SEO-Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video searchand industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a website web presence.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.

The acronym "SEO" can refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultantswho carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site and site content, SEO tactics may be incorporated into website development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe website designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.

Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, uses methods such as link farms,keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.

Create SEO Report For Your Website

Create a SEO report forms a significant part of the whole SEO process, it is significant for you to create a full report of your website before going ahead with Search Engine Optimization. Hence, if you too are aiming to get enhanced Search Engine ranking of your website, here is assist for you in the form of guidelines to produce a complete SEO Report. Go through the details to know the exact reports to include for proper optimization and also study about the variety of aspects involved in preparing an effective SEO Report for your website.

Title Tag Report

To begin with, you have to be acquainted with about the Title Tag. It is crucial, both from the readability as well as the SEO perspective. You can compare the title tag with a person’s name. Basically, the tag carries important information about a web page. Each and every web page has a definite title that is in line with/coherent with the content of the page. On the whole, the title is included within a Title Tag.

Meta-Tag Report

Coming to the next aspect, Meta Tag Keyword Report is one of most vital components of Search Engine Optimization. Especially with older search engine robots that are totally dependent on meta-tags and keywords, as they assist the robots to search information about a webpage. The meta-tags and keywords play an important role even with the modern search engine robots, helping them detect the most suitable page for a specific keyword.

Although you do not have specific guidelines for the number of keywords that can be included, over utilizing of keywords is not recommended at all as it can jeopardize the websites position in SERPS.

Meta Tag Description Report

Meta Tag Description Report is another fundamental facet of SEO. This basically contains short details of the page and should never be exaggerated.

Body Text Report

The body text, as the name suggests, represents the body of any web page that is the content set between tags. An important thing for you to note here is that it is not possible for engine robots to see the page in same manner as human eyes do. The robots follow an explicit order for reading the pages. This is what makes the body text so important and you should be careful about it. You need to know that a proper SEO report should produce the body content and illustrate it.

H1 & H2 Tags

The H1 tags must contain the main keyword of that page as the search engines also give importance to them. Further, the position of the H1 tag is also important. Although the H2 tag is optional, it can be helpful to have the tag at times.

Most of the SEO Report generating tools are commercial; however, you should look for free tools to help you out in your venture.

To sum up a complete SEO report shall consist of following:

* Title tag Analysis

* Keyword Density Report

* Keyword Meta tag Report

* Description Meta tag Report

* Body Text Report

* In page Link Report

* Link Popularity Report

* Outbound Link Report

* IMG ALT Attribute Report

* Top 1o inbound Link OptimizerReport

* Keyword Density Report

* Keyword Prominence Report

* Page Rank Report

* Anchor Text Report

* Comprehensive Summary

* Suggestions for Optimization

E-Commerce

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations inelectronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.

A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web.

Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com. Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce where the buyer is directly online to the seller's computer usually via the internet. There is no intermediary service. The sale and purchase transaction is completed electronically and interactively in real-time such as Amazon.com for new books. If an intermediary is present, then the sale and purchase transaction is called electronic commerce such as eBay.com.

Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions.

E-commerce can be divided into:

• E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall"
• The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data
• E-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established customers (for example, with newsletters)
• Business-to-business buying and selling
• The security of business transactions.

E-tailing or The Virtual Storefront and the Virtual Mall

As a place for direct retail shopping, with its 24-hour availability, a global reach, the ability to 

interact and provide custom information and ordering, and multimedia prospects, the Web is 

rapidly becoming a multibillion dollar source of revenue for the world's businesses. A number of 

businesses already report considerable success. As early as the middle of 1997, Dell 

Computers reported orders of a million dollars a day. By early 1999, projected e-commerce 

revenues for business were in the billions of dollars and the stocks of companies deemed most 

adept at e-commerce were skyrocketing. Although many so-called dotcom retailers 

disappeared in the economic shakeout of 2000, Web retailing at sites such as Amazon.com, 

CDNow.com, and CompudataOnline.com continues to grow.

Market Research

In early 1999, it was widely recognized that because of the interactive nature of the Internet, 

companies could gather data about prospects and customers in unprecedented amounts -

through site registration, questionnaires, and as part of taking orders. The issue of whether data 

was being collected with the knowledge and permission of market subjects had been raised. 

(Microsoft referred to its policy of data collection as "profiling" and a proposed standard has 

been developed that allows Internet users to decide who can have what personal information.)

\Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

EDI is the exchange of business data using an understood data format. It predates today's 

Internet. EDI involves data exchange among parties that know each other well and make 

arrangements for one-to-one (or point-to-point) connection, usually dial-up. EDI is expected to 

be replaced by one or more standard XML formats, such as ebXML.

E-Mail, Fax, and Internet Telephony

E-commerce is also conducted through the more limited electronic forms of communication 

called e-mail, facsimile or fax, and the emerging use of telephone calls over the Internet. Most of 

this is business-to-business, with some companies attempting to use e-mail and fax for 

unsolicited ads (usually viewed as online junk mail or spam) to consumers and other business 

prospects. An increasing number of business Web sites offer e-mail newsletters for 

subscribers. A new trend is opt-in e-mail in which Web users voluntarily sign up to receive e-

mail, usually sponsored or containing ads, about product categories or other subjects they are 

interested in.

Business-to-Business Buying and Selling

Thousands of companies that sell products to other companies have discovered that the Web 

provides not only a 24-hour-a-day showcase for their products but a quick way to reach the right 

people in a company for more information.

The Security of Business Transactions

Security includes authenticating business transactors, controlling access to resources such as 

Web pages for registered or selected users, encrypting communications, and, in general, 

ensuring the privacy and effectiveness of transactions. Among the most widely-used security 

technologies is the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which is built into both of the leading Web 

browsers.

Online Shopping

Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods or services from a seller in real-time, without an intermediary service, over the Internet. If an intermediary service is present the process is called electronic commerce. An online shop, eshop, e-store, internet shop, webshop, webstore, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at abricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall. The process is called Business-to-Consumer (B2C) online shopping. When a business buys from another business it is called Business-to-Business (B2B) online shopping. Both B2C and B2B online shopping are forms ofe-commerce.

Online Marketplace

Online marketplace (or online ecommerce marketplace) refers to a type of ecommerce site where product and inventory information is provided by multiple third parties, whereas transactions are processes by the marketplace operator. Online marketplaces have become a driver of new business for online merchants that leverage them as channels for increased sales. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce.

In an online marketplace, consumer transactions are processed by the marketplace operator, which functions as the merchant of record, and then delivered and fulfilled by the participating retailers, wholesalers or dropshippers. Marketplaces offer a variety of products and provide consumers with the convenience of purchasing such products from a single location. Marketplaces generally provide better prices, greater selection and higher levels of availability than traditional online retailers.

Types of Online Marketplaces

Online marketplaces are classified according to the following parameters: vertical/horizontal and branded/non-branded.

An example of a horizontal marketplace is Buy.com, where products in a variety of categories are presented; an example of a vertical marketplace is mydeco.com's KitchenShop, where product only from a single vertical are offered.

A branded marketplace is a marketplace where merchants selling the products are branded; a non-branded marketplace is one where the consumer only sees the price, but not the name of the merchant that will deliver their purchase

10 Tips on designing a fast loading web site

Tips and tricks on effective web design

The Number 1 rule that every web designer should follow is to create a fast loading web site. You might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. While designing a web site always think about how long it will take to load. Try out our tips to build a great looking web site that also loads fast.

1. Minimize the use of images- The key to a fast loading web site is to minimize the use of images. Images do enhance a page but don't make 80% of your web site only images. Instead break it down as much as possible to simple HTML. Notice the popular sites like Yahoo, Google, Ebay, Amazon etc., they have very few images because the load time is more important. Very often simple designs are the best.
   
2. Optimize images for the web - Once you have decided on the images that you need on your site, make sure that it is optimized for the web. They should be in the gif or jpeg format. You can also minimize the size of the image by choosing the number of colors you need, from the color palette. The less the colors you choose, the less the size of the image. You can also use online tools like Gif Wizard to optimize your images or to get a recommendation on how to cut down the size of an image.
   
3. Use Tables creatively - You can get some great looking designs by using tables creatively . Tables load very fast because it is just HTML code. Tables can be used in the homepage, menus or anywhere you like. Check out our homepage and our menus to see how we have used tables in our site.
    Read more on Using HTML Tables Creatively
   
4. Cut down the use of animated gifs - Don't use animated gifs unless it is necessary. Animated gifs take a long time to load and can also be very irritating. But since they catch your attention you could use small animated gifs to draw a visitor's attention to a particular section of your site.
   
5. Design simple icons - Instead of using big, bulky images use simple and small icons that add a little color and draw the attention of a visitor. We have used small icons in our homepage to highlight the main sections of our site.
   
6. Use background images instead of big images whenever possible - Use background images whenever possible. This is usually a very useful tip for headers and footers. Instead of using an image of width 580 which is a uniform design you can use just a part of that as a background fill. This reduces the size of the web page as the image is small. The code will look like this : <tr background="/images/header_backgroud.gif" width="100%"> 
   
7. Try out CSS Styles - Have fun with CSS styles to get some cool text effects. Again, a CSS Style is simple HTML code so it loads very fast. You can create cool rollovers using CSS Styles.
   Rollover the text on the right menu to see how we have used CSS Styles to get a simple but nice text effect.
   
8. Use Flash sparingly - There seems to be a lot of hype about Flash but I recommend that you minimize the use of Flash on a site. Don't make entire sites using Flash. It may look great but it takes hours to load and can really put off visitors. If you do want to use Flash use it within an HTML site and make sure it loads fast.
   
9. Design most of your site in HTML - As much as possible try to design your site using HTML. You can create great designs by just using HTML code. Use tables, CSS Styles and simple fonts to design your site. Minimize the use of animated gifs, Flash, bulky images etc.
   
10. Keep checking your load time - Last but not least, before you decide on the final design of your web site, check its load time on NetMechanic. This site gives you a free analysis of your web site which is extremely useful. We kept using it to improve our site till we got a report that said good loading time!

Web Applications

Website Designing

Web design involves the structure of the website including the information architecture (navigation schemes and naming conventions), the layout or the pages (wireframes or page schematics are created to show consistent placement of items including functional features), and the conceptual design with branding.

All websites should begin with a clear strategy so that it is apparent what they are trying to achieve. The strategy then enables the design to fulfill defined goals.

Web design is different than traditional print publishing. Every website is an information display container, just as a book is a container; and every web page is like the page in a book. However the end size and shape of the web page is not known to the web designer, whereas the print designer will know exactly what size paper he will be printing on. 

For the typical web sites, the basic aspects of design are:

• The content: the substance, and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with.
• The usability: the site should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable.
• The appearance: the graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.
• The structure: of the web site as a whole.

A web site typically consists of text, images, animation and /or video. The first page of a web site is known as the Home page or Index Page. Some web sites use what is commonly called a Splash Page. Splash pages might include a welcome message, language or region selection, or disclaimer, however search engines, in general, favor web sites that don't do this which has caused these types of pages to fall out of favor. Each web page within a web site is a file which has its own URL. After each web page is created, they are typically linked together using a navigation menu composed of hyperlinks.

Once a web site is completed, it must be published or uploaded in order to be viewable to the public over the internet. This may be done using an FTP client.

8 Tips for Designing a Great Website

Square buttons, round buttons, flashy buttons … will they match my shoes, my handbag or my tie? Are you stuck in a maze of buttons, headings, bullets, sub-headings and colour schemes?

STOP!!!!

Take a deep breath and read some practical tips for professional looking websites.

1. Select a colour scheme and stick to it.

If your company has a logo or preferred colours on its stationery that’s a good start. For those of you starting from scratch, choose two or three complementary colours and stick with them – don’t change colours on every page.

The most common colour schemes include:

- Red, yellow and white
- Blue and white
- Red, grey and white
- Blue, orange and white
- Yellow, grey and white.

If you’re not sure what colour scheme to choose, surf the internet and find a website that you like. You can then model your colour scheme on what already exists.

2. Use templates.

Can’t find a website you really like? Another option is to choose a template. There are many templates or pre-set designs. These come as part of your web design software (such as FrontPage) or you can check out some websites that specialise in designing templates.

Visit:

www.web4business.com.au emplates1.htm
www.newtemps.com
www.website-templates-resale-rights.com
www.123webtemplatesandmore.com

3. Provide an easy to use navigation system.

This is one of the most important issues to consider when designing a website. You need to ensure your visitors can find what they are looking for easily. Most websites either display their navigation bar on the left or at the top. And since most people are used to this type of navigation, it’s best to stick with it.

It also helps to include your navigation bar at the bottom of each page to save your visitors from having to scroll back to the top.

4. Don’t go overboard on special effects

Whilst it is ok to have one or two special effects to jazz up your website, spinning graphics and logos often distract your visitor from the content, not to mention they can take too long to download. Your visitors may click away even before your spinning logo finishes loading.

5. Backgrounds

Ensure your visitors can read the text on the background, ie. no black writing on dark blue background or yellow on white. Also be careful that your links are visible before and after being visited. The default for links in most programs is blue (before being visited) and burgundy (after being visited), so if you have a dark background, ensure your links are light.

6. External Links

It is a good idea to open links to other websites in a new window. That way your visitors can easily return to your site when they are finished browsing the external link

7. Site Map & Search Feature

If you website is more than 15 pages, it is useful to have a site map or a “Search” feature to ensure your visitors can easily find what they’re looking for.

8. Content is King

While it is important that your website looks clean and professional, it is far more important that you concentrate your efforts on the content and promotion.

If you want a professional website, things to stay away from include:

1. Flash intros, revolving globes, bevelled line separators, animated mail boxes
2. Loads of pop up or pop under boxes
3. Autoplay music. Allow your customer to play music only if they choose.
4. Hit counters of the free variety, which say “you are 27th visitor”
5. Date and time stamps, unless your website is updated daily or weekly
6. Busy backgrounds.

Hope you like this facts..

Website Development

Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). This can include web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server andnetwork security configuration, and e-commerce development. However, among web professionals, "web development" usually refers to the main non-design aspects of building web sites: writing markup and coding. Web development can range from developing the simplest static single page of plain text to the most complex web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, or social network services.

For larger organizations and businesses, web development teams can consist of hundreds of people (web developers). Smaller organizations may only require a single permanent or contracting webmaster, or secondary assignment to related job positions such as a graphic designer and/or information systems technician. Web development may be a collaborative effort between departments rather than the domain of a designated department...

Client Side Coding

• Ajax Asynchronous JavaScript provides new methods of using JavaScript, and other languages to improve the user experience.
• Flash Adobe Flash Player is an ubiquitous browser plugin ready for RIAs. Flex 2 is also deployed to the Flash Player (version 9+).
• JavaScript Formally called ECMAScript, JavaScript is a ubiquitous client side platform for creating and delivering rich Web applications that can also run across a wide variety of devices.
• Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft's browser plugin that enables animation, vector graphics and high-definition video playback, programmed using XAML and .NET programming languages.
• HTML5 and CSS3 Latest HTML proposed standard combined with the latest proposed standard for CSS natively supports much of the client-side functionality provided by other frameworks such as Flash and Silverlight.

Server Side Coding

• ASP (Microsoft proprietary)
• CSP, Server-Side ANSI C
• ColdFusion (Adobe proprietary, formerly Macromedia, formerly Allaire)
• CGI and/or Perl (open source)
• Groovy (programming language) Grails (framework)
• Java, e.g. Java EE or WebObjects
• Lotus Domino
• PHP (open source)
• Python, e.g. Django (web framework) (open source)
• Ruby, e.g. Ruby on Rails (open source)
• Smalltalk e.g. Seaside, AIDA/Web
• SSJS Server-Side JavaScript, e.g. Aptana Jaxer, Mozilla Rhino
• Websphere (IBM proprietary)
• .NET (Microsoft proprietary)

Best Website Development Tips

You can get high rankings and increase web traffic to your site by doing the following steps.  Not following our advice on any tip will result in lower rankings on some search engines.  Please contact us if you need to know "the why" to the below statements:

• research what keywords people use most often on search engines that pertain to your products or services;  use these keywords as text in the design to increase website traffic.
• "Keep It Simple" - 99% of all web designers use too many graphical images and programs like Java, Flash, etc. which results in lower rankings and less traffic..
• Web pages, like a spread sheet, are made using cells and tables.  Use as few cells and tables in your web design as possible.

Create good Meta Tags.  Each page should have different keywords in the Title and the Description Meta Tag.

• Limit the number of times that you repeat words in your Keyword Meta Tag.
• Place your important keywords at the top of the page as text headers.
• Your most important page and keywords should be on the first page of a website.
• Frames based websites should only be used for Intranet (a site only for company employees) and not for Internet.
• Do NOT include pages that re-direct (a page that automatically sends you to another page) people to other pages.
• Run an analysis program to count the number of times keywords are used in the first 7500 characters of computer code.
• Limit your use of services that automatically submits your URL to the top 10 search engines.
• When finished with a page, run a spell checking program and then compress the html code.
• Keep track of your search engine rankings and website traffic.
• Once a website is indexed, a good web designer should go back and improve pages that didn't get high rankings on key words.
• Every 3 months you should make a small change on each web page.  Search engines like to see that changes are being made to a site and that it just isn't sitting there for years with no upgrades.
  
  
  Why Web Designers Don't Follow The Above Tips
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  • Time is money.  Most web designers bid on projects and know it takes at least 30% more time to create a site that gets high rankings.  Since most companies / people don't know what should be done to get an increase in website traffic, web designers cut corners and only design a website that the customer sees is appealing.
  • Most web designers haven't taken the time to learn how to get high rankings on multiple search engines.

Many web designers don't care about getting high rankings, as it's not fun and creative work.


Test Your Web Designer

We are aware of many details that are important in getting top rankings.  To evaluate the skill level of your web designer, ask them these sample questions and record their answers.  Then contact us, and ask us the same questions.

1. What's the maximum number of characters that should be used in the Keyword Meta Tag?
2. What's the consequence of placing the page's Title just beneath the "<head>" statement vs. the bottom and just above "</head>" statement?
3. How do you get a high popularity rating?
4. Which search engine bases a majority of its ranking on popularity?
5. Which search engine gives "bonus points" for high popularity and for being listed on Yahoo or LookSmart?
6. Why is it a bad idea to create websites that use frames?
7. What are the top 3 search engines or directories used by people?
8. A listing on what directory also gets that page listed on MSN, Google, Overture, Go, and Iwon?
9. Besides Yahoo, what is the second most important directory to get listed on to increase your web site traffic?
10. Which search engine indexes ALT Tags?