tags to help weigh how relevant your web page is for certain search terms. So by correctly including your targeted search terms within these tags you can help your web page rank for these specific terms better than they would without using the tags.
3) Descriptive Titles and Links
To help users quickly determine the subject of a web page it is important to include relevant terms within the title of the page. It is also necessary to include relevant link descriptions for screen readers. So rather than having a link that would read "Click Here" you would use a descriptive link such as "Blue Widgets".
To tell a search engines the subject of each of your web pages it is important to include relevant search terms within in the individual page titles. By using descriptive search terms in links you help pass relevancy to the targeted page for that search term and this also helps describe to search engine what each linked web page is about. This becomes even more important when you ask other websites to link to your website as this will count as a "vote" within the search engines for your website for the search term within the anchor text.
4) Lowers Bounce Rates
The purpose of accessibility is to allow as many users as possible to correctly view and use your website without hitting barriers that prevent them from accessing information. This includes people with disabilities or temporary injuries (eg. a broken arm) and can also help people with lower spec computers or poor Internet connections.
Whether the purpose of your website is to provide a service, sell products or simply offer a source of information, then the more users who are able to use your website without hitting barriers the more chance the website will have of being successful. If users have a positive experience they will stay and use your website for longer, this can also increase the traffic to your site through word of mouth referrals.
5) Reduces Code to Content Ratio
In the early days of creating websites using HTML, tables tended to be used to structure a web page design. This causes problems for accessibility mainly due to certain screen readers outputting the information in a linear fashion rather than column by column.
Tabled structured web page designs tend to be bulky and require a lot more HTML coding than is necessary. Through using CSS to correctly style you web page design you can reduce the total HTML code whilst also keeping the exact look and feel that you want. This prevents the actual content of your website from being diluted by code and will help search engine more efficiently detect what search terms you web page is relevant to. Another advantage is that with less code the page will load quicker in a web browser making your website a better experience for users.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Make Money Online With Website Designing
As the years passed by, website designing, its definition and its presentation all have substantial changed. There are several new software like flash, 3D and Photoshop that had been developed and new technologies, such as broadband, to stay as a backup of these software are emerged. In contrast, people have altered the way of screening online information. So the life of the website designing brings along with it a hope of contact with content data and present web designs are all become an element of web designer’s work. Anyhow the basics principles of any website design are yet remain the same. Further it is usual; a website has to be easy to use and should have the capability to keep a viewer to remain enthusiastic to your website as long as necessary. On the other hand, a website designing could be favor you more than your pastime and interest.
There are few best approaches that one could accept if looking to make money online by websites. You can preferably focus on a few websites that could get you reasonable income or one solitary website, which can act as your "bread and butter". Actually, whichever technique you choose it certain to make money. For a novice that trying to make money online by website designing can also be a little irresistible, however if in progress and stay focused then no one can stop your cash flow. So one of the most excellent examples, which could be given is to get started your own auction website design.
When it comes to auction website design, the initial thing could come to anybody’s mind is the auction site called eBay. But why do people admire eBay? The answer is actually simple, it is because of the profession website designed and easy to use and it does not require a rocket scientist to navigate the pages. Today, eBay auction website stands out of other websites and stay the most reliable internet resource for getting what you desire. So here the final point is to come up with your own auction website design like how eBay did and permit users to purchase and sell products through your site. You have to be a foundation for what people wish to purchase and sell.
There are few best approaches that one could accept if looking to make money online by websites. You can preferably focus on a few websites that could get you reasonable income or one solitary website, which can act as your "bread and butter". Actually, whichever technique you choose it certain to make money. For a novice that trying to make money online by website designing can also be a little irresistible, however if in progress and stay focused then no one can stop your cash flow. So one of the most excellent examples, which could be given is to get started your own auction website design.
When it comes to auction website design, the initial thing could come to anybody’s mind is the auction site called eBay. But why do people admire eBay? The answer is actually simple, it is because of the profession website designed and easy to use and it does not require a rocket scientist to navigate the pages. Today, eBay auction website stands out of other websites and stay the most reliable internet resource for getting what you desire. So here the final point is to come up with your own auction website design like how eBay did and permit users to purchase and sell products through your site. You have to be a foundation for what people wish to purchase and sell.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The Concept of Real Estate Software
The real estate market has seen the tremendous changes in couple of the years. Now, the meaning has expended beyond mere acquiring property for residential or commercial use. In fact, the market has become one of the profitable and potential for earning incomes like never before. Everyday, billions of transactions are taking place allowing people to purchase, sell or lease of property in a much broader context. Above all, to get the maximum benefit of the ongoing market, you can consult various real estate experts known as “realtors.” Banks and other financial institutions have also helped in extending this concept further by financing the purchase. Due to increasing interest and the amount of money involved, real estate is the fasted booming market, creating opportunities for many to make their lifetime deal.
Due to extensive growth and increasing specialty, the real estate market has adopted newer methods to reach to larger customer base and property providers. It further provides an opportunity for realtors who want to acquire great customers. Therefore, customized real estate website design is required to serve the purpose.
For making a good and informative web site, you can use real estate software to present your offering over the web. The software gives you automatic updates and reminders. You can also manage your reports and offering well through these software. If you want to frame and maintain the property lenders’ and mortgage brokers’ listings, the software can be really helpful. Above all, any changes can be successfully done on available real estate. Information categorized according to size and affordability can be seen very easily.
To match the changing needs, real estate software can be used for serving other purposes as well. You can also do real estate marketing, sales and follow-up with some specific software. Some software can be used to fill presentation applications which allow real estate agents to match properties as per the clients’ desires.
Real estate software can also manage a company’s office and administrative package to handle the real estate management easily. You can put an alarm for scheduled meetings and reminders for sales closure.
Above all, real estate software is quite easy to use and implement in your current working system. It manages things well and you can get better results with these softwares.
Due to extensive growth and increasing specialty, the real estate market has adopted newer methods to reach to larger customer base and property providers. It further provides an opportunity for realtors who want to acquire great customers. Therefore, customized real estate website design is required to serve the purpose.
For making a good and informative web site, you can use real estate software to present your offering over the web. The software gives you automatic updates and reminders. You can also manage your reports and offering well through these software. If you want to frame and maintain the property lenders’ and mortgage brokers’ listings, the software can be really helpful. Above all, any changes can be successfully done on available real estate. Information categorized according to size and affordability can be seen very easily.
To match the changing needs, real estate software can be used for serving other purposes as well. You can also do real estate marketing, sales and follow-up with some specific software. Some software can be used to fill presentation applications which allow real estate agents to match properties as per the clients’ desires.
Real estate software can also manage a company’s office and administrative package to handle the real estate management easily. You can put an alarm for scheduled meetings and reminders for sales closure.
Above all, real estate software is quite easy to use and implement in your current working system. It manages things well and you can get better results with these softwares.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Web 2.0 - Trend in Web Design and Development
With the advent of web 2.0, websites and e-commerce business has got new dimensions in the world of internet. It has advantages of increasing user interactivity over web 1.0 which was a traditional way of web site designing.
Web 2.0 features added to the websites are a need for success of business on the internet.
Tim Berners Lee, head of W3C Consortium and inventor of World Wide Web also announced web 2.0 a main contributor in the internet revolution.
What is web 2.0?
It is a revolution in the world of website design, development and can be assumed as another form of web based communities like social networking sites, communities, forums and many more hosted services that aim to encourage creativity, user interactivity and sharing of views and information between users.
Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates) and a supporter of the free software and open source movements, it can be defined as:
"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."
Benefits over Web 1.0
In contrary to web 1.0, web 2.0 is an advanced form of World Wide Web. Its technologies such as web blogs, forums, social networking sites, wikipedias, RSS feed, podcasts facilitates user interaction in contrast with the read only websites built with web 1.0.
It provides participative platform to the user by which user not only can retrieve information from the website, but also can modify and add the data on the website.
In short, if we summarize the main difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0, then we can conclude that:
Web 1.0 was about reading, client server, HTML, wires, Netscape, web forms, home pages, portals, companies, hardware costs, dial up and owning while on the contrary Web 2.0 is about writing, peer to peer, XML, wireless, Google, Web applications, blogs, RSS, communities, bandwidth costs, broadband and sharing.
Inventions with Web 2.0
It may be regarded as syndication of web site content into web feeds. Web feeds are basically a syndicated feed that includes frequently updated content and allow users to subscribe the feeds. Web feeds are also a web 2.0 feature as it permits the user to manage the site's data in another context.
With the use of Ajax, implementation of its features has become much easier. Updating site's data by the user and implementation of it without the need of refreshing the website is one of the functionality of Ajax.
Is Web 3.0 has also come into existence?
Web 3.0 can be defined as the future of World Wide Web and will soon capture the internet market as a whole.
According to Tim Berner Lee, the inventor of World Wide Web:
"People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you have got an overlay of scalable vector graphics - everything rippling and folding and looking misty - on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you'll have access to an unbelievable data resource."
Web 3.0 has been used in some multi national companies at a small scale and will get popularize by the end of 2010. Experts are amusing that it will bring a number of innovations in the internet world of tomorrow.
Web 2.0 features added to the websites are a need for success of business on the internet.
Tim Berners Lee, head of W3C Consortium and inventor of World Wide Web also announced web 2.0 a main contributor in the internet revolution.
What is web 2.0?
It is a revolution in the world of website design, development and can be assumed as another form of web based communities like social networking sites, communities, forums and many more hosted services that aim to encourage creativity, user interactivity and sharing of views and information between users.
Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates) and a supporter of the free software and open source movements, it can be defined as:
"Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."
Benefits over Web 1.0
In contrary to web 1.0, web 2.0 is an advanced form of World Wide Web. Its technologies such as web blogs, forums, social networking sites, wikipedias, RSS feed, podcasts facilitates user interaction in contrast with the read only websites built with web 1.0.
It provides participative platform to the user by which user not only can retrieve information from the website, but also can modify and add the data on the website.
In short, if we summarize the main difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0, then we can conclude that:
Web 1.0 was about reading, client server, HTML, wires, Netscape, web forms, home pages, portals, companies, hardware costs, dial up and owning while on the contrary Web 2.0 is about writing, peer to peer, XML, wireless, Google, Web applications, blogs, RSS, communities, bandwidth costs, broadband and sharing.
Inventions with Web 2.0
It may be regarded as syndication of web site content into web feeds. Web feeds are basically a syndicated feed that includes frequently updated content and allow users to subscribe the feeds. Web feeds are also a web 2.0 feature as it permits the user to manage the site's data in another context.
With the use of Ajax, implementation of its features has become much easier. Updating site's data by the user and implementation of it without the need of refreshing the website is one of the functionality of Ajax.
Is Web 3.0 has also come into existence?
Web 3.0 can be defined as the future of World Wide Web and will soon capture the internet market as a whole.
According to Tim Berner Lee, the inventor of World Wide Web:
"People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you have got an overlay of scalable vector graphics - everything rippling and folding and looking misty - on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you'll have access to an unbelievable data resource."
Web 3.0 has been used in some multi national companies at a small scale and will get popularize by the end of 2010. Experts are amusing that it will bring a number of innovations in the internet world of tomorrow.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Using the Ecommerce Web Design
The importance of ecommerce is growing on a constant basis; therefore, the best thing for you is to go and browse the internet in order to find the ecommerce website design that is going to enhance your business opportunities. This design is to be searched for in order to make sure you stay up to dated with everything that is going on in the ecommerce.
Business are moving straight ahead and they are doing this in a very fast manner; therefore, if you want your own business to become successful, you will have to own your own website that will advertise it in the proper manner. The entire world is technologically driven and you must be perfectly aware of this aspect in order to choose the appropriate ecommerce web design that will help you in your business.
The web development has come along with visible features that are designed in order to advertise the ecommerce; therefore, it is quite essential for you to try and develop the web design that will help you in the future to come. The interactive and dynamic ecommerce website design is to be found; the site you are going to choose must be rich in its features; its design should be rich enough in order to temp all your potential visitors and buyers.
The perfect ecommerce website design should come with user friendly applications; for instance, you can access visionglobals.com in order to provide yourself with detailed information but you may rest assured that this site will provide you with all the dynamic features you are going to need for your website.
The site has created all the necessary and interactive features because interactivity is actually the key word when it comes to attracting people and potential customers; the consumers have to be convinced to visit your ecommerce website on a daily basis and you can actually achieve this by providing your advertisements with the best ecommerce web design. This highly effective design is to be found on visionglobals.com and it will provide you with the constant visits of your consumers.
The content of your website has to be updated on a constant basis in order to keep your potential clients and visionglobals.com can also do this for you; the detailed information has to be included on your ecommerce site in order to make sure your potential buyers decide by paying attention to the existing information.
Every potential customer has to make his/her buying decision according to the information that is available on your ecommerce site. Therefore, the design and the content should be highly appealing in order to attract even more visitors to your ecommerce site; actually, the entire success of your business is going to depend on the ecommerce site.
Therefore, the site has to be provide with easy to use features and you should not forget about the safety measures as well because the user has to feel safe when providing your site with his/her personal information. The visionglobals.com will make sure that all your products will be displayed in an attractive manner because the product and service display is highly important when developing your own business online. Multiple options should also be provided to every user and by choosing visionglobals.com you will make sure that your customers will keep on visiting and buying from your ecommerce website.
Business are moving straight ahead and they are doing this in a very fast manner; therefore, if you want your own business to become successful, you will have to own your own website that will advertise it in the proper manner. The entire world is technologically driven and you must be perfectly aware of this aspect in order to choose the appropriate ecommerce web design that will help you in your business.
The web development has come along with visible features that are designed in order to advertise the ecommerce; therefore, it is quite essential for you to try and develop the web design that will help you in the future to come. The interactive and dynamic ecommerce website design is to be found; the site you are going to choose must be rich in its features; its design should be rich enough in order to temp all your potential visitors and buyers.
The perfect ecommerce website design should come with user friendly applications; for instance, you can access visionglobals.com in order to provide yourself with detailed information but you may rest assured that this site will provide you with all the dynamic features you are going to need for your website.
The site has created all the necessary and interactive features because interactivity is actually the key word when it comes to attracting people and potential customers; the consumers have to be convinced to visit your ecommerce website on a daily basis and you can actually achieve this by providing your advertisements with the best ecommerce web design. This highly effective design is to be found on visionglobals.com and it will provide you with the constant visits of your consumers.
The content of your website has to be updated on a constant basis in order to keep your potential clients and visionglobals.com can also do this for you; the detailed information has to be included on your ecommerce site in order to make sure your potential buyers decide by paying attention to the existing information.
Every potential customer has to make his/her buying decision according to the information that is available on your ecommerce site. Therefore, the design and the content should be highly appealing in order to attract even more visitors to your ecommerce site; actually, the entire success of your business is going to depend on the ecommerce site.
Therefore, the site has to be provide with easy to use features and you should not forget about the safety measures as well because the user has to feel safe when providing your site with his/her personal information. The visionglobals.com will make sure that all your products will be displayed in an attractive manner because the product and service display is highly important when developing your own business online. Multiple options should also be provided to every user and by choosing visionglobals.com you will make sure that your customers will keep on visiting and buying from your ecommerce website.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Internet Web Site Design
When it comes to internet web site design it is very important that you pick the right person to design your site. Taking your business online is just like opening a new store for the first time. The more you put into it the more you will get out of it. Your web site is everything when it comes to the internet. If it doesn’t look professional you are losing business right from the start. People want to be able to trust and depend on you and your business or whatever it may be. Seeing bad web design is a turn off for almost all customers. Good web design is a key part of starting off on the internet.
One of the critical things you need to pay attention to is your internet web site design, especially that of the front page. This is one of the most compelling factors that affect user’s decision to navigate your site or not.
Usually, internet web site design promotion services such as custom web design, ecommerce web design, banner and logo design, and special graphic design are part of a complete web development package.
There are many steps involved if you want to design a very proper web site. If you want to have a perfect web site which suits your purpose, you need to be really careful about its design. First of all, you need to know the target market exactly. You need to know the needs of your business online. The use of web site if clear to the web designer, there are better chances of designing an effective web site. Taking all these steps will help you in designing a web site which will be helpful in expanding your business. These keys can guide you towards a successful web design.
Web site design can be done in either way you will need to decide on which way you wish to proceed asks your web designer which type of web page design would be better suited for your web site design. Choosing a website designer is a very important decision, as a good website can bring you more business and a bad one can turn customers away. Not only will they do web design, but they may even offer something a bit more suiting, like domain name registration, web hosting, and web marketing. To cover all the bases you should find an affordable web site design service that has been in business for a fair amount of time, that can provide you with references and that offers estimates on the design that you are seeking.
One of the critical things you need to pay attention to is your internet web site design, especially that of the front page. This is one of the most compelling factors that affect user’s decision to navigate your site or not.
Usually, internet web site design promotion services such as custom web design, ecommerce web design, banner and logo design, and special graphic design are part of a complete web development package.
There are many steps involved if you want to design a very proper web site. If you want to have a perfect web site which suits your purpose, you need to be really careful about its design. First of all, you need to know the target market exactly. You need to know the needs of your business online. The use of web site if clear to the web designer, there are better chances of designing an effective web site. Taking all these steps will help you in designing a web site which will be helpful in expanding your business. These keys can guide you towards a successful web design.
Web site design can be done in either way you will need to decide on which way you wish to proceed asks your web designer which type of web page design would be better suited for your web site design. Choosing a website designer is a very important decision, as a good website can bring you more business and a bad one can turn customers away. Not only will they do web design, but they may even offer something a bit more suiting, like domain name registration, web hosting, and web marketing. To cover all the bases you should find an affordable web site design service that has been in business for a fair amount of time, that can provide you with references and that offers estimates on the design that you are seeking.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Why Flash Websites Are A Bad Idea
Flash websites... you know the type. They're the ones where pages blip and fly across the screen, music blares from your PC speakers and type is so small you would need to be bit-sized to read it. These days, designers are everywhere trying to convince clients and firms alike, that Flash gives them more options and allows them to express themselves more creatively.
Well, when did a designer's creativity take precedence over plain old effectiveness? Let's take a moment to pick apart Flash websites and three major accessibility problems associated with them.
The first of our Flash site perils: User accessibility.
Let's talk Atmosphere, since that is what the designers will try and sell you on first. Like a storefront or good restaurant, atmosphere is probably the most important factor of a website. How comfortable is your site? How intuitive is it on which to find information? How easy is the text to read?
One of the most beautiful things about properly built websites, is their accessibility to the public. Properly built HTML websites are marvels of modern technology: accessible on the web, by cell phone, with speech options for the blind, and even changeable text size for the poor of vision. There are too many ways in which professional website designers make sites accessible to the broadest range of the public to go into in this article, but they allow each visitor's experience to be uniquely tailored to their own viewing needs and preferences. The best websites provide quality content in an atmosphere that entices a visitor to stay as long as possible, and promise new content to keep them coming back.
Let me ask you, how many flash websites do you visit often, or even have bookmarked in your browser? Probably not too many. Having been a professional web designer and marketing consultant for years, I can tell you with great certainty that no one stays on a flash site very long. The format is cramped. The type is small. The beeping gets old quickly, and although you may have the most exceptional tastes in music, let us presume that not everyone will share in your interests. I personally, upon visiting a site that decides to play music, leave and never return.
While Flash is great at offering lot's of options to designers, it's exceptionally poor at offering proportionate options to site visitors. Flash powered sites are inaccessible by cell phone (to date no phone that I know of can run Flash, not even an iPhone, which has one of the most sophisticated web browsers of any phone on the market). But, that's not even the worst part, Flash is also inaccessible to anyone without ActiveX plugins installed on their computer. Now, you may think that everyone must have Flash / ActiveX on their computers by now... think again. Most of people that will be viewing your business' website, will be doing so from their cubicle at work, and companies are exerting tighter and tighter controls over what their employees can see or do over the web... and that includes your Flash website. So, if your small business has some great flashy website, kiss corporate America goodbye.
Here's the second thing that you can write off about your Flash site: Search Engine Accessibility (i.e. being found on Google and the like.)
No, I'm not kidding. With a Flash website, you can count yourself out for ever attaining page one, two, or even three of a Google search, and the reason is pretty simple: Google will have no idea what your site says or is about. Search engines base their ranking on two very important criteria: how many QUALITY pages link to your site (you may still be alright there, if you have been doing your SEO publishing) and how much relevant content there is on your site for the search term in question. Now, considering that Google and all of the other search engines will not be able to read the text on your Flash site, your chances of producing relevant content results are less than favorable.
Here's the last of our Flash site perils: Administrative Accessibility
Maybe you've already run into this problem. You have a great site, but you need some changes made and you are no longer using the designer that created the site for you. You call your current designer and ask for the changes, only to have them tell you that they just can't do it, because they don't have the master file. Flash sites are notorious for this. There is a public file that is accessed from the web, this is the file that viewers see when they go to your domain and it is also the file on your hosting account. This file is protected from import or change. However, there is also a master file in which the site was created and in which all changes must be made. Flash designers guard this file with their life! They almost never post it to the hosting account and never tell the client that this file exists and is needed. For the uninformed, this can lead to thousands of dollars as the previous designer is tracked down or the site is rebuilt.
Wow that's a lot of problems! And that's only counting accessibility issues. In part 2, we'll examine how these sites affect your potential customer base and your bottom line, but that's all for now!
Well, when did a designer's creativity take precedence over plain old effectiveness? Let's take a moment to pick apart Flash websites and three major accessibility problems associated with them.
The first of our Flash site perils: User accessibility.
Let's talk Atmosphere, since that is what the designers will try and sell you on first. Like a storefront or good restaurant, atmosphere is probably the most important factor of a website. How comfortable is your site? How intuitive is it on which to find information? How easy is the text to read?
One of the most beautiful things about properly built websites, is their accessibility to the public. Properly built HTML websites are marvels of modern technology: accessible on the web, by cell phone, with speech options for the blind, and even changeable text size for the poor of vision. There are too many ways in which professional website designers make sites accessible to the broadest range of the public to go into in this article, but they allow each visitor's experience to be uniquely tailored to their own viewing needs and preferences. The best websites provide quality content in an atmosphere that entices a visitor to stay as long as possible, and promise new content to keep them coming back.
Let me ask you, how many flash websites do you visit often, or even have bookmarked in your browser? Probably not too many. Having been a professional web designer and marketing consultant for years, I can tell you with great certainty that no one stays on a flash site very long. The format is cramped. The type is small. The beeping gets old quickly, and although you may have the most exceptional tastes in music, let us presume that not everyone will share in your interests. I personally, upon visiting a site that decides to play music, leave and never return.
While Flash is great at offering lot's of options to designers, it's exceptionally poor at offering proportionate options to site visitors. Flash powered sites are inaccessible by cell phone (to date no phone that I know of can run Flash, not even an iPhone, which has one of the most sophisticated web browsers of any phone on the market). But, that's not even the worst part, Flash is also inaccessible to anyone without ActiveX plugins installed on their computer. Now, you may think that everyone must have Flash / ActiveX on their computers by now... think again. Most of people that will be viewing your business' website, will be doing so from their cubicle at work, and companies are exerting tighter and tighter controls over what their employees can see or do over the web... and that includes your Flash website. So, if your small business has some great flashy website, kiss corporate America goodbye.
Here's the second thing that you can write off about your Flash site: Search Engine Accessibility (i.e. being found on Google and the like.)
No, I'm not kidding. With a Flash website, you can count yourself out for ever attaining page one, two, or even three of a Google search, and the reason is pretty simple: Google will have no idea what your site says or is about. Search engines base their ranking on two very important criteria: how many QUALITY pages link to your site (you may still be alright there, if you have been doing your SEO publishing) and how much relevant content there is on your site for the search term in question. Now, considering that Google and all of the other search engines will not be able to read the text on your Flash site, your chances of producing relevant content results are less than favorable.
Here's the last of our Flash site perils: Administrative Accessibility
Maybe you've already run into this problem. You have a great site, but you need some changes made and you are no longer using the designer that created the site for you. You call your current designer and ask for the changes, only to have them tell you that they just can't do it, because they don't have the master file. Flash sites are notorious for this. There is a public file that is accessed from the web, this is the file that viewers see when they go to your domain and it is also the file on your hosting account. This file is protected from import or change. However, there is also a master file in which the site was created and in which all changes must be made. Flash designers guard this file with their life! They almost never post it to the hosting account and never tell the client that this file exists and is needed. For the uninformed, this can lead to thousands of dollars as the previous designer is tracked down or the site is rebuilt.
Wow that's a lot of problems! And that's only counting accessibility issues. In part 2, we'll examine how these sites affect your potential customer base and your bottom line, but that's all for now!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Your Web Site is Losing you Clients
As you are reading this article, many potential clients visit service professionals' web sites. These potential clients are ready to buy products and services. However, they look around professionals' web sites and just leave without making a purchase.
This is happening on millions of Internet web sites every single day including today. Chances are this is happening on your web site as you are reading this article. Your potential clients come to your web site and leave without buying from you.
I have reviewed thousands of web sites that belong to coaches, consultants and other service professionals. I have found many different reasons why their potential clients are leaving their web sites instead of buying. Here are some of the reasons and how to correct them:
- Make Your Web Site Easy To Use. I have visited many web sites owned by coaches, consultants and other service professionals and they are very confusing. It is difficult to ask for more information, find out more about the web site owner or request more information about a product that I may want to buy.
If the purpose of your web site is to get more service clients, make sure that your web site simple to use for your potential clients.
- Write Web Copy That Makes Your Web Site Visitors Buy. I have seen many web sites that were designed well, but their web copy was not very compelling. If your web copy is not compelling, your potential clients will go elsewhere to buy.
Make the offers on your web site more compelling by improving your web copy and buy offering a bonus gift to your visitors. For example, you can offer a free report or a free audio to everyone who subscribers to your newsletter.
- Give Your Potential Clients Very Few Choices. The best way to sell a product is to create a special page just for that product and for nothing else. You need to do this to focus your clients' attention and to convince them to buy that particular product.
Don't sell more than one product per page. Make each page on your web site sell only one service or product.
Use the above online marketing ideas to get more clients for your business!
This is happening on millions of Internet web sites every single day including today. Chances are this is happening on your web site as you are reading this article. Your potential clients come to your web site and leave without buying from you.
I have reviewed thousands of web sites that belong to coaches, consultants and other service professionals. I have found many different reasons why their potential clients are leaving their web sites instead of buying. Here are some of the reasons and how to correct them:
- Make Your Web Site Easy To Use. I have visited many web sites owned by coaches, consultants and other service professionals and they are very confusing. It is difficult to ask for more information, find out more about the web site owner or request more information about a product that I may want to buy.
If the purpose of your web site is to get more service clients, make sure that your web site simple to use for your potential clients.
- Write Web Copy That Makes Your Web Site Visitors Buy. I have seen many web sites that were designed well, but their web copy was not very compelling. If your web copy is not compelling, your potential clients will go elsewhere to buy.
Make the offers on your web site more compelling by improving your web copy and buy offering a bonus gift to your visitors. For example, you can offer a free report or a free audio to everyone who subscribers to your newsletter.
- Give Your Potential Clients Very Few Choices. The best way to sell a product is to create a special page just for that product and for nothing else. You need to do this to focus your clients' attention and to convince them to buy that particular product.
Don't sell more than one product per page. Make each page on your web site sell only one service or product.
Use the above online marketing ideas to get more clients for your business!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Web Design Tips
When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are seven important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.
1) Do not use splash pages
Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter". In fact, they are just that -- pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements
Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.
3) Have a simple and clear navigation
You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don't know how to navigate, they will leave your site.
4) Have a clear indication of where the user is
When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means "abandon ship"!
5) Avoid using audio on your site
If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they're not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it -- volume or muting controls would work fine.
1) Do not use splash pages
Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter". In fact, they are just that -- pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.
2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements
Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valueable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.
3) Have a simple and clear navigation
You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don't know how to navigate, they will leave your site.
4) Have a clear indication of where the user is
When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means "abandon ship"!
5) Avoid using audio on your site
If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they're not annoyed by some audio looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it -- volume or muting controls would work fine.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Usabilty of your Website - Best Tips
No matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.
The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.
Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.
Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn't load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.
Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.
The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.
Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.
Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn't load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.
Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.
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