May 7, 2014

The Unrivaled Value of PHP as a Web Development Platform

The efficacy of PHP as a web development platform has been recognized and accepted wholesomely by the software developers of the programming realm. They fully understand the wherewithal PHP provides them and the surplus programming features it boasts of that help developers to make their applications richer, better and much more utilizable.

With a clear-eyed hindsight of their development goals, the developers can fully leverage the attributes of the PHP platform to shape web solutions of the highest order.



As a software development platform, it has elevated the quality and the sophistication standards of web applications, and made them much more mobile-ready. No wonder that PHP is being increasingly adopted by developers who want to work on a platform that gives them all the reins over how far they can go with the app’s features and the overall performance:
  • PHP is easy to write codes with, with each framework facilitating simpler programs that can be comprehended without a lot of fuss.
  • PHP is powerful and gives you the wherewithal to go all the way with your imagination and create an app that fills the gap between creative thinking and tangible apps.
  • The customization capabilities of PHP serve as a sanction for you to make changes as and when you need to do so. The market trends of the web development platform keep fluctuating at a brisk rate. So, it is only imperative that you adapt yourself or your application to fall in sync with the changing trends. Once you adopt the PHP framework, you are assured that the transition from older features to the newer ones is a smooth one.
  • PHP is a server side language, which means the pages scripted using PHP are much more propulsive and multi-faceted.
  • The security concerns of web masters are astutely addressed by the security features PHP tosses at them. There is no dearth of the robust authentication features that PHP lends you with to lend more vigor to the app security. These features are reliable, and are constantly updated in order to make themselves receptive to the changing requirements and growing threats. As the threats to web solutions get sophisticated, PHP creates more avant-garde security solutions in order to assure you that your app will be executed safely.
  • Embedding the PHP code into HTML1 is a breeze. This process can be carried out without writing an altogether separate program.
PHP as a programming platform comes with an extensive range of frameworks for you to choose. Once you decide on a particular framework to work with, you must find the experts who have experience on the respective platforms and can make the best use of their features. The experienced programmers are adept at using specific scripts for a specific application in a manner most precise and result driven. The developers should not only be good at the PHP codes, but they should have an extensive understanding of the databases that are often required in web applications. Databases like MySQL and Oracle cannot be integrated into the application effectively unless you are a quality coder.

Also, when you hire people you can trust from the technology and expertise point of view, they can also go a step farther and inject a degree of innovation and create solutions with more creative flair. It is important in web application development, a field that is already filled with competitors, that you add some uniqueness to your brand and create a value for the consumers that they can’t get from your competition. And this can only be made possible when you seek services from people who know their way around innovation and uniqueness in web development.

Author Bio
Maria Mincey is blogger who loves technologies and digital marketing. She currently works as a chief writer of Offshore PHP Web Development Company - Xicom Technologies Ltd. and she has a quantum experience to share.
Read More →

June 8, 2013

Creative examples of amusing error pages

Error pages are often displayed when the wrong URL has been used or it is broken, their purpose is to guide visitors out of the hole they’ve fallen in to. When a URL is clicked your visitors expect results and related information, if this leads to an error page it can be disappointing. Most of the time visitors won’t return to the website.
Read More →

Prom: A Social Marketer’s Dream Come True


Nearly any business can benefit from savvy social media marketing. However, according to USA Today, almost no market is quite as gung-ho about social media than prom retailers. It makes perfect sense since social media platforms are the social hub for teens, and many of them have a budget for perfect prom wear. What can other businesses learn from the free marketing outlet that has prom retailers wishing every month was May?

First of all, it’s not just prom wear retailers who are all over social media trying to get high schoolers to like their pages. Restaurants, limo services, florists and any other industries related to prom are using the milestone event to try and attract more customers. The same can be done for any other business that wants to coattail on a holiday or special event. If you own a nail salon, think of all the special events throughout the year that practically require a mani/pedi — for a great deal, advertised online, of course.

The Cost of Prom

Shoes, corsages, dresses and dinners out all add up to a hefty sum. On average, a prom goer spends over $1,100 to fully enjoy this quintessential event, according to USA Today. However, the cost of marketing on social media sites is zero, save for the person’s time spent posting, replying and managing the site. Teens are going to spend their windfall where they want, and if they see a way to save cash on the dinner — leaving a bigger budget for that upgrade to a Hummer limo — they’ll do it.

Every SEO PA company is flooded with requests from companies wanting to take advantage of prom season. However, you can also use holidays and events to your advantage with just a little knowhow. Sometimes, people need reminding that a holiday is right around the corner and you can make it easy for them to remember by offering one-click shopping and a bargain right from their favorite SM site.

Take a Cue from Olive Garden

Olive Garden is all over prom, encouraging teens to post pictures on Instagram and offering a prize of $500 per week leading up to prom for the best photos. Of course, people have to like Olive Garden’s site to win, and the mega company has plenty of money to put into this contest. However, smaller businesses can have their own version of the Olive Garden contest and offer a prize of free corsages, tux rentals or other draws.

For many prom-related retailers, social media is the easiest and most affordable way to reach their target audience. Use the season wisely and remember some teens have free reign of their prom budget. You want to make sure you’re getting a slice of it, otherwise your more social-savvy competitors will.
Read More →

May 6, 2013

Some Useful Techniques For Web Designing


Well, it is said that SEO or Search Engine Optimization is mainly developing and improvising the web content for many websites and increasing the rank positions in the search results. It is not exactly true because web designing is evenly mandatory for increasing the website rankings in SERPs. There are various techniques for helping the designers to come up with innovative, enhanced and search engine compatible websites.

Navigation

A web designing firm has to focus on making a simple and attractive navigation option in the website. It is to be noted that fancy navigations in websites cannot be detected by search engines effectively. A search engine intuitive and compatible navigation facility can help in making the task easier for Yahoo! and Google robots. Therefore, it is mandatory to use web platforms/services such as CSS, PHP, and JavaScript etc. instead of animated software such as Adobe Flash.

Effective URL

The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the most important element in websites. Therefore, the web developers create search-friendly and reliable URLs with utmost importance for every website. Query information and other details that are irrelevant and meaningless to the web page content have to be deleted when used in URLs. If the “www” element is removed from the URLs, make sure to check if all the web page has the same configuration. Else, the search engines will consider it as a different websites and the website may face legal issues for duplicity.

Tags for Images

In the case of web design techniques, the importance of using the image tags shouldn’t be neglected. All the images included in the website have to be described accurately with the assistance of image tags-alt attributes. It is impossible for search engines to crawl over the website images, and that is the reason why proper tags has to be coded for helping the search engine robots to collect the necessary data efficiently. Make sure to create a website that is user friendly and SEO compatible.

Tags for Titles

It is mandatory that every web development and design firms must concentrate on making unique title tags for every page in the website. Also, theme of each pages of the website has to be described properly and clearly and can be achieved by counting 1st 65 characters (that includes the spaces as well) of a title tag. It is because of various search engines as they show only a piece of the page title in the search query and the rest are hidden.

Tags or Heading

In the case of web services Australia, the importance of heading tags is high, even if there is a webpage title or section heading. It is a great technique of implementing keywords for the heading tags so that the search engines can show the matter of the page quickly when searched. But, make sure to watch out for the no. of keywords included in the heading tags as well. Most of the web designers and developers tend to stuff many keywords in heading tags that may lead their website to be penalized by Google.
Make sure to check out these web designing tips and help your customers to enhance their website rankings effectively!

About the author

Shane Syddall is an expert web developer and also has immense knowledge on the Search engine Optimization processes. He is an experienced professional, and currently employed by one of the companies dealing with web services Australia. He assists his clients greatly by ensuring the best solutions for their Web Pages.

Read More →

April 27, 2013

Six Simplified Steps To Creating A Great Website


To someone who’s just starting online, setting-up a website can be very stressful. They’d have to think about domain names, designs, their target market, and so much more! It can become so confusing that anyone can get easily overwhelmed if they’re oblivious to the whole process.

If that’s the kind of situation that you’re at right now (regardless if you’re a beginner or an old timer), I can guarantee you that after reading this article, you’ll have a better way of handling things. You won’t end-up doing everything ALL AT THE SAME TIME and you’ll have a clear direction of what you need to do. More importantly, you’ll see significant progress in what you’re doing on a daily basis!

As I share with you my six simplified steps to creating a great website, I would very much like you to think about your own way of doing things and share it in the comments section below. The more people who’ll share, the more we can help others that’s struggling. This is an awesome way of giving back to the community, don’t you think?


Planning

Since planning seems too broad of a word to use, I’ve created a list of questions below to aid you in this step.

- Who is your target market?
- What kind of brand image do you want to project?
- What kind of functions does your target market want your website to have?
- What kind of unique features will you add to your website to make your visitors stick?
- What kind of feel does your target market want your website to have?
- What website theme and plug-ins will you use? What are the people saying about it?
- From whom will you buy your hosting and domain name? Are they credible?
There are a lot of things to consider but if you answer these basic questions, you’ll surely be on the right track.

Research

Simply answering the questions in step one without giving it enough research will cost you A LOT!

Basing your answers on facts or advice from experienced professionals will help you avoid making critical mistakes. I strongly suggest that you give this enough emphasis to make sure that your decisions are based on solid foundations.

These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself when doing your research. - Is your target market viable? Consider oversaturation or the longevity of your business.
- What kind of brand will your target market most likely react to?
- Are there surveys on the web that relates to your kind of business? If so what are the results?
- How much are the plug-ins that you’ll need and do you have enough know how to make it work? What are the reviews saying about the plug-ins?
- Did you find a theme that fits your brand? If so, how much is it and is the seller reputable?
- Are you buying your domain name and hosting from a reputable company? Consider their customer service and what people saying about them.

Analyze

On this step, you should compare your step one and two results. After you’ve gone through step 2, you should be able to determine whether your step 1 answers are feasible or if it will produce ideal results.

Here are some of the questions you can ask. - Are your goals achievable based on your research?
- Are the website components that you’ve decided upon cohesive or is it causing conflict within itself?
- How do you think will your target market reacts to your website’s feel and function?

An important tip to remember when you’re in this stage is to avoid analysis paralysis. Notice that I keep on saying ENOUGH research. I emphasize on enough because people get all scientific about this.

What I suggest is that you base your decisions on what authority websites say. As an example, if you are thinking about SEO, search for reputable companies like SEOMOZ and stop looking somewhere else. There are way too many contradicting ideas on the web that it's so easy for you to be distracted and misled.

Implement

After going through all the planning, research, and analysis, you’ve got to start making things happen. This is where you start putting the pieces together to start seeing results.

Be sure to base your implementation on the previous steps to ensure that everything is in place. This step can be very scary for most people but to those whose done an ample amount of research and planning, this is the most exciting part!

Assess and measure

This step is just as important as the rest. Others neglect to do this THOROUGHLY because they’re ecstatic to see the results of their hard work. Although giving yourself time to appreciate your work is important, honest assessment is just the same.

When doing this, be sure to go through the questions that you’ve asked on step one. If there are goals you haven’t met, then you’ve got to take care of it in step 6.

Solve and improve

Whatever goals you’ve missed, you should have already determined that in step 5. From there, you can start working on the missing parts of your site PLUS, make some improvements to make sure it exceeds your expectations.

Going through each of these steps CRITICALLY is important if you want the best results. Simply giving each step a half-baked effort will only result in mediocre success or worse… FAILURE.

If you don’t want to get overwhelmed by the entire process of building a great website, then simply follow these steps and you’ll surely be on the right track.

I hope to hear from you about what your strategies are in building a great website. Please leave share it on the comments section below.

Aileen Galsim is a blogger for Showcase Creative a UK based printing company that provides Custom Presentation Folders, calendars, and other printed presentation products.
Read More →

April 21, 2013

Online Marketing Guide - Introduction


As businesses compete in today’s world of online marketing, there is a growing need for wise investments within this global market. Having the correct marketing strategy is crucial to your company's growth.

Without the right marketing plan in place, your business can crumble at any time. Having the best sales team, highly motivated workers, and an excellent product sometimes cannot produce the client base you’re seeking. That’s why you need a good marketing plan. Budgetary constraints are often alluded to as the reason why many companies delay investing in marketing. This, however, is a very unwise decision to make. But with many online marketing companies on the market, business owners are now able to access these online sources to help them get their business off to a good start.

Companies like Teckpert can help you find the answers to all your online marketing needs at affordable costs. Their experts are equipped with reliable and well-proven strategies. They have successfully developed these strategies over time to create the perfect online marketing campaign that will enhance your business, something that will result in spontaneous and solid growth.

The key objective of this type of strategy is to help generate new leads for your business and then turn these leads into sales. The process of learning about your business and defining your target audience is a unique one. Companies like will be able to use their expertise to spread your message by combining advertising and quality content for both your social media accounts and your website.

So here are a few key concepts to remember for successful online marketing:


Relationships


Building a strong relationship with each client is crucial to online marketing. Web designers must ensure that, while new customers are important, it is more critical to build an online marketing environment where existing customers keep coming back while they tell others about you.

Never forget the importance of the respect you need to have for both your audience and market. You should focus specifically on the needs of your customers rather than your own needs. This means that you must make a commitment to creating a quality experience for your clients.


Content marketing


The backbone of effective online marketing is the consistent delivery of interesting and captivating content deliberately and intensively. Creating offers where customers can benefit in exchange for hard cash sometimes is a great way to improve your online presence.

Sell something worth buying

Selling is inevitable, and everybody is into selling something, whether it’s an idea, product, service, download, or a worthy cause. Just ensure, however, that whatever you have up for sale is worth the price you are asking. Readers are prone to move quickly away when the quality is way below the asking price.

The importance of Internet marketing is critical to the start and upkeep of a businesses and, therefore, should never be underestimated. If your business is to survive in today’s fast-expanding global market, then you must ensure that you are armed with the right strategies. This can only be had from selecting an online company that has a proven track record of delivering quality service continuously.


Read More →

April 19, 2013

Web Design Mistakes You Should Stay Away From


It is easy to make mistakes when you are new in the world of web design. This article will provide an overview of some common web design mistakes that beginners and experienced people make alike. It is important to acknowledge your mistakes so that you can move forward. You can’t keep moving in the same direction because the negative consequences will appear quickly.

Not having a search function

The search function allows the visitor to know immediately if your website provides the piece of information that he is looking for. The alternative for him would be to scan your content looking for that bit of info. This is not efficient though and the user may give up all in all and will end up looking somewhere else where the content is more readily available. Pay attention when implementing the search function because it can mislead visitors and your business may lose potential customers.

Having too little white space

White space is important on a website because it improves readability and directs the attention of the user toward the things that you really want him to see. The sign up button for example is sometimes buried in the page by lots of flash content. The sign up button will be missed and you will lose subscribers that may eventually turn into clients. If you will take a look at successful websites, you will notice that the web design is neat and there is lots of white space.

Another option to increase readability is by choosing large enough fonts and a white background. Choosing an image as a background doesn’t look professional. Since your purpose is to send the exact opposite message in order to establish trust, you must take all the necessary measures to look professional even though this includes seeking the help of a web design expert. All these techniques are used by Web Design Leicester in order to implement the best results.

Having pagination for the wrong reason

Pagination is useful when there is too much content on a single web page. Keeping lots of content on one page reduces the load time which annoys the user. Another thing that annoys the visitor is the unnecessary use of pagination. An article that may be very well displayed on a single page is broken down into several parts and displayed on multiple pages. The visitor has to click “Next” if he wants to see the rest of the article.

Site owners who make money out of advertisements choose to implement pagination because they want more page views. Still, they are not thinking about user experience and if you will also disregard this, you will notice a drop in the number of visitors unless you have really good content that can’t be found anywhere else. This also applies when your site looks like a MFA (made for Adsense). The user just can’t stand closing pop-up windows repeatedly. They neither understand why it is necessary to go to another page after reading only 100 words.

In conclusion, do the following to have a professionally looking website: don’t have pagination unless it helps the user, leave plenty of white space and implement a search function.

Resource box:

Alisa Martin is a freelance writer passionate about web design. She advises to get professional assistance from companies like Web Design Leicester to attract customers.

Read More →

April 15, 2013

SEO Optimization Services - How do they Boost the Traffic

http://www.kenwebseo.com/images/off-page-seo.png
Every organization that holds a web site should opt for Search Engine Optimization if they are trying hard to get their website as high as possible on Yahoo, Google or Bing search results page which is an ingredient of their growth strategy. At its basic part, "SEO" refers to finding techniques to boost your website's presence in the search results of the web visitors. This generally leads to more traffic to your website.
Read More →