Posts In Web Design & Development

Words Of Wisdom For Web Developers

hi,

I have been doing a lot of reading lately. And having shuffled through countless pages on what web gurus have to say… I have but a fair understanding of what our mentors have to say. And what intrigues me is the fact that these hints are timeless!

Here are some words of wisdom

Design with the users in mind
Website designing is about a lot of things. Too many rather… writing styles, look and feel of the site, information organization and so on and so forth.
However there is one element that defines all the other. And that is your target audience!
Understand what they seek and then go about making your designing decisions. And that again should cover
• Structure- content and organization
• Visual Presentation- personality and tone
• Interaction- functionality and behavior
The more you understand your audience, the more ably you will communicate to them!

Apply the right technology at the right time
So often I see designers using all that they know in one go! Don’t know if its for some kind of personal satisfaction, but using all the tools in the box leaves you with a hinged toe and nothing else.
Designing courses teach you a hell lot, HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, SOAP, AJAX, Flash, Perl, JavaScript and a lot more maybe. But using it all at one straight toss wont speak anything about your expertise.
Restrain and make use of the right technology at the right time!
Use what is right where it is right.

Know the importance of web usability
Usability is a requisite condition for survival in cyberspace. Patience is a rare commodity in the online marketplace. Visitors will leave at the slightest hint of problems. Information that is not readable, navigation that doesn’t work, getting lost on the site are all danger signals. Leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty.

Accessibility lies in simplicity
This comes from personal experience. If you want to reach the greatest number of users possible, the best and the most effective way is to write clearly and simply and design your interfaces to be consistent from page to page. For some people, simple usability advice like this is an absolute accessibility need.

Design for an international audience
The Web has been international in scope from its inception, but still I fail to see websites that cater to this fact. The chunk of websites on the internet typically designed visually for Western culture, and rely on an enormous body of practices for usability, information architecture and interaction design that are by and large centric to the Western world.

Stop and think about the benefits of benefits of bringing your products and services to diverse, global markets. Do I need to say more?

So here are the words of wisdom! bye for now

Some More Google ‘Not To Do’s’

So… the last post was a break in the chain. But worry not! I’ve got you more on the unethical practices in the web world to get to the top.

Read on…

Having Robots write your Website

It’s as bad as duplicate content! Remember I told you about it in my last post?
The cheaper deal may tempt you but let’s wait till I tell you what it’s all about. Robots are actually programs that generate content for your website. What they do is they pick up content from somewhere on the internet and make a few changes here and there… like switching words with synonyms, changing text from active to passive voices and so on.

Ultimately they whip up something that is utter nonsense. And if Google catches this, you can be rest assured that your site will be blacklisted.

The best deal: Write your own content. And if you lack that literary caliber, hire a professional content writer to do the same.

Linking to Bad Neighborhoods

Link building is a powerful tool to increase your website popularity in the World Wide Web. More the number of links, more will you be popular. However, link to a bad neighborhood and it will have reverse effects.

Always check the page rank of the website you link to and scan through for any missing pieces.

Adding Keywords that don’t relate to your Content

Google doesn’t really consider Meta tags any more. And when you select keywords, choose words that relate to the content of your website. Take care not to repeat the same word multiple times lest it accounts for spamming. .

And don’t even try using your competitors’ trademarked names of products as your keywords. Shunned by Google you could also be sued by the competition.

Doorway Pages

For the records, doorway pages are the ones that are optimized for particular keywords but direct the users to an entirely different page. Its like tricking users t view what they don’t want to. Make sure there is no such thing employed on your website. Also be careful with affiliate programs as Google may perceive some of them as doorway pages.

So here you are!
If you know any more techniques, share it over here!

After all professional website design and development is what it takes to have a strong presence on the internet.

I’m Down Right Now- Please Come Later!

Hi,

Yeah I know i was supposed to tell more 'bout Google not to do's. but i just couldn't help myself writing this post...

Unfortunately, you can hand that note when your website is suffering from ‘downtime depression’

But you know what? Even if you could, it wouldn’t change what the visitors take back!

So, the only option left for you is to monitor the downtime of your website and make sure that nothing like that happens.

Why? What hell will break loose if my site’s down for 5 minutes?

Hmm… well the Tsunami wont strike and neither will Hurricane Katrina.

But then what if those 5 minutes were when the search engines bots decide to visit? Or someone clicked on your ad from the PPC program you paid for last month?

You had it there. Losing precious business can sure raise a storm.

Let’s admit it. Search engines are strict. So be it duplicity of content or no content at all. It takes them a minute to blacklist a website. The same happens here too. If the search engine crawlers come to your website and find it down, they will have to leave empty handed. And if this remains so for long, your site’s gonna be chucked out of their databases altogether. And that will boost an anti-popularity show where all the ranking you built and all the visitors that you gained will slowly and steadily decline.

And then again, the PPC ad campaigns that you listed your website for… If you are really high on the ‘hard-luck brand’ then downtime can be the time visitors decide to pop in from there. And mind you… They don’t have any compensatory policies.
So all the money goes down the drain and it takes along a potential customer (who by the way is never going to return)

I mean, you tell me… How keen would you be to further a business or close a deal with a company that doesn’t even care for its website? Do you even visit them again, let alone trust them?

I have been telling you all the while. Your website is your identity in the online world and people (read prospective clients and customers) form an opinion about your business through it. And a website that is up and high on downtime doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously.

So, there it is. Make sure to monitor your website’s downtime depression if you want to portray a healthy and professional website.

i will get you the "not to do's " in the next post..
Byeee…

What ‘Not To Do’ To Get A Good Rank On Google

Hi,

Quite a lot has been said about what all to do to get to the top slots of search engines. But I guess I haven’t told you much about what not to do.

One of my recent clients mentioned using some, as he termed it, fast track practices that could help with the SEO. I was aghast when he narrated a list of techniques, which he had no clue were actually unethical means and could have serious consequences.

For the records, black hat techniques are unscrupulous means of going up the Google charts. It was a success in the past, though short lived. Ever since Google deployed strict filters, such practices seldom escape its stern eyes.

Anyways, let me list out some ‘popular’ black hat techniques that you should completely restrain from even though your service providers suggest them and urge their proficiency.

Don’t No.1- Cloaking
Thanks to developers’ code proficiency, they are able to create ‘multi-faceted’ websites. And by multifaceted I don’t refer to their aesthetic sensibilities. In fact I am talking ‘bout the websites that look something to the search engines and something very different to the users.
But our Google makes sure it sees through the cloak and blocks all such sites.

Don’t No. 2- Duplicate Content
This is the way to go for permanent removal of you website from the Google’s directories. You could do better hiring a professional content writer than stealing someone else’s work. it aint a great deal to hire robots too. They either score very poor in content quality or go in fray with duplicity.

Don’t No. 3- Keyword Stuffing
Designers often play smart by hiding keywords in the text so as to increase their frequency. How do they do it? Simple enough, they make the background colors just the same as the font color. Or they shrink the font to be super small in size.
But whatever be the manner, Google is one step smarter and identifies such websites at a glance. The result is obvious- permanent blacklist

Don’t No. 4- Title Stacking
This is a near cousin of keyword stuffing. But instead of excessive keywords, it’s a stack of title tags. Over loading your title bar may weigh heavy on your website, ‘cause Google does the same with cousins of culprits.

That was the forbidden fours. Wait till next week as I get you more forbidden ideas.
Stay good... Bye…