Category Archives: Webdesign

All You Need To Know About Submission To Web Directories

Posted on October 4, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

If you are a web site owner and do its SEO and promotion by yourself, you know that search engines bring huge traffic, and you do your best to climb the top of the search results. You know that quality text content and proper meta tags are very important, and you know how important are links which lead to your web site from other sites. There are several ways of getting links for your web site and submission to web directories is one of them.

1. Why submission to web directories is a powerful tool for your web site promotion?

Web directory is a web site that accepts web sites listings categorized into categories and sub-categories. When you submit your site to a web directory, a link to your web site is added. As you know, link popularity is an important factor for high rankings. When your link is placed on a page with good PR this is a plus to your web site link popularity, because your web site gets ‘piece’ of the page’s PR. The more links your web site has the higher your rankings in search engines but the links must be natural – i.e. relevant and one-way.

Yes, few years ago for high rankings in search engines it was enough just to exchange links with other web sites. Nowadays Google recognizes such schemes and considers these links not natural, and discounts their value in web site popularity and PR calculation. Reciprocal link exchange can still be used as way to get visitors to your web site if you exchange links with good high traffic web sites, but for building ranking one-way natural links are needed.

The links must be SEO-friendly: static, direct, and without ‘nofollow’ attribute; they must be on a page that has some PR, surrounded by text content related to your web site theme and not more than 30 other web sites links. More links on a page will devaluate “piece” of PR your web site gets from the page.

Web directory that offers such links is called SEO friendly web directory and is really worth even paying some small amount for submission because your link will be found and indexed by search engines in just a couple of days and it will be a “plus” to your web site link popularity.

2. What listing to select?

Usually web directory listing consists of linked title, URL, and description, and also can display web site home page thumbnail, Page Rank, detailed description, reviews by visitors, and other. Listings can be free, free with reciprocal, regular paid, and paid premium.

Free listing is a regular listing, its plus that you pay nothing for inclusion, but this type of listings doesn’t guarantee permanent place for your link because newly submitted links will move it to the further pages with lower PR.

Option of free with reciprocal link listing you can select in a paid directory if you don’t want to pay but want to add your web site. Some web directories consider this type of listings as a kind of premium, and give benefits of placement to your link until you keep their reciprocal link alive.

Regular paid listing you may pay for inclusion to a really good web directory, which is SEO friendly and will really give positive results to your web site promotion.

Premium paid listing is always placed above regular listings and can be added to top categories pages with good PR. Such type of listing guarantees permanent top place until payment expiration, which can be monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Often premium listing allows deep links submission, i.e. link to internal pages or sub-directories of your web site, that is good for your web site promotion.

3. How to find good web directories?

Of course you can use search engines but better is to use categorized list of reviewed and rated web directories at special web sites like http://www.criticdirectory.com, http://www.directorycritic.com, http://www.addurl.nu/, http://info.vilesilencer.com/ where the directories are reviewed by hundreds of webmasters so you don’t waste your time on submission to useless directories.
As you will see from the lists, there are general and niche web directories. Always start submission from niche web directories related to your web site theme, because links from relevant resources will be more useful for your web site, and then go to general web directories.

4. How to submit your web site correctly?

There are some tips and secrets and you really need to know them to get high ROI for your money and time spend on submission. Follow these 5 tips to make web directories work for your web site:

4.1. Make sure that it is a SEO friendly web directory

Links must be direct, static, and SEO-friendly, i.e. search engine robots will easily find and index your link. View the web page source code by right clicking on the page and selecting ‘View Source’ from the drop-down menu. Look at the page meta tags, namely ‘ROBOTS’ and make sure it doesn’t contain ‘NOFOLLOW’ or ‘NOINDEX’ attributes.

Look at the links codes – they must be placed within tag ‘A’, ‘URL’ in ‘HREF’ attribute must be pointed directly to a linked web site, not redirect from the web directory domain link. Links must not contain ‘NOFOLLOW’ attribute.

4.2. Find the best place for your web site link

The best place is page with good Page Rank, easily and shortly reached from index page of the web directory, that contain relevant text and links.

Browse a web directory categories and/or subcategories to find the best placement for your link. It’s very important because link, placed on a page with text content relevant by theme to the web site’s theme has more value in eyes of search engines. If your web site fits more than one categories or subcategories, select the one which is reached by less clicks from the home page, and/or has less other web sites links on the pages, this will give your link larger ‘piece’ of Page Rank.

4.3.Follow the web directory submission guidelines

If the online web directory meets all these requirements you can start composing your link. Always before starting submission you should read the submission rules or guidelines, because if your submission is failed to meet them, your web site will be denied.

Usually typical submission guidelines are quite simple and within the common sense rules – your web site must be legal, developed (no landing page or under construction), must not be related to racism, hate, illegal activities, etc.

If you try to submit such web site regardless of the guidelines, most likely your submission will be denied because most of web directories are human edited.

Another reason for your web site to be denied is that you selected wrong category for your listing – some web directory editor may fix it, but another one will just delete the listing.

Let’s also talk about deep linking – this is when you submit internal page of your web site like www.yoursitename.com/pagename.html instead of top level domain www.yoursitename.com
Deep linking is a SEO tactics for getting links, which look more natural in eyes of search engines, and it helps promoting certain web site pages or sections as well. Not all web directories accept deep links for regular listings – most of them offer this for premium paid submission only. If you want to submit internal page link to a web directory, read before starting what the directory submission guidelines tell about this to avoid deletion of your listing.

4.4.Write proper title and description for your link

Title of your link is very important because usually it will be linked to your web site as anchor text that has great impact on your web site search engine rankings, so do your best writing title for each link you submit, however do not stuff the title with keywords only because this may cause rejection of your submission by the directory editor. Write normal informative phrases describing your web site topics, services, products, ideas.

If the web directory submission rules allow using 2-3 keywords or key phrases in the title and description, do not miss that chance; however try to ‘mix’ the keywords with other normal words.

Do not exceed the allowed limit of characters otherwise your title will be truncated or the whole listing rejected.

Vary the link title and description at least slightly for each submission to make the links look natural in eyes or search engines. When search engines find hundreds or thousands of links to your web site with the same anchor text (title) and description, they just discount the links value and your money and time were wasted to no result in rankings. It’s enough just to change one word in title and phrases order in the description from directory to directory, and use different keywords for every 10th web directory to get natural links for your web site and improve its rankings for all the keywords.

Remember that human users are also interested in your web site listing and if will follow the link if they find its interesting and useful. That’s why to use normal language for the title and description, that takes attention of the users and prompt them to click the link.

4.5. Write down all web directories you have submitted your web site to

The first reason for this is to avoid repeated submission to the same web directory because this may cause the first submission rejection or deletion. Also it’s just helpful and handy to have summary list of where and when you submitted your web site, so in few weeks you can return and check if your web site has been added, because some web directories send notification about web site inclusion but some do not and you have to check it manually.

5.How often to submit?

When you start submission you may have list of up to 500 web directories. Process of reviewing and approval by editors usually takes up to several weeks, so even if you submit your web site to all of the 500 web directories at once, the links will not come up same day and your web site will not be penalized for too rapid links getting. However it’s better to keep submission limit reasonable, remembering that the links must look natural in eyes of search engines. So just submit about 100-200 links weekly and after 2 months you will see complete results.

New web directories appear every day and almost all of them are free at the beginning of their life, so you must be hurry to reserve a good place for your web site link because after several months the most of web directories will become paid, and their popularity and Page Rank will grow due to promotion efforts of the owners.

Where to find new web directories? Visit http://www.smackdebt.com/submit-directory.htm for daily report based on webmaster’s and SEO’s forums announcements.

6.Automated submission vs Manual

Submitting your web site to web directories you will notice that some web sites offer automated or bulk submission to 500+ or even 5000+ web directories. Are the services worth trying them? Yes, if a submitter allows using different titles and descriptions for different directories, because if he submits 500 or 5000 links with the same title and description for your web site there is a risk of penalizing by search engines, or just they will discount these links considering them not natural, so you will waste your money.

Bulk submission is great when dozens of hundreds of web directories are owned or managed by one person or company and they can add your web site to all of the directories, however again, ask them if there is a possibility of using different titles and descriptions for different directories, at least for each 5th or 10th.

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Why not Have a One Web Page Design Until you are Ready for a Full Web Site?

Posted on October 4, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

A number of web design customers coming to us have only recently set up a business. In fact some have not even set up their business and are exploring ideas with regards to a web design. Designing a full fledge web site can be costly, depending on what type of web design you are looking for. If you are not sure about your business, your products and services, let alone your corporate identity, you might not be ready to invest into a web design project. If you have just started your business a one page web site or web page design might be the answer for you. The one web page design has several advantages.

Nowadays, whether you like it or not, every business has its web site. More than likely you need a web page design as well. But you do not require a full several pages web design from the outset. You can still have a web page with your logo, a nice web design, your contact details, some texts about your business, products or services and be part of the online business community.

Indeed, there are a number of web page design companies that are offering affordable web design solutions for small businesses which are not ready to invest in a large web design project. One of the most popular web page design web sites are those that allow you to have your web page design, a domain name, a hosting and your web site online in a few simple steps. How does it work?

Discount Web Design offers such a web page design product which is popular with business starters. Just visit the site, select Business Starter Web Page Design and follow the simple 5 step web page design process. First, check if your domain name is available. Then choose your web design from a number of templates. Just click on the web design that best suits your needs and proceed to step 2. Here you can easily upload your logo if you have one or order a logo online. Step 3, type in your company contact details and some text in the boxes provided. Preview your web page design, if you like what you see, click on the order button to securely pay online. Once your payment is cleared, allow 48 hours for your web page design to be published online on your own domain name.

Once your web page design is published you will also receive five email addresses with your domain name. The web page design will look professional and you can have your own web site, on the internet within 48 hours at a very affordable price. Discount Web Design will also place a link to your web page design from our web site which is already indexed by the major search engines. This means that your web page design will also get picked up by search engines in time. Having a web page design online will help your domain name and web site with Search Engine Optimisation. The longer your domain name is online, the better it is. Obviously, in time you can use the same domain name and hosting account to publish a full web design with several pages. Until then, your web page design will be accumulating Search Engine Optimisation by just being online. Search Engines like established sites, even if it is a one web page design.

There are then some definite advantages to getting your one page web design online as soon as you can. It’s easy and affordable. Your customers can see your web presence through your web page design and it is working in your favour with the search engines.

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Amazing New Facts About Web 2.0!

Posted on October 4, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

When you come across the term Web2.0, the first thing that comes to your mind would be – ‘This looks like a new version of the World Wide Web! Web 2.0 is not really a new version of the Web, but a term that’s refers to an improved form of the World Wide Web.

The concept of Web 2.0 started during a brainstorming session between O’Reilly and MediaLive International. During this session, what they noted was, through the dot com bubble had burst; the World Wide Web was far from over. It had in fact just started to become an important tool for springing up new applications and sites. They concluded that the dot com collapse marked a turning point for the Web and this turning point ushered a new set of features into the Web. They characterized these new features as Web 2.0.

With the coming in of these new features, the use of the World Wide Web as a means of just browsing the internet was over! Web users now have the opportunity to contribute and shape the content they see and read about on the Web. Such contribution can be done in many ways such as writing a compelling blog, recording a podcast or sharing photos and videos with the world. Thus, with Web2.0, the demand for “user-generated content” has reached the top and there is no looking back now.

So, what are these new features that revolutionised the World Wide Web and changed user outlook on how to use the web forever? Here’s a look:

• Web 2.0 has a participation architecture wherein as more people use it, others are also benefited. In other words, there is a network effect in its usage.

• It has become a platform for business and communication, rather than just being a place where information is stored. The Web is used to deliver applications, just through a browser.

• The Web now consists of sites which are informative and interactive. The information on the site is owned by the site owners and is constantly updated by them.

• Web 2.0 has feature-rich and user-friendly interfaces based on Ajax or other similar frameworks.

All these features indicate that Web 2.0 is actually the second generation of Web-based services. Social networking sites, Wikis, Communication tools, and Folksonomies, are typical examples of these new services. One important characteristic that the new services share is that they provide for online collaboration and sharing among users.

Web 2.0 has brought a number of innovations for its users, by which user experience of the web has been enriched. Looking into the innovations associated with Web 2.0:

• Rick user experience: The web sites, we see on the web now offer a rich user experience through Ajax technology. They have the same features as the personal computer such a word processing, spread sheet, slide show presentations. The use of browser-based operating system are also seen and these services function as application platforms and provide the same user experience as a desk-top operating system by offering features and applications similar to a PC environment.

• Rich internet applications: Software such as Ajax, Adobe Flash, Flex and OpenLaszlo, provide rich internet application techniques by which users can request for updates to some part of a page’s contents, without the need to refresh the whole page.

• Advanced server software: The service technology required for supported web sites in Web 2.0 has advanced. As a result server vendors offer new features. One is the universal server approach, in which all required functionality is placed in a single server platform, and the other is the web-server plugin approach, in which standard publishing tools are used, along with API interfaces and other tools.

• Enhanced client-side software: The coming up of scripting language such as Javascript has enabled the use of client computer to reduce workload on the server. The extra functionality provided by Web 2.0 depends on the ability of users to work with the data stored on servers. This can be done through forms in an HTML page, through a scripting language such as Javascript, or through Flash or Java. All these methods make use of the client computer to reduce the server workloads.

• RSS: Syndication is an important feature of Web 2.0. Through syndication, end-users can do different things with the data on a particular site. They can use it in another context such as another web-site, to a browser plugin, or to a separate desktop application. Protocols which permit syndication include RSS ,RDF, and Atom. All these protocols use XML-based formats.

• Use of web protocols: One of the most important elements of Web 2.0 infrastructure is web communication protocols such as REST and SOAP. REST provides a means to access and manipulate data on a server using the HTTP verbs GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE, while SOAP enables posting XML messages and requests to a server.

All said and done about the effects of Web 2.0 on internet users, the term has received considerable flak from critics.

One point argued is that since there is actually no real standard set to define Web 2.0, it can be thought of in different ways by different people. Furthermore, much of the radical changes attributed to Web 2.0 have emerged before the term Web 2.0 was actually coined. For example, Amazon provided its users with the feature of writing reviews and consumer’s guides when it started in 1995.

There are sites which claims they are Web 2.0 site because they some trivial feature such as a blog. This is more like using means Web 2.0 as a way to market themselves and not actually using it in the context if what it really means. The critics who points all this out feel that there is actually no Web 2.0, but only an extension of the existing World Wide Web with enhanced technologies. For example if you take Ajax technology, it cannot be used as a replacement of underlying protocols like HTTP, it functions like an additional layer of abstraction on top of them.

However, despite what the critics say, the term has been coined and is here to stay. As the World Wide Web evolves with the advent of more advanced technologies, this term will become more significant as people will have to associate such new technologies with a new version of the web. Even if this new version is not actually announced, it is expected that Web 2.0 will be used to refer to them.

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How to Promote your Small Business Web Site Without Costing you a Nickel

Posted on October 4, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

Title : How to Promote your small business web site without costing you a nickel.

Desc : Organizing a Cost Effective Small Business Web Site Promotion And how to promote your website!

How to: Promote your small business web site without costing you a nickel.

Small Business Web Site Promotion

The most important thing to remember when you want to encourage visitors to visit your web site is to make sure they will want to return again. ‘Visitors’ means not just human web surfers, but also the search engines and directories. Small business website promotion, no matter how much you promote your site, will be the look of the site that will keep visitors there and hopefully buy your products or services.

Optimize your Site for Search Engines; Check your links

Small business website promotion starts with a search engine spider indexing or cataloging your site by following the links from one page to another. Just as human visitors dislike a broken link, so do the spiders. If a link doesn’t work they’ll simply move onto the next page. No matter how sophisticated the search engine software is, it can’t index what it can’t find. Also remember that a spider will not be able to follow a link that requires a form submission or Java Script so small business website promotion is very important.

While considering the subject of links, if you are using HTML and CSS on your site, make sure that both work properly. A certain minimum level of requirements must be met so that your pages will display correctly. It is only if these are met that a spider can do its work. There are free facilities online that can check both of these for you.

* Make sure your links work.

* Do not use forms or Javascript if you want a search engine spider to find your pages

* Check that HTML and CSS work properly.

Do not make your Pages too big!

Most of us have heard the expression ‘size isn’t everything’. While this may not be true of many things, it does matter when it comes to web pages. People do not like having to wait an eternity for a web page to load. Search engine spiders may not fully index a page bigger than 150k in size. Remember that the size of a page does not simply depend on the actual HTML file itself, but includes everything on the page such as images, banners etc.

If you have a lot of images on your pages, then either reduce the number of them, or use a program such as Macromedia Fireworks to optimize them for the web. If the page has a big file size because there is a massive amount of text in it, then you should consider splitting the text into smaller, more manageable pieces and putting them on several pages and linking one to another. SEO Chat has a tool called “Page Size Lookup” which can tell you the size of your web page; you can check it out at

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/page-size/

* Keep the file size to below 150k

* Optimize images for the web

* Use a free page size checker to find out the actual size of the page.

Search Engines and Directories; What is the difference between a search engine and a directory?

People frequently use the term ‘search engine’ as a catch-all expression for anything they use to search the Web. They are different things though, and an understanding of the differences will enable you get use both effectively to promote your site more successfully.

How does a search engine work?

Search engines use highly sophisticated software to search the web for new pages. It then automatically creates and updates their indexes. Whenever they find an active hyperlink, they will follow it and add that to the index and so on. These ‘crawling’ programs are generally referred to as ‘spiders’.

Normally, all this is totally automatic, but sometimes human intervention is involved. The spider will return periodically to the pages and check for updated content. Often there will be a delay between you uploading your page, and the spider finding it, unless you submit your URL directly to the search engine itself. You can submit a web URL to Google ™ free of charge.

* Search engines are usually automatic

* They will revisit your pages.

* Spiders will find all the pages on your site as long as there are active hyperlinks for them to follow.

* You can submit a site to most search engines free of charge.

How Directories Work.

The primary difference between a search engine and a search directory is that a directory is compiled by a real person. Frequently the site owner will submit a short description of the site together with its URL to the directory compiler to be considered for inclusion. Directories are arranged into categories to make it easier to find what you are looking for.

When you submit your site to a directory, you choose the category you want your site to be featured in. A reviewer then checks to ensure that your site is in the most suitable category.

Another difference between a search engine and a directory is that whereas a search engine could list every individual page in your web site, a directory will generally only contain a single entry covering your entire site.

* Directories are compiled by real people.

* They are categorized.

* A reviewer checks to ensure your site is in the best category.

* A directory will usually only contain one entry for your entire site.

Shared Indexes and Hybrids

Things are never so straightforward though. Some search portals are a hybrid, combing a search engine and a directory. The search engine part returns automated results, while the directory gives human found results.

Normally, a hybrid will supply hits from the directory as the primary source, with the search engine results of individual pages as the secondary source.

Getting your Site Ready

It cannot be stressed too strongly that search engines and/or directories are by far the most important way of getting your site noticed. To do this, you have to properly prepare the site and submit your URL to them.

Keywords are important: Choose the right keywords

Think what your web site is all about. If you had to describe your site in one word, then that word is your first keyword. Then think about other words to describe your site. Make a list of them, with the most important at the top of the list and so on. You want a list of between ten and fifteen words. Since these keywords will be used in a variety of ways, it is important that you take some time selecting them.

Keywords are important because they are possibly the most important thing that a search engine uses to determine whether a page is included in the search results. Even although different search engines use keywords in different ways, most experts agree that the frequency and position of your keywords is an important factor.

* Select keywords to describe your site.

* Choose 10 – 15 keywords.

* Take your time picking keywords – they are extremely important.

Pick a Good Title for your Web Page

When you write a web page, there is always a tag. This goes into the section of your web page. The tag is what is shown at the top of your web page when it is displayed in a web browser. Search engines, however, often use the tag as the title of the listing in the results.

The tag looks like this

The name of my Web Page

Not only is it good practice to make your tag have a good description of the content of the page, but if you can manage to work into it some of your keywords, so much the better.

Why you should use Meta Tags?

What are meta tags?

Meta tags are a special type of HTML code that goes into the section of a web page. Site visitors do not normally see them, but search engine spiders do. Just as some HTML tags have an attribute with a value, so too do meta tags.

As far as optimizing your web page for search engines is concerned, the most important meta tags are keywords and description. The syntax for the keyword tag is as follows:

The description tag is as follows:

Unlike some HTML tags, it is not strictly necessary to have the meta tag closed, but if you want to have valid XHTML, then you do need to close all your tags.

Consider your URL

Since we are discussing matters that will influence how a page appears, it is worth considering the actual URL of the page itself. Since the URL that appears in your browser reflects the file path for the page, it makes good sense to have the file name reflect the navigation of the site.

You can see at a glance that this page refers to the Lower Square, which is part of the Castle, which in turn is part of Stirling. Not only does this meaningful URL impart information to the visitor, but for the web designer it makes sense to have the separate files arranged in a logical manner. This will only apply to pages that have not been dynamically created by a database program, of course.

* Choose a meaningful title for your page.

* Put your keywords into the /www.dmoz.org/). This is the largest human-maintained directory of the Web. Because it allows virtually anyone to access its resources, many search portals such as AOL, Netscape and HotBot take advantage of this and include their data into their own systems. This means that once you are included on the ODP database, you are also included in many others.

* There are places you can submit your site free of charge

* Google is probably the most important place to submit to.

* Yahoo is a good second choice if you don’t mind registering with them.

* Do not forget the Open Directory Project.

Paid Listings

Although Google and Yahoo do not charge you anything for submitting your site to them, they do not guarantee where or when your site will appear in their listings. However, they do have sponsored links that appear either above or beside the listing of search engine hits. These are useful for promoting your small business web site since they are targeted links. If, for instance, someone searches for “bagpipes”, then not only will they get a list of bagpipe related sites returned, but they will also see the ‘sponsored links”.

Free Promotional Techniques

Ad Swapping

This is one of the easier ways of getting your web site promoted. What it involves basically is that you display an advertising banner, button or text link on your web site, and other sites do the same for your ads.

The simplest way of swapping banner ads is to join an existing banner swapping network:

Banner Advertising

Banner networks work because you are provided with a few lines of HTML code to include on your web pages, usually near the top. The HTML creates banners from other sites on your pages. When a visitor clicks on them, they are re-directed to their web site. At the same time, you provide the network organizer with your own banner to display elsewhere.

There are many banner ad networks available, so choose with caution. Try to find one that will direct traffic to your site, by displaying your ad on related sites. In order for the network to make money, they will perhaps ask you to display 2 banners in return for displaying yours once.

No network will promise a 1:1 ratio, so avoid those that do. Do not consider paying for extra banners until you have proved to yourself that the free ad is generating enough visitors to your site. Although most networks will promise not to display ads for pornographic or other unsuitable sites, in reality you have no control over them.

* Banner ads are free

* Try to choose a network that is related in some way to your business.

* Avoid those that make extravagant claims about the ratio of ads.

* Be aware that you have virtually no control over what ads appear on your site.

* You might get buttons or text links instead of banners.

Peer to Peer Swaps

Although banner swapping can yield increased exposure of your site, sometimes a more targeted approach is required. The object of the exercise is to get your ad seen by as many possible visitors as possible, therefore if you can arrange a deal with the webmaster of a busier site than yours it could be advantageous.

You may have to compromise. In return for prominently displaying an advertisement for a busier or better known web site than yours, you might have to agree to less prominence on the other site.

Web Rings

These are networks of similarly themed sites which creates links from one to another to form a chain. You will display a web link icon and a list of at least some of the other sites in the ring. If you are just launching your web site it is probably best to try to join an established ring.

There are possible flaws in joining a web ring. You will need to allow space on your pages to display the ring logo. Visitors might think that you are part of an organization, and if some of the sites are badly built, you might be associated with the rest of them. You will have no control over which sites join the ring, and link to you and vice versa.

* Web rings are free.

* They are normally similar web sites to your own.

* You have no control over the quality of the other sites in the ring.

Article Submission Sites : What is an Article Submission site?

An article submission site, and there are roughly 250 of them, are an effective way of promoting your own goods and services as well as generating traffic to your web site. Their purpose is to provide webmasters, e-book editors and e-zine publishers with free content for their own publications. The articles are usually arranged into different categories, and the site is normally searchable.

How they work

You write an article or series of articles about what you have to offer on your web site. The purpose of the article is not to directly sell your goods. Let us suppose that your web site sells a wide range of possible gifts for all members of the family. Your article might be about, for example, birthday gift ideas for teenage boys.

The purpose is to make your article interesting enough and informative enough for it to be used somewhere else. Since you have included some biographical details about yourself, including your own URL, and your article is published exactly as it appears on the article site, your URL appears in the end-user’s web site. Thus you are getting free publicity, and the publisher is getting free content.

* Article submission sites get you free publicity.

* Publishers get free page content.

* Your URL appears wherever your article is used, and so generates traffic to your site.

Paid or free submissions

All article submission sites will allow you to submit your article for nothing. You register with the site, and you can select what category you want your article to appear in. When you write your article you will include the same keywords as you did when you wrote the HTML for your web site. Thus a search engine will find your site, as well as the article you wrote about it.

Some article sites will allow you to bid for better placement within their pages. Basically, the more you bid, the higher prominence you will get on the article site’s home page. Thus you are the first thing a publisher notices. Even if you are outbid for top spot, chances are you will still be on the home page. Since a lot of the sites also have separate front pages for each of the categories, even if you don’t achieve prime position on the site’s home page, you likely will in the category pages.

* Use the same keywords you used on your web pages.

* You can bid for increased placement on the article site’s pages.

Summary

As you can see, there are many ways that you can promote your small business web site. By far the simplest way is to ensure that your web site has carefully chosen key words for search engines to find. You can also submit your web site to search engines, ad exchange networks, web rings and article submission sites free.

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Rajesh V. Tavakari, Senior SEO of http://www.website-promotion-ranking-services.com/. Offering affordable website promotion and natural optimization services since 1998. Website : http://www.website-promotion-ranking-services.com/ . You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice, author name and URL remain intact.

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Web Accessibility a Universal Goal

Posted on October 3, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

Introduction:

Over the last decay, an increase number of research were conducted to determine ways Information Technology can assist in meeting special needs to ensure universal accessibility. Findings to date suggest that by being more knowledgeable about accessibility issues, Web designers and developers are able to accommodate end users with special needs.

As we enter the knowledge age, it is no longer acceptable that people with limited or no vision are on their own when it comes to accessing the web, nor those with mobility problems are on their own when it comes to use a hardware. To ignore

website accessibility raises moral, business, and legal issues. It is morally wrong to discriminate

against disabled people on the web simply through lack of thought, consideration, or awareness. Many business web sites designed without considering accessibility issues result in loss of revenue. Some countries, such as the US, UK, and Australia has introduced legislation that requires organizations to adhere to accessibility issues.

In June 1999, the Disability Discrimination Act (1999) has been used to fight for access rights in

Australia. The 2000 Olympic Site Games, jointly developed by Sydney Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and IBM was found inaccessible to the blind users, and SOCOG was fined A$ 20,000 [1].

The purpose of this paper is raising awareness among web designers and developers, to achieve universal web accessibility goal. The paper looks at the disability issues and the existing assistive technologies or methods used by disabled users to assist them in accessing the web.

Afterwards, the paper reviews guidelines for good web site design, and provides analysis for designing an accessible website. Furthermore, the paper highlights on the challenges and gaps in the web accessibility area.

Literature Review:

Two years ago, a Conference was held in ‘London’ and attended by representatives of commerce, industry, government, and the IT Sector aiming to raise awareness of the potential benefits of assistive technology to disabled users. The outstanding number of speakers highlighted through number of cases how technology can transfer lives. ‘Sue Bassoon’ a Business Development Manager at IBM said: “IBM’s goal is to have a speech recognition system as good as the human ear by 2010” [2].

The objectives of this literature is two folds: (1) explain how a particular disability (e.g.

visual impairment, mobility restriction, hearing impairment) can impede the use of the web, and what can be done to accommodate special needs; and (2) show how web designers and developers can construct accessible web sites to end users with disabilities, such as visual or hearing impairment.

(1) Disability Issues

The section begins with a descriptive part concerning disabled user functional limitation

and dependence on assistive technologies.

A- Vision Issues:

A web user who has no sight (totally blind) is likely to use the screen reader technology to reads a load the content of the web page. Other web users, with partial or poor sight need to be able to enlarge the text on web page using a screen magnifier.

B- Mobility Issues:

A web user may have mobility problems as a result of an accident or disease such as:(loss of limb, Injury, or aging process). The technologies used by users with mobility problems are:

- Sticky Keys: For users with one finger typing.

- Filter Keys: Ignores repeated strokes for people with hand tremors.

- Mouse Keys: Permits moving pointer with numeric keypad.

- Serial Key: Permits access to alternatives for mouse and keyboard functions such as Foot Mouse.

- Eye gaze: A video camera that racks eye movement as the user look at an on screen keyboard. It is customizable as how long a key must be looked at to be recorded. When system has identified the key looked at the symbol appears and the user look at next key.

C- Hearing Issues:

A web user may be deaf or experiencing problems with hearing due to the natural aging process. To assist those users the audio or video need to be translated to the ASL (American Sign Language) language of the deaf, in which certain signs represent words.

(2) Design for Accessibility

In the above section, the paper provided readers with a general knowledge about disability issues, disabled users, and the existing assistive technologies. This section is intended for web designers and developers, because it provides them with tips and guidelines on ways to design a good and accessible website. There are two main aspects

to take into account:

I- Look and Feel

Web designers need to present a user friendly interface that addresses specific ability needs. The designer should be able to describe ways disabled users interact with a website, and how they move through the pages and how they achieve their goals. Below, are helpful tips that designers need to consider when designing an accessible website.

- Web Designers & Developers; should follow the four principles of visual organization in the process of designing a website which are: Proximity, Alignment, Consistency, and Contrast.

- Web Designers & Developers; must avoid using HTML tables to control the layout, instead use style sheets.

- Web Designers & Developers; should use legible fonts, and font size to allow disabled users to easily change them from the browser interface.

- Avoid poor color contrast in your design, and do not use color for meaningful description.

- Avoid the use of animation, and flash which may affect users with photosensitive epilepsy.

- Avoid using Frames because it can pose problems for technology used by some disabled users.

- Try not to use graphics for menu and button forms.

- Avoid hiding menu items (using DHTML or applets)

II- Content

Web designers should organize content in a way that can provide ease of use and simplicity. Below, are helpful tips that designers need to consider when designing an accessible website:

- Use a clear language, and write short sentences.

For example, a web page should provide blind users with a short summary of what they can find. A Search Functionality is important because a blind person can’t scan the page, and will generally trust first result he/she receives.

- Add Accessible tags and attributes by using rich set of tags to enhance accessibility. For instance, an ALT tag is used to provide a text equivalent for images within a website. The

ALT text description is what the screen reader or talking browser will read to the blind users .

- Use clear link descriptions, and include links that a user can click to skip repetitive regions of the page.

- Ensure the pages are usable when scripts, applets, or style sheets are turned off or not

supported.

- All audio and video content should contain captions, transcription, and descriptive information.

Analysis:

It is estimated that 20% of the population has some kind of disability. The internet opens

a new window of opportunity and independence to disabled users from reading news to banking to conducting business. For example, by using the screen reader technology a blind user can listen to the latest newspaper published electronically. Similarly, a user with mobility problem who can not go out shopping to buy a newspaper, nor use a

keyboard or mouse independently, can rather use the eye tracking software that allow people to use a computer with nothing more than eye movement.

Nowadays, organizations are asking designers to make their web sites accessible and for

good reasons. First of all, the more people who can use a site, the more potential it can

generate. Online stores, in particular have a great deal to gain, since many people with

functional limitation problems, find it much easier to shop online. Most Web designers

are not personally opposed to the concept of making web sites accessible to people with

disabilities. In fact most accessibility errors on web sites are the result of ignorance. A large proportion of web designers and developers have simply never thought about accessibility issues. A small proportion of web designers (4%) do not understand the needs of users with disabilities; another (46%) understand some of the needs of users with disabilities. While only (26%) of designers understand most of the needs of users

with disabilities and can accommodate them [3].

The Challenges and Gaps of Web Accessibility:

In this section, we highlight the challenges and the requirements posed by user needs, to

access the web. We argue the need for a new approach to address accessibility issues, and

include it in each and every web project life cycle.We recognize that the vast majority of disabled users face challenges when accessing the web. Why is this? Is it the lack of technical solutions to meet their needs – absolutely not! You will hear today that there are new technological solutions to address even most extreme form of disability. Is it cost?

Again it is not! Some technical solutions, cost nothing at all, and already exist in software. So, What then? Is it that web applications are being developed that present challenges to accessible design? Is it lack of knowledge and skills to meet their needs?

There does seem a general lack of awareness of web accessibility issues. Web Designers and Developers, need to have a better approach to tackle the problem in each phase of the web development process. For example, during the requirement analysis phase a web developer must define the target audience of the site, and should take into account people with a combination of disabilities. In addition to this, during prototyping phase a web designer must have the knowledge to accommodate end users with special needs, and also the skills to meet their expectations.

Moreover, testing the web site using different

technologies is critical for a successful web site, to ensure it meets the accessibility

standards and user requirements [4].

Therefore, in each phase of the web development process, accessibility plays an important role. Accessibility and Usability should be completely embedded in web design and development cycles from beginning to end.

The future looks bright for web accessibility. It promises to educate web designers and developers about accessibility issues, through training courses offered at universities.

Conclusion:

The Internet offers independence and freedom. But, this independence and freedom is limited to certain users. Many websites are not created with accessibility issues in mind.

Whether it is the Web Designer lack of knowledge or ignorance, they exclude a segment of users that in many ways benefit from the internet [5].

In short, designing accessible websites does not require an enormous effort or time. It simply, requires commitment, and accountability, to achieve a universal goal.

Reference:

[1] Duckworth D. (2003).Web Accessibility in Australia. Retrieved June 18, 2005, from

http://www.tonneten.net/mt/blog/archieves/000024.htm

[2] Conference (2003). IT – The Universal Enabler, London. Retrieved May 28, 2005

from http://www.stcsig.org

[3]Web Accessibility Survey (2003). Retrieved June 24, 2005 from

http://cita.rehab.uiuc.eduu/survey/2002-2003-web-practices.html

[4] Volpon A. (2002). The Life cycle ofWeb Accessibility. Retrieved June 24, 2005 from

http://www.evolt.org/article/The_Lifecycle_of_Web_Accessibility/20/50376/

[5] Bohman P. (2003). Introduction to Web Accessibility. Retrieved June 24, 2005 from

http://www.webaim.org/intro

[6]Mertz D. (2000). Tips: Design for accessible Web sites. Retrieved June 22, 2005 from

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/w-mertz.htm

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Beyond Web 2.0 and the Pragmatic Semantic Web 1.0 or Web 3.0?

Posted on October 3, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

You have heard words like Web 2.0, Web 3.0, SaaS, Mashups, Web as Platform, Rich Internet Applications (RIA), Small Pieces, Loosely Joined, Lightweight Service Models, SOA, Business Process Management, Governance, Collaboration, Right To Remix, Orchestration, Products, Enterprise Web 2.0, Global SOA, Web services, Ajax, JSON, SOAP, RSS, ATOM, REST, Encouraging Unintended Uses, Enterprise Mashups, Enterprise 2.0? Then you probably have tried to look into the crystal ball and trying to predict the next trend in web development and what is going to be the future of it.

Well, the future is already here, but we have not yet seen the blossoming of the web 3.0 yet. But it is right around the corner, and just a matter of seeing the emerging web development taking place.

Several IT gurus have mad a description and created visions of Web 3.0, well beyond pure play of Web mashups that we are witnessing. We see a great number of companies are building end-user solutions that can automatically navigate the Internet, weave together tapestries of online information to generate new, useful results. They can even take it a step beyond: dynamically generated situational Web applications that fully interact with the Web ecosystem. Such applications, which are self-assembled by these tools, can perform useful tasks such as planning you vacations, managing personal schedules, or even orchestrating complex, collaborative business processes for example including entire real-world projects. The vision is fantastic but yet futuristic. The rich fabric of the Web today, with hundreds of open APIs and even vaster reservoirs of content and raw data, now opens the door to the possibility.

There has been written lots about the trend in user generated software, applications developed by end-users that use the openness of the Web 2.0 era to interact with high value Web services.

The Programmable Web Mashup Matrix lets you visualize the web mashup ecosystem and enable you to see the various players in the market and how they utilize various API’s.

But we are seeing the emergence of the next step beyond the user generated software. We can see the dawn of applications being developed and tasks being completed intelligently by software itself. The trend in number of mashups is from around 1200 of them in 2006 to around 2800 in February 2008. So there has been a drastic increase in the number of mashups during this period of only 14-18 months time. Looking at the widespread use of badges and widgets on Facebook, MySpace, Lulu and other social networking sites indicate that average user are getting more and more comfortable with experimenting with their blog and personal space with content, code, and feeds from elsewhere on the Web. Much of the end-user mashup activity we see today is probably not very deep and do not represent any sophisticated functionality. The new tools we’re seeing every day are getting better and better and allowing users to take it deeper, creating a true mashup environment.

So what does really a mashup do for you?

A mashup software will help businesses get more from their data by making it easy for workers to mash together simple tools to create something better. This is known as mashups, these software applications have been very popular with consumers. But few people have the technical ability to create them. Social software developers in smaller and larger international companies say that Mashups will change that, by reducing the technical skill required to combine the applications, and by adding features to protect sensitive data. The ultimate goal of mashups is to make the process simple: users can be able to connect existing applications by dragging and dropping them on the screen without having to program any codes what so ever.

Although there’s been an explosion of widgets on the Web in the past year, in most cases, it’s easy for users to make widgets share space on a Web page, but not to make them share data, they’re mixable, but not mashable. For example the Facebook users can paper their profiles with a variety of simple applications, but those applications are isolated from each other. In contrast, mashups allows users to combine widgets, so that taking an action within one widget triggers the others to act too. For example, a user could build an application for tracking stock prices of different companies, using a chart as the central widget. The chart could include company name, location, and ticker symbol. Clicking a line in the chart could send data to several connected widgets, such as one that looks up the company name on Google, one that maps the location of the company headquarters, and one that retrieves the most recent stock price for the company. Several companies is participating in the Open Ajax Foundation’s effort to create standards for widgets, which will hopefully make it more common for widgets from different sources to share data.

The development of the Semantic Web has been the goal of many endeavors on the web ever since Tim Berners Lee proclaimed this type of web development within the W3C Semantic web consortium. The semantic web is the evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which web content can be expressed not only in natural language, but also in a format that can be read and used by automated tools, thus permitting people and machines to find, share and integrate information more easily. But due to the fact that the challenge is large and complex, the development of Semantic Web has not yet been successful.

The core of semantic web comprises a set of design principles, collaborative working groups, and a variety of enabling technologies. Some elements of the semantic web are expressed as prospective future possibilities that have yet to be implemented or realized. Other elements of the semantic web are expressed in formal specifications. Some of these include Resource Description Framework (RDF), a variety of data interchange formats (e.g. RDF/XML, N3, Turtle, N-Triples), and notations such as RDF Schema (RDFS) and the Ontology Web Language (OWL), all of which are intended to provide a formal description of concepts, terms, and relationships within a given knowledge domain.

You will need a software that can coordinate the delivery of construction materials to a job site for the least total cost including materials and shipping, just in time and in the correct order as the items on the construction schedule are completed? Well, it seems like only Mashups and Semantic Web Apps will make this happen and get you up and running with tasks similar to this.

At the moment we see development of tools/ business units enabling the automation of software creation and process management. Interestingly enough they are usually not via true Semantic Web technology, but by virtue of open, simple, easy-to-describe-and-consume services of the Web 2.0 generation. So this will probably create the start of web 3.0 with its mashups and semantic web forming the base for web 3.0.

Web 2.0 is what happened while we were waiting for the Semantic Web 1.0.

Will there be a standardized web 3.0 or will we have a pragmatic Semantic Web beta first?

The latest generation of tools seen in the market seems to be built on simple yet proprietary codes or approaches and not on the open but formal Semantic Web technology. RSS 1.0 had the same issue about userability as semantic web 1.0 can have. Therefor it is more likely that the next generation of approaches will be the Pragmatic Semantic Web beta although we have to be concerned about the lack of standards. This will create a challenge as we see the development of so many mashup tools creating the ability to mashup widgets from all sorts of sources on the internet. Let us not get the battle of which format should survive instead of creating the best tools to solve the consumer and business needs, namely to effectively utilize a collective knowledge collection and analysis of it.

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Web 3.0 Application : Web 3.0 Applications : Web 3.0 Design : Web 3.0 Semantic Web : Web 3.0 Web Development Standards

Posted on October 3, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

With the Internet dominating the business world, the need to have an effective web 3.0 site has increased among companies. In today’s always-on world, a company’s web site is critical to its ability to compete and succeed.

We are experts in Web 3.0 development. Our top priority is to provide high-quality web 3.0 solution to our customers around the world. Web 3.0 is defined as the creation of high-quality content and services produced by individuals using Web 2.0 technology as an enabling platform.

 

Web 3.0 Application

 

Web 3.0 technologies

1. Artificial intelligence

2. Automated reasoning

3. Cognitive architecture

4. Composite applications

5. Distributed computing

6. Knowledge representation

7. Ontology (computer science)

8. Recombinant text

9. Scalable vector graphics

10. Semantic Web

11. Semantic Wiki

12. Software agents

 

The Semantic Web 3.0 will bring structure to the meaningful content of Web pages, creating an environment where software agents roaming from page to page can readily carry out sophisticated tasks for users.

 

Web 3.0 is a place where machines can read Web pages much as we humans read them, a place where search engines and software agents can better troll the Net and find what we’re looking for. A prime example of a Web 3.0 technology is ‘natural-language search’, which refers to the ability of search engines to answer full questions such as ‘Which is the third leading software MNC in india’. 

Web 3.0 development will be driven by a new hybrid of innovation strategies that support a new business model. In the new models businesses will make quantum leaps because they will finally discover that fostering new ideas and empowering their employees by ethically compensating them for their intellectual property, makes more sense than the current business-as-usual rewards for hard work, It will finally dawn on companies to spend more money supporting the flow of ideas than pouring down the drain with outrageous severance packages and counter productive levels of disparity in income. My new business Innovation Black Soft Group is trying to cultivate a new approach and a new awareness.

Contact us Today for more affordable quality web 3.0 development and web 3.0 services from India. Other experts think that Web 3.0 will start fresh. Instead of using HTML as the basic coding language, it will rely on some new — and unnamed — language. These experts suggest it might be easier to start from scratch rather than try to change the current Web. However, this version of Web 3.0 is so theoretical that it’s practically impossible to say how it will work.

The man responsible for the World Wide Web has his own theory of what the future of the Web will be. He calls it the Semantic Web, and many Internet experts borrow heavily from his work when talking about Web 3.0. What exactly is the Semantic Web? Keep reading to find out.

 

Web 3.0 is the Semantic Web, where machine read content like human beings then RSS will be its eyes. RSS technology is still in vast uses especially in the online news portals. The entire business models have already being created around aggregating meta-data. IGoogle, MyIndiaTims and Netvibes allow the users to create their own personal homepage, drawing much of its content from RSS feeds that users select.

The Web 3.0 application design is about Cloud Computing as an enabler for innovation, Web-scale programming and SaaS. Market barriers are reduced due to easy, service-oriented access to scalable infrastructure, the possibility to test and deploy large-scale projects with low entry costs, and eventually terminate projects that do not go well without (financial and technological) problems associated with down-scaling.

 

Web 3.0 application design will ultimately be seen as applications that are pieced together. There are a number of characteristics: the applications are relatively small, the data is in the cloud, the applications can run on any device, PC or mobile phone, the applications are very fast and customizable, and furthermore the applications are distributed.

 

Black Soft experts believe that the foundation for Web 3.0 will be application programming interfaces (APIs). An API is an interface designed to allow developers to create applications that take advantage of a certain set of resources. Many Web 2.0 sites include APIs that give programmers access to the sites’ unique data and capabilities. Other experts think that Web 3.0 will start fresh. Instead of using HTML as the basic coding language, it will rely on some new — and unnamed — language. These experts suggest it might be easier to start from scratch rather than try to change the current Web. 

However, this version of Web 3.0 is so theoretical that it’s practically impossible to say how it will work. The man responsible for the World Wide Web has his own theory of what the future of the Web will be. He calls it the Semantic Web, and many Internet experts borrow heavily from his work when talking about Web 3.0. What exactly is the Semantic Web? Keep reading to find out.

For More Details Log On To:

 

http://www.web30application.com/web-3.0/web-3.0-development.html

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