Blogging Tools You Should Be Using
June 28th, 2007 | Posted by Ben KeoghBlogging is a great technique for your growing business. It gives you the confidence to create a trustful image to your customers and customers-to-be. Your blogs should be frequently updated, well-designed and credible for you to achieve its tangible benefits. Not only should you be planning a blog for your business, but a blog for you, your company or your organisation should be part of your ongoing marketing strategy.
This article highlights some of the most important blogging tools that you need to be using to market your website, your services and your products.
What is a Blog?
Blog is a shortened name for weblog (pronounced as web-log or we-blog) from the words Web and Log. Writing, maintaining or adding an article to an existing blog is called blogging. Individual articles on a blog are called blog posts, posts or entries. A person who posts these entries is called a blogger.
Blogs are frequently updated journals, newsletters or Websites, with commentary and links intended for general public consumption. A blog is far from a static link list or home page, it consists of many relatively short posts, usually time-stamped, and organised in reverse chronology so that readers can check the most recent post first. To blog is an activity similar of a researcher in many ways.
Why is This a Good Thing for Business?
Blogging is a great technique for your growing business. It gives you the confidence to create a trustful image to your customers and customers-to-be. Your blogs should be frequently updated, well-designed and credible for you to achieve its tangible benefits. Blogs should be added in your strategic marketing plans, because now a days competition is wise, blogs could not be ignored anymore and these are the reasons why:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
Blogs will enjoy higher rankings for relevant keywords on search engines because they are constantly updated. - They are interactive in nature
Blogs can build relationships with your customers by sharing information, corporate culture and expertise. You can check those who are interested and get connected with them based on their comments, suggestions or inquiries at the end of your post. - Anticipation for your site
Your audience will have the eagerness to visit your site because of the anticipation of fresh blogs all the time. - Strengthen your brand
You are able to show your passion and expertise for your business that would create your credibility. - Better search engine rankings
People will add links if your blogs are substantial. More links means more traffic which leads to better search engine rankings. - Make revenues for your blog
If you can have a good crowd that loves your blogs, you can offer ad spaces that are looking to market your audience; you can make income from it. - Saves money
By blogging, you will raise your profile on the Web that will help to increase visits to your site, and that is cheap marketing! - Business support group
You can even meet a number of business partners and a lot of interesting people that will help you provide and expand your business ideas. (more…)Blogging Tools You Should Be Using
June 28th, 2007 | Posted by Ben KeoghBlogging is a great technique for your growing business. It gives you the confidence to create a trustful image to your customers and customers-to-be. Your blogs should be frequently updated, well-designed and credible for you to achieve its tangible benefits. Not only should you be planning a blog for your business, but a blog for you, your company or your organisation should be part of your ongoing marketing strategy.
This article highlights some of the most important blogging tools that you need to be using to market your website, your services and your products.What is a Blog?
Blog is a shortened name for weblog (pronounced as web-log or we-blog) from the words Web and Log. Writing, maintaining or adding an article to an existing blog is called blogging. Individual articles on a blog are called blog posts, posts or entries. A person who posts these entries is called a blogger.
Blogs are frequently updated journals, newsletters or Websites, with commentary and links intended for general public consumption. A blog is far from a static link list or home page, it consists of many relatively short posts, usually time-stamped, and organised in reverse chronology so that readers can check the most recent post first. To blog is an activity similar of a researcher in many ways.
Why is This a Good Thing for Business?
Blogging is a great technique for your growing business. It gives you the confidence to create a trustful image to your customers and customers-to-be. Your blogs should be frequently updated, well-designed and credible for you to achieve its tangible benefits. Blogs should be added in your strategic marketing plans, because now a days competition is wise, blogs could not be ignored anymore and these are the reasons why:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
Blogs will enjoy higher rankings for relevant keywords on search engines because they are constantly updated. - They are interactive in nature
Blogs can build relationships with your customers by sharing information, corporate culture and expertise. You can check those who are interested and get connected with them based on their comments, suggestions or inquiries at the end of your post. - Anticipation for your site
Your audience will have the eagerness to visit your site because of the anticipation of fresh blogs all the time. - Strengthen your brand
You are able to show your passion and expertise for your business that would create your credibility. - Better search engine rankings
People will add links if your blogs are substantial. More links means more traffic which leads to better search engine rankings. - Make revenues for your blog
If you can have a good crowd that loves your blogs, you can offer ad spaces that are looking to market your audience; you can make income from it. - Saves money
By blogging, you will raise your profile on the Web that will help to increase visits to your site, and that is cheap marketing! - Business support group
You can even meet a number of business partners and a lot of interesting people that will help you provide and expand your business ideas. (more…)Blogging Tools You Should Be Using
June 28th, 2007 | Posted by Ben KeoghBlogging is a great technique for your growing business. It gives you the confidence to create a trustful image to your customers and customers-to-be. Your blogs should be frequently updated, well-designed and credible for you to achieve its tangible benefits. Not only should you be planning a blog for your business, but a blog for you, your company or your organisation should be part of your ongoing marketing strategy.
This article highlights some of the most important blogging tools that you need to be using to market your website, your services and your products.What is a Blog?
Blog is a shortened name for weblog (pronounced as web-log or we-blog) from the words Web and Log. Writing, maintaining or adding an article to an existing blog is called blogging. Individual articles on a blog are called blog posts, posts or entries. A person who posts these entries is called a blogger.
Blogs are frequently updated journals, newsletters or Websites, with commentary and links intended for general public consumption. A blog is far from a static link list or home page, it consists of many relatively short posts, usually time-stamped, and organised in reverse chronology so that readers can check the most recent post first. To blog is an activity similar of a researcher in many ways.
Why is This a Good Thing for Business?
Blogging is a great technique for your growing business. It gives you the confidence to create a trustful image to your customers and customers-to-be. Your blogs should be frequently updated, well-designed and credible for you to achieve its tangible benefits. Blogs should be added in your strategic marketing plans, because now a days competition is wise, blogs could not be ignored anymore and these are the reasons why:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
Blogs will enjoy higher rankings for relevant keywords on search engines because they are constantly updated. - They are interactive in nature
Blogs can build relationships with your customers by sharing information, corporate culture and expertise. You can check those who are interested and get connected with them based on their comments, suggestions or inquiries at the end of your post. - Anticipation for your site
Your audience will have the eagerness to visit your site because of the anticipation of fresh blogs all the time. - Strengthen your brand
You are able to show your passion and expertise for your business that would create your credibility. - Better search engine rankings
People will add links if your blogs are substantial. More links means more traffic which leads to better search engine rankings. - Make revenues for your blog
If you can have a good crowd that loves your blogs, you can offer ad spaces that are looking to market your audience; you can make income from it. - Saves money
By blogging, you will raise your profile on the Web that will help to increase visits to your site, and that is cheap marketing! - Business support group
You can even meet a number of business partners and a lot of interesting people that will help you provide and expand your business ideas. (more…)10 Ways to Increase the Reach of Your Website
June 21st, 2007 | Posted by Ben KeoghIf we are talking about successful websites, the first key to it is to increase your reach. That is, you need more exposure among your targeted audience, you need to build links, connections, partnerships, or use whatever means you can. Your website needs to be in front of as many potential customers as it could possibly be. So how can we do it? This article helps you open your horizons on ideas to increase your reach, create greater exposure, bringing in more targeted traffic, leads and sales.
Out there in cyberspace, somewhere, customers would possibly be interested in your products. There is a maximum number of people out there who have the potential of doing business with you. If your website is reachable, then you can find them and they can find you as humanly as possible. Growing your business is based on how many visitors arrive at your website and how many subscribers you have on your list.
For instance, you owned a restaurant and suddenly you realized that having an outdoor deck and patio will help your business grow. By offering something new to your customers, you increased the reach of your business because it interests them on an outdoor dining experience that they may also invite others dine in. It is the same way with your website! By building these extensions you have far reaching implications for your site. In fact, you can increase the reach of your site all over the world.
Here are some of the best techniques for increasing the reach of your site. Some of them are very simple, yet some are a little more complex:
1. Writing Articles
- Exposure to your website, product or service is increased by publishing articles on relevant topics. Keep it informative and helpful to your prospective readers, like make it a “how to†or advise article and they will seek you out for more! Sprinkle it with some keyword phrases and minimize grammatical or spelling errors to optimise your site, here is a free keyword tool NicheBOT.com.In every article you write, you should add an author’s resource box at the bottom, you write your name, few words about yourself and a back-link to your site! Yes, this is the most important part in your article. Simple and very easy to do, try it!
2. Link Building
- Link Building is the process of creating inbound links to ones own website, so it is one of the best ways to increase the reach of your site. This process takes a bit of hard work but it rewards you success!Link building includes asking for reciprocal links from related websites. Testimonials, recommendations and reviews about a site or product are good ideas to make people/webmasters happy. Two testimonial writing tips; make them believable, and be specific as possible. Do you like your web host? Neither do I, but it doesn’t stop me from offering a testimonial to my web host which includes a link back to my website.
3. Bookmarks
- Whenever you find a page on our site that you like to visit frequently, you can “bookmark†our page in your internet browser. So make sure that you also have a bookmark link on all your pages so that others can frequently visit your website. Here are tips for the most popular browsers when creating/finding bookmarks:
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- Internet Explorer
- Go to “Favorites†on the toolbar and select “Add to Favorites…â€.
- To find your bookmark, click on “Favorites†again and look for your bookmarked page/s in the list.
- Firefox, Netscape and Opera
- Go to “Bookmarks†on the toolbar and select “Bookmark This Page…†or “Add Bookmark“.
- To find your bookmark, click on “Bookmarks†again and look for your bookmarked page/s in the list.
- Internet Explorer
- You can also make a small logo that goes with your bookmarks. And subtly ask those who bookmark your site to place a shortcut on their desktops.
4. Freebies and Giveaways
- Freebies and giveaways are quick ways to increase the reach of your site. Hold a contest or offer free samples in exchange for feedback, these are also great link baits. It will make your visitors get excited and will keep on coming back. A few-hundred-dollar prize can result in thousands of dollars worth of quality links. You can also offer a Firefox extension, just make sure you have a download and/or support page on your site which people can link to.
5. Promotional Desktop Applications
- These promotional desktop applications are the wallpapers, software programs, and eCalendars. It is a simple and effective way of increasing the reach of your website that actually brings results. Desktop applications are powerful tools any company can use to brand, promote and sell their products or services. For instance, check a promotional calendar at your home, what’s the first thing you notice after you see the pictures on it? You will see that the calendar was from your favorite store or business. That’s the power of it! You can also use the idea by placing links directly onto the desktops of your visitors by offering them simple desktop applications.
6. Forum and Social Interaction
- Contribute intelligently to forum discussions and social interactions. Becoming a regular poster especially if you offer helpful and well informed information, your site will acquire a resident expert you! Do not forget to include a link to your website in your signature that will take advantage of greater exposure.
7. Off-line Marketing
- Since most of us are always on-line and our business is on-line, we often forget the importance of advertising our business off-line. Print advertising can be one of the best forms of advertising for your buck; it is in the form of hard copy and is always in view of your potential customers. You can place your site’s logo or URL in off-line places like billboards, t-shirts, bags, caps, mugs and other stuffs. Off-line exposure will greatly extend the reach of your site. In addition you can also burn CDs or DVDs of your best programs or information and share them especially to all interested parties that will create more credit.
8. Directory Submission and Meme Trackers
- Submit your website to DMOZ and other directories that allow free submissions or you can also submit to paid directories, just remember that quality matters. You can enjoy the benefits of being listed in a web directory. Your website will increase traffic because being listed in a directory is being searched by many people every day. This is an old tip but it really works to increase your website’s reach.Create your own topical directory about your field of interest. Obviously link to your own site, deep linking to important content where possible. Of course, if you make it into a truly useful resource, it will attract links on its own.Look at meme trackers to see what ideas are spreading. If you write about popular spreading ideas with plenty of original content and link to some of the original resources, your site may get listed as a source on the meme tracker site.
9. Blogs and the Blogosphere
- Start a blog. Not just for the sake of having one. Post regularly and post great content. Good execution is what gets the links which helps increase your website’s reach. Link to other blogs from your blog. Outbound links are one of the cheapest forms of marketing available. Many bloggers also track who is linking to them or where their traffic comes from, so linking to them is an easy way to get noticed.Comment on other blogs. Most of these comments will not provide much direct search engine value, but if your comments are useful, insightful, and relevant they can drive direct traffic. They also help make the other bloggers become aware of you, and they may start reading your blog or may even link to it.
10. RSS Feeds and News
- Track who picks up your articles or press releases and offer them exclusive news and content. In that way, you can reach and keep reaching your site’s visitors. Broaden the scope of your site by offering diverse information.Syndicate a press release. Take the time to make it compelling and newsworthy. Email it to some handpicked journalists and bloggers. Personalize the email message. For good measure, submit it to PRWeb, PRLeap, etc.RSS Feeds may prove to be the most effective way to increase the reach of your website. You make a summary of your website and syndicate it to all interested parties. Other webmasters will take your syndicated RSS feeds and place them on their sites. You create mini satellite sites of your content all over the web!
Now, I hope this article will help you to extend your horizons to reach those potential customers waiting for you. However, there are still some other ways to do it but trying a few of these will boost your site’s credibility and visibility, bringing in more targeted leads and traffic. Good luck!
Optimising your Web Pages for Search Engines
June 14th, 2007 | Posted by Ben KeoghSEO is short for Search Engine Optimisation. Big words. Sounds important. What is it? If you do a search in Google for the web definition of search engine optimisation, you get a lot of different results. Some simply say that it is the generic term for making sure your site is optimised to appear as one of the top ranking web sites on a search. Others think that SEO is so complex that they could not possibly understand it. However, search engine optimisation is best defined as the art and science of building web pages that are both search engine friendly and user friendly.
Why is it important?
The importance of search engine optimisation is greater than many of us can imagine. It keeps your site indexed and ranked by search engines and ensures you a good amount of traffic. Search Engine Optimisation gives your company an edge over your competitors and improves both your Internet branding as well as online existence. Ultimately, it means more people will find your website resulting to increased sales that leads production. Without it, your website is either dead, or struggling for survival, hoping to be noticed.
What is indexing?
We just talked about being indexed by search engines. So, what does it mean? Search engine indexing describes the process of reading a web page and extracting the content into a database. The term is usually used to describe if a page is already in the search engine database. The term “index†is used synonymously with database.
Top tips for optimising your web pages
- Provide and Emphasize More Text
Pages without text rarely gains high rankings. This is especially important for home pages. If there is no text on the opening page then the search engine robot might stop right there and not even bother to look at the rest of your site. Pages that are all flash or all images are not search engine friendly, and often are not user friendly as well. If you have an opening page with pictures of lovely flowers on it and only two words of text saying “enter here†or simply “click hereâ€, then this page will not rank high in searches for Flower Express. It is one reason for avoiding Splash pages at the front end. Ideally you should provide at least 150 words of text on your home page. - Improve the Navigation System of Your Site to Make Your Links Search Engine Friendly
In general, when a search engine robot finds your main page, it will then follow links to your inner pages, and continue following links until all of your pages have been indexed. If you do find that only your main page or only a few of your pages are indexed and the rest are not, then it is important to look at your link and navigation structure and make changes that will enable search engine robots to find and follow all of your links. The best way for that is to include text links to all pages. It may be helpful if your site uses additional text link navigation system at the bottom of the pages. This will not only help the search engine robots, but will also give your visitors another handy way to go on to the other pages of your website. - Using Keyword Optimisation
Optimising your web pages for keywords will dramatically improve your web page ranking. How do you choose your key words and phrases and optimise your pages accordingly?- Make a list of keywords that you think buyers might use to search for products and services you sell. If you are having trouble with this, ask your customers what keywords they would use to find your products and services.
- Use a Thesaurus to check synonyms of the words and phrases that you have chosen. You may come up with additional keywords
- Think about spelling. If you write in English, you are probably aware of the differences in spelling between American and British English. Some of these are Colour vs. color, optimisation vs. optimization, and more. There are also many words that are commonly misspelled and this goes for all languages. Consider adding a glossary or similar to include the most common spelling variations on the page
- Shop your competitors’ websites and check out what keywords they are focusing on by viewing the HTML source of the pages. Select only those competitors, who have high-ranked sites for your primary products or service
- Position your Keywords in your HTML pages
Make sure your target keywords appear in the vital locations on your web pages and should be located in a specific position in your HTML pages. Take note of the guidelines with examples below:- Your File Name or URL
Use search engine friendly, human readable file name or URLs. This will both help your ranking and your users, so do not miss the opportunity to include your important term either in your domain name or in your file nameExample: If your site is called www.flowerdeliveryexpress.com, then this will give you an advantage in any searches for this term and it is better if you specify it that way. - Your Title Tag
The title tag should include your main keywords and it is displayed in the blue line at the top of your browser. It should be related to the page contents. The least amount of words should be in the title and it is best if you have 5-10 words with the company name and keywords all included. If the title adequately describes the content of that page then search engines will be able to accurately guess what that page is all about.Example: If your main phrase is “Flower Delivery Express†then the title tag in your html document should be written - Your Description Tag
The description tag is used to provide a one or two sentences description of what your website is about. It cannot be seen on the web page but search engines view it as the text, which gives the searcher an idea about your page. So it should be inviting while also containing the keywords that are in your URL and your title tag. - Your Headlines
Search engines assume that the text contained in the heading tag is more important than the rest of the document text just like reading a headline in a newspaper to find out what is important. Search engines give more importance to H1 then H2, and so on. - The Body Text of Your Page
Your body text should be good without spelling mistakes and with users’ interest. It should also have keywords that are important for your website. Search engine robot loves the first 25 words or so on each page. If your Web site’s navigation and content is consistent with its primary keywords, then it will reinforce when indexed by a search engine. - The Anchor Text on Your Page
Anchor text is the visible hyperlinked text on the page or the clickable portion of links. Let us take this example: “Get your Flowers delivered by Flower Delivery and get a FREE exclusive Teddy Bear by Flower Power Shop.†The underlined texts are your anchor texts or the links. Instead of making a link that says “enter here,†it would be better to have a link that is more precise and inviting or even better.
- Your File Name or URL
Once you are satisfied with your page adjustments, then you are now ready to submit web pages to the search engines. But be careful not to over-submit as some search engines will consider you to be a spammer and your site will become blacklisted.
If you follow these top tips, then you will end up with user friendly and search engine friendly web pages and that best defines a successful search engine optimisation!
What are Web Standards and Why Use It?
June 7th, 2007 | Posted by Ben KeoghWe all know that the World Wide Web or simply Web is really on tremendous growth, since it is a very powerful means for accessing and sharing information over the internet. As it grows, it needs regulation and guidance for the benefit of everyone who uses it and that is the reason why standards are created and being developed.
“Web standards†is a general term for the formal standards and other technical specifications that define and describe aspects of the Web. In recent years, the term has been more frequently associated with the web standards movement (a growing trend of endorsement of a set of standardized best practices for building web sites, web designing and development that includes those methods).
Web Standards Developer
- The European Computer Manufacturers Association or ECMA is dedicated to the standardization of information and communication systems. It is an industry association officially founded in 1961. ECMA is the inventor and main practitioner of the concept of “fast tracking†of specifications drafted in international standards format like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- The World Wide Web Consortium or W3C (should never be written as WWWC) is led by Web founder Sir Timothy “Tim†John Berners-Lee. The consortium was founded in 1994 and is dedicated to the Web’s full potential. They established the standard for creating and interpreting web-based content to deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users, while ensuring the long-term viability of any document published on the Web to ensure compatibility and agreement among industry members in the adoption of new standards
Structural Languages
- HTML 4.0 - HyperText Markup Language: Defines the publishing language of the World Wide Web. HTML 4.0 supports more multimedia options, scripting languages, style sheets, better printing facilities, and documents that are more accessible to users with disabilities. It also takes great strides towards the internationalization of documents, with the goal of making the Web truly World Wide
- XHTML 1.0 – eXtensible HyperText Markup Language: W3C coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML and now calls the language XHTML and considers it to be an application of the XML language standard. XHTML 1.0, was simply a reformulation of HTML 4.0 in XML. XHTML 1.0 also uses the model of three DOCTYPE declarations (or DTD):
- XHTML 1.0 Strict: is the same as HTML 4.01 Strict, but follows XML syntax rules
- XHTML 1.0 Transitional: allows some common deprecated elements and attributes not found in XHTML 1.0 Strict to be used, and supports everything found in XHTML 1.0 Strict, but it is also good for compatibility with older browsers which cannot render style sheets, due to the prevalent use of attributes such as body, bgcolor etc
- XHTML 1.0 Frameset: Allows the use of HTML framesets
- XHTML 1.1: This is the most recent XHTML W3C Recommendation. XTHML 1.1 is a reformulation of XHTML 1.0 Strict. All deprecated features of HTML, such as presentational elements and framesets, have been removed from this version. XHTML 1.1 is made up of three primary parts
- The XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD: your work will be extremely structured because there are virtually no presentational attributes in XHTML 1.1. The separation of structure and presentation is complete here, and all of your presentation work will go in a style sheet
- XHTML Modularization: This is the breakdown of familiar components of HTML and XHTML (such as text, tables, frames, forms) into discrete chunks. You can then write your own DTD and use only those components you require. This is extensibility in action, essentially giving you, the web author, and the opportunity to customize your markup
- The Ruby Annotation: is a special means of dealing with certain Asian character annotations. Ruby falls under the work being done with Internationalization
- XML 1.0 - eXtensible Markup Language: This is the universal format for structured documents and data on the Web. It allows you to define your own mark-up formats when HTML is not a good fit. XML is being used increasingly for data.
Presentation Languages
- CSS – Cascading Style Sheets: This is W3C’s style sheet. CSS Language provides a simple means to style HTML pages, allowing you to control visual and aural characteristics; for instance, fonts, margins, line-spacing, borders, colors, layers and more. W3C is also working on a new style sheet language written in XML called XSL, which provides a means to transform XML documents into HTML
- SVG – Scalable Vector Graphics: SVG is a platform for two-dimensional graphics. It has two parts: an XML-based file format and a programming API for graphical applications. Key features include shapes, text and embedded raster graphics, with many different painting styles. It supports scripting through languages such as ECMAScript and has comprehensive support for animation. SVG is used in many business areas including Web graphics, animation, user interfaces, graphics interchange, print and hardcopy output, mobile applications and high-quality design
- MathML – Mathematical Markup Language: Work on representing mathematics on the Web has focused on ways to handle the presentation of mathematical expressions and also the intended meaning. The MathML language is an application of XML, which, while not suited to hand-editing, is easy to process by machine.
Object Models
- DOM - Document Object Model: DOM Provides ways for scripts to manipulate HTML using a set of methods and data types defined independently of particular programming languages or computer platforms. It forms the basis for dynamic effects in Web pages, but can also be exploited in HTML editors and other tools by extensions for manipulating HTML content.
Scripting Languages
- ECMAScript: is a scripting programming language standardized in the ECMA-262 specification based on the concept of prototypes. The language is widely used on the Web, and is often referred to JavaScript or Jscript (although these two languages are extensions of the ECMA-262 standard). JavaScipt is the name of Netscape Communications Corporation’s implementation of the ECMAScript. JavaScript has far more in common with the Self Programming Language, while Jscript is Microsoft’s Active Scripting implementation of ECMAScript. It was first supported in Internet Explorer browser 3.0. The most recent version of JScript is Jscript.NET, which is based on the yet-unfinished version 4 of the ECMAScript standard, and can be compiled for the Microsoft.NET platform.ECMAScript’s main use as an object-based language is to manipulate objects in web pages which are specified by the Document Object Model (DOM). These objects can be added or modified, it lets web developers implement such effects as animated text, graphic roll-overs, and pages that change based on user input without having to be reloaded.
Why use Web standards?
Web Standards compliance is generally an advantage because of the following:
- Simplicity
Maintaining a web standards site is very easy. The HTML is so simple, and so logical that it makes no sense to continue torturing ourselves with the complex and chaotic documents generated with traditional layout methods. Using more semantic and structured HTML makes it easier and quicker to understand code created by somebody else - Accessibility
Is an important idea behind many web standards, especially HTML. Semantic HTML, where structure is separated from presentation, makes it easier for screen readers and alternative browsing devices to interpret the content. HTML 4 includes many features for improved access by people with disabilities. W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative is working on providing effective guidelines for making your pages accessible to all, not just those using graphical browsers. - Compatibility
Compatible with newer browsers. When you use defined standards and valid code you future-proof your documents by reducing the risk of future web browsers not being able to understand the code you have used - Time saving and flexible for development
Using standards ensures that your Web site has the built-in flexibility for growth and change because well-written standards-compliant code is concise, clean and clear. For the average Web author, this means a great deal of time that can be saved in the process of updating or altering content that is easier to maintain - Significant cost savings
Standard-compliant Web pages gives savings in bandwidth. Case-studies have shown that using standard based design, and separating the content from the presentation can reduce the weight of a site by 25% to 50%. This also improves the user experience as smaller pages load more quickly - Profitable
It ensures that your Web site is accessible to all and you can open your business and your content to an increased audience. It opens up opportunities for a larger and more loyal customer base, which can only benefit your bottom line
The universal adoption of web standards is becoming of paramount importance. Using these standards make the Web a better place, for developers and for end-users, by encouraging browser and web page editor makers to follow the standards in their applications. Web standards is the future, make better use of it now!
Business Benefits of Blogs
June 1st, 2007 | Posted by Ben KeoghBlog is derived from the word Weblog which means Web and Log. These are entries such as journals, newsletters or diaries which are regularly updated for public consumption. Blogs correspond to the personality of the author or the Web site itself.
Blogging is a great method of communication especially for your growing business. But m any companies still view blogging as something only done for personal reasons or by people who wish to show pictures of their pets. A well designed weblog is crucial to your company’s reputation. We all value our company’s brand identity and that is why this article will tell us tangible business benefits of blogs and why it can no longer be ignored in businesses nowadays. As we read along, we will provide you reasons why business owners should add blogs to their website and why should they maintain and keep it updated regularly.
- Search engine optimization (SEO): Search engines love a site that is constantly updated. That is why blogging is great for businesses because they are updated far more often than most Web sites, which are fixed; they enjoy higher rankings for relevant keywords on search engines like Google.
- They are interactive in nature: Blogs have comment entries at the end of each post. Your customers and would-be-customers will be allowed to make some comments, suggestions or any inquiries with your products. You can check those who are really interested and get connected with them.
- Anticipation for your site: Blogs that are updated frequently will be a good sign for your targeted audience, since they will read something new and learn new things from it that will give them eagerness on visiting your site. Companies are always trying to win mindshare by sticking on advertisements of themselves almost everywhere, along with getting publications to write about them. With a blog you always get this exposure and major publications are more likely to write about your company since the information is readily available.
- Strengthen your brand: Blogs help to position you and your company as experts and leaders in your industry. You are able to show your passion for your business that would create a trustful image from your customers.
- Better search engine rankings: If your blog has good contents, people will liberally add links to it. More links means more traffic which leads to better search engine rankings.
- Make revenues for your blog: If you have regular audience interested in your blog topics, try to offer advertisement space to organizations that are looking to market your audience. In fact, if your blogs become really popular then advertisers will call you.
- Saves money: By blogging, you will raise your profile on the web that will help to increase visits to your site, and that is cheap marketing! While a blog can also complement your existing Web site, it easily can replace it as well.
- Sense of belongingness: If your market feels as though they are part of the community, then you will more likely to succeed in selling your products. Blogs (along with other online communities) can help build the feeling of being part of a group. When people feel as though they belong to something, they are more likely to remain loyal. A loyal customer also becomes your best salesman.
- Business support group: You can even meet a number of business partners. It may also keep you in touch with a lot of interesting people that will help you provide and expand your business ideas.
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- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
