How important is the rapid loading time of your website?

Do you need to provide a wonderful website user experience? Then focus should be diverted towards page loading. Usually page loading time is compromised to adjust a high end aesthetic design or even more content. But the reality is that website users are more concerned about the performance part rather than the functioning of a website. Moreover, today even search engines are identifying the loading time of a web page as one of the most important parameters in ranking a website. Before moving on to the crux of the matter, let’s have a look at some facts & figures which reflect the importance of loading time.

• Conversions reduce by approximately less than 10% if a page responds after a delay of 1 second.
• Roughly 40% of all the mobile internet users get frustrated with a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
• Around half of all mobile internet users expect a page of the website to be loaded in less than 2 seconds.
• Almost 40% of all the mobile internet users have come across an unavailable website.
• Almost half of all the mobile internet users have come across a website with errors, frozen pages & crash on the website.
• More than 70% of all mobile internet users have come across a slow loading website.

Effective tools to check the loading time

Website loading time has become a topic of interest for Google because today visitors are pretty much busy & always in a hurry to have a look at different websites. Nowadays nobody is willing to wait for centuries for a website to load. To cut it short, your site will lose out on a huge number of visitors if it fails to load or loads very slowly. What’s worse is that losing visitors mean losing out on traffic which means ultimately losing out on reputation. Henceforth is it very important to check how your website loads before actually jumping on to speeding up the things.

Without knowing the actual reasons, you can’t simply put the speeding techniques to work. There are a number of multiple site tests, comprehensive tests, & simple speed tests which offer suggestions related to performance enhancement of a website. They are as follows: Google PageSpeed, YSlow, GTMetrix, Pingdom, Web Page Analyzer, Load Impact, OctaGate SiteTimer, WebPageTest, Light Speed Now, Site-Perf, WebWait, WebSlug, WebToolHub, IWebTool, SearchMetrics, BrowserMob, Pylot, PageTest, Multi-Mechanize, and lots more.

Efficient techniques to speed up the website

There are many ways to enhance the loading time of a page could by optimizing the web pages. Let’s have a close look at each one of them.

Let CDN do all the work

If you are still having problems in bringing down your loading time even though your website has been popular for so long, then opt for Content Delivery Networks (CDN). These networks help as an intermediary to serve the pages to a user depending on a specific geographical location where he/she is situated. Rapid access to the nearest server will lead to faster loading of a web page to a particular user.

Do not have too many redirects

A 301 redirect is the best way not to lose out on the search engine scenario & at the same time change your site structure thoroughly. But when too many redirects are stacked together, it will create a hell of a lot of confusion not just for the browser but even for the users, slowing down the loading as well as the conversion process. So try to avoid having too many of them.

Cache it out

Content Management Systems (CMS) such as WordPress contain various different plugins that cache a page with the latest version. They also have the page displayed to the users so that there is no dynamic generation of pages each time by the browser.

Images shouldn’t be resized using HTML

Most people think that HTML has got the ability to create a miniature version of a given graphic. But less size does not mean that it will consume less space on the server. The browser needs to load the complete image. So it is always advisable to check the height as well as width, and then resize it as per your requirements.

GZIP compression should be utilized

It should be checked whether your web hosting service uses GZIP deflation & compression on its servers or not. These two techniques add up the speed of a site by reducing the actual file size by 70% without compromising on the site, videos, or image quality.

Leveraged browser caching

Your website files do not change that often such as JavaScript assets, CSS files, & even images. The loading time of a certain page could be enhanced by instructing the browser to cache these files so that whenever a user visits the site, these resources need not be downloaded again for viewing. For achieving this, web server configuration should be updated to serve resources led by Expires headers. In such a way the browser is being instructed how long to keep in store the cache files. The easiest way for updating configuration on Apache server is to use a file .htaccess.

CSS SPRITES should be used

The number of HTTP requests can be reduced by using CSS sprites, which is a collection of multiple images within a single file of images. CSS sprite is important especially when you have a whole lot of small sized icons. First you set up a background image to the sprite on an element of HTML with the help of CSS, and then have the background image so placed using CSS code that only that sprite image is visible that you would like to see.

@import should be avoided

@import rule in CSS helps to load files related to CSS into a stylesheet. This is useful at many times but here the problem lies in the fact that @import files cannot be downloaded in parallel with the actual stylesheet because it increases the loading time of the page on an overall basis. It is always better to use several <link> tags or copy CSS from external sources to actual stylesheet, rather than using @import.

JavaScript & CSS code should be minimized

If you magnify the JavaScript & CSS code, you can actually optimize your code, remove unnecessary space & even reduce the asset size. But it will in turn also make it difficult for the users to read. So always go for the minimized version when launching a site.

Images should be optimized

Optimizing images & resizing them as per needs can really help in increasing load time by decreasing the sizes of web pages. Using too many larger images will result in unnecessary data gathering inside a website.

Is Google serious about website loading time?

Is it really a big deal when your rankings on Google are affected by the loading time of your website? It might be amongst those 200 signals for rank determination. But it doesn’t mean that you need not to consider it important. To help visitors move fast on your website, optimizing the loading time of the page becomes absolutely important. It is a better use of time than to focus on the meta tags. Site speed is a new signal nowadays but it does not hold the same importance as page relevance. Right now, less than 1% search queries are actually affected from site speed. The loading time is not a significant parameter but surely contributes to falling & rise in conversion rates. Each time you emphasize on the loading time parameter, you tend to increase trust & confidence on your site. This way your credibility spreads through word of mouth. So remember, a few seconds do make a big difference.

Source: http://skyje.com/important-rapid-loading-website/

How To Create A High Quality Website

In today’s business world, a high quality website is of utmost importance. The quality of your website can make or break your business. It is one thing to attract a web visitor to your website and it another to keep them reading the contents of the site. Research indicates that only high quality content will make a visitor spend more time on the website and check out the products or services on offer. Below find tips on how to create a high quality website.

1. Plan

Before you start designing a website, make a detailed plan of the website. Ensure that you consider the following;

- The target audience.

- The content you intend to appear on the website such as, flash elements, video clips, social media widgets and any other components that you think will be useful on the website.

- The goal of your website.

2. Choose an attractive theme color and design

A website should be attractive, in order to catch the eyes of the web users. A dull website will attract fewer visitors and people may not check out the contents of a dull website. For this reason, choose an attractive theme color that incorporate your cooperate colors as well as an eye catching design.

3. High quality content

The content of your website should be of superior quality. You should hire a web developer who can put the words in a good sentence structure. Make sure that the content in your website flows naturally. Avoid spelling or grammatical mistakes. Many people will lose confidence with your website if there are glaring spelling mistakes and several syntax errors.

4. User friendly

The website should be easy to navigate and use. A user should be able to find information about your products and services easily. If users struggle to look for information, they might be pissed off and look for other websites that are easy to use. Ensure that you have used acceptable font type and font size to ensure that your target audience can read the contents of you website easily.

5. Clutter free

Avoid overcrowding your website will all sorts of contents such as flashing texts, video clips, an unorganized words or sentences all over your website. If you decide to use flashy text messages to catch the attention of the visitor, please do so in moderation and for heavenly sake do not overdo it. The website should be clutter free; this will make it easy for visitors to check out the products or services on offer

6. Quality assurance

After the website design and development is complete. Always do a quality assurance exercise. Ensure that you check the website for any spelling errors, grammatical errors, syntax errors as well as logical errors. If there are any automated tasks, test them and ensure that they work perfectly. The quality assurance exercise is meant to ensure that the content of your site is accurate

7. Maintenance

Always maintain your website, if your company moves from one location to the other, or changes the telephone number. Ensure that such changes are reflected in your website.

In conclusion, if you follow all the aforementioned tips on how to create a high quality website, your website will be of superior quality and will stand out from the rest. Ensure that you have the Norton contact details. You can contact then and ask them if they have any security products that you can use to protect your website from hackers and other unauthorized users.

source: http://skyje.com/high-quality-website/

Effective Web Design Elements

When it reaches a point where you have to bring in a web development company to help with the accomplishment of business objectives, you really mean business. But to give your business a meaningful online presence, your web design must incorporate elements that optimize its functionality and purpose. This is to make sure that the business site gives its visitors what they come for in an efficient and friendly way. Below are some of most effective web design elements that are guaranteed to enhance conversion rates significantly.

User Friendliness

The term user-friendliness has broad application in web design but specifically emphasizes providing a site that give users an enhanced experience while using it. The key areas where you may enhance the user experience include:

• Navigation: Users must be in a position to get what they want on your site without having to look far. This entails the provision of navigation links to appropriate site destinations. If pagination is not important for your business site but you’re offering a lot of content rapidly, you may employ an infinite scrolling. Facebook has deployed this feature successfully to deliver live feeds on the site.
• Responsive Web Design: Rapid developments in technology make it almost impossible to predict what your customers will be using next to view your site and transact business. They could use a desktop, a smart device with touch screen or a phone with T9 keypad. Thus, responsive web design ensures that your business site is easily viewed and used on all possible platforms. Features of such a design include layouts that support relative resizing based on grid design and media flexibility using dynamic resizing.

Relevant Graphics

All images, video and animations must match your site’s objectives. The graphics need to be interesting and inviting as they help visitors visualize your products and services. Also, remember to pay attention to text and how you present it. In short, your site must be stunning from a visual perspective.

Simplicity

Visitors don’t have plenty of time to interpret complex concepts, pictures, colors and graphics. Thus, don’t distract them with unnecessary animations or background features that add no value to their experience. This means that you don’t focus on entertaining your guests on the site, unless you’re actually selling entertainment!

Search Engine Friendliness

Certain design aspects will enhance your site’s visibility to search engines. It’s recommended that you present most of your content in HTML format for search engine relevance. For objects you wish to deploy to facilitate navigation around your site, emphasize on text predominantly and use the “ALT” tag for links offered as images. In the same vein, don’t use Java script or flash for navigational links you need to optimize for search engines. Also, use tables and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) sparingly.

Content

Make sure your content matches what your visitors expect. Also, deploy keywords naturally on the content you offer.

Contact/Support Info

It’s important to provide valid contact information. If you intend to receive orders or inquiries via a web form, make sure it’s working. Have you ever tried to contact an online-based company only for the system to ask you to configure Microsoft Outlook first? That’s a poor design that loses potential conversions just like that! Make sure your web development company incorporates a design that makes your business reachable online. Also, you may offer a Skype or phone number on the site. Incorporation of the above web design elements for your business site is a sure way to give it a purposeful online presence. Thus, don’t hesitate to seek professional guidance in web design and development should you need a website that augments your business objectives.

source: http://skyje.com/effective-web-design-elements/

How to Create Password-Protected Folder in Windows XP without any Software?

You will learn how to create an invisible folder but now with security protection. You will need to provide password to reveal and open your folder. You will do this without using any software.

If you are interested, just follow the instructions below.

1. Copy and paste the following code into Notepad.


cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Personal
if EXIST “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Personal goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p “cho=>”
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Personal “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”
attrib +h +s “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to Unlock folder
set/p “pass=>”
if NOT %pass%==pwd123 HERE goto FAIL
attrib -h -s “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}”
ren “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” Personal
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Personal
echo Personal created successfully
goto End
:End


2. Save the file as secret.bat ( or whatever name that you prefer but make sure the file end with .bat extension )
3. Move secret.bat batch file to the directory that you want to create your protected folder.
4. Run the batch file by double-clicking it. A folder with the name “Personal” will be created.
5. Now, you can insert any file into the folder.
6. To lock the folder, you need to run the batch file again. A command prompt will pop up and asked whether you want to lock the folder. Key in ‘Y’ (for Yes) and hit Enter. Your folder becomes invisible.

7. To unlock the folder, run the batch file. You will be prompted to enter the password. Enter the password (default = pwd123 ), hit enter. The folder appears.

You can change the name of the password-protected folder. You need to edit the batch file before you run the batch file for the first time, replace the word “Personal” with your desired name. There is a total of 6 words to replace. If you don’t prefer the default password, change the “pwd123″ with your desired password.

Note : Anyone can open the batch file and view your password. For precaution, you might want to keep the batch file on separate directory or on pen drive. When you want to open the password-protected folder, you can copy the batch file to the location where you keep the protected folder and run it.

(TIP: If this doesn't work, try to re-type this sign (") in the code. )

(Source: http://mytechquest.com/windows/how-to-create-password-protected-folder-in-windows-xp-without-any-software/ )

Excellent SEO Tips For Better Web Design

Though there are millions of websites on the internet only some of them perform well while others fail to get the desired traffic. Have you ever questioned why many of the websites go unnoticed on the web and why they do not get any traffic? If you want to drive organic traffic to your website it is very important that your website is search engine friendly. When you are designing your website, you should make sure sound search engine principles are employed. You should look for a web designing company with sound SEO background so that you can have your website built on effective search engine optimization principles. Here are few useful SEO tips for web designing.

If you have not registered your domain name already try to make your domain name keyword rich. This will help you in getting listed in the top search results faster. Domain names that have exact search terms in them will have greater chances of getting listed in the top ten results. Though this is not exactly part of SEO tip for web designing, it should not be ignored or forgotten that is why it finds its place in this article.

The next important factor to remember is that you should keep your website very light. Search engines like fast loading websites. So do not burden your website with heavy images or with huge flash files. This will  increase the loading time. Today flash elements are no more used in websites as flash files cannot be read by search engines. Moreover flash work will only slow down your website and affect search engine friendliness of the web pages.

Search engines are always keen in providing the users with the best online experience to its users. Websites that take a long time to load does not match with this goal of the search engines so they will not promote your website. Even if you are using heavy graphics in your website try to optimize all the images for web use.
Have a very clean layout. This will not only help the website users have a very good experience in your website but search engines will also be able to crawl your websites easily. Avoid using Ajax based menus as Ajax is not search engine friendly. Make use of horizontal HTML navigational menus as search engines will be able to crawl all the pages of your website easily. Fancy menus are good in terms of presentation of the website but they make your websites less search engine friendly. You should therefore learn to balance between these two factors.

When you are designing your website’s layout make sure that all the pages are accessible within two to three clicks. Search engines may not be able to access your web pages that are buried deep within. Partial indexing of websites will result in poor ranking. If you are making any content management systems for your website make sure that the URLs of the inner pages are search engine friendly. Turn on search engine friendly URL feature in your content management system.

All the URLs of the inner pages should be carefully chosen based on the content of the page. Make your URLs keyword rich and make them relevant to the landing page. You might have come across websites with URLs like index1.htm, index2.htm, index3.htm and so on. By using such URL structures you will unnecessarily lose the advantage of creating keyword rich page addresses.

When you are naming your files and images give meaningful names. Your image names too can be keyword rich. Do not choose your file names randomly. Use search engine friendly naming conventions. Avoid the use of special characters in the URLs as well as in the file names. Special characters in the file names and URLs will throw search engines off balance.

If you want to make your website URLs and your file names search engine friendly you will need to plan everything in advance and you should have already made keyword research for your website. This is where many webmasters make mistakes. They start thinking about SEO only after they complete their website design. So this should not happen in your case. Start your website’s SEO process as soon as you decide to launch your website only then you can create a website that is based on good SEO principles. Making alterations to your website at a later stage will unnecessarily increase your overall SEO expenses. Advanced planning and execution will save a lot of time, efforts and money.

Added to that, your website’s coding should comply with W3C standards. Search engines will be able to crawl your website fully only when the coding is clean. So make sure the pages are fully validated.
Another important factor that you should remember is to check for cross browser compatibility of your website. The website designed should be tested in all top browsers to ensure that it can be easily accessed without any problem. Today there are many browser types and you will get visitors from all kinds of browsers. If your website is not accessible or if it is not fully functional in all types of browsers you will lose visitors unnecessarily. So it is important to have your website tested in all the top browsers.

If you are in the process of designing your website you must take into consideration the above factors so that your website can perform well in the search engines. There is no use in having a website that does not feature in the search results or websites that do not drive any traffic. Even if you have the most expensive website on the internet, you will not be able to get any sales conversions if your website does not have top ranking. You will be forced to drive traffic through paid traffic generation methods such as PPC. To avoid all such unnecessary expenses on the long run, make sure that you get your website designed based on SEO concepts.

Source: http://skyje.com/2011/05/seo-web-design/

5 Web Design Basics You Should Know

Here are some of the basics of web design that you should know on your own without your web design company having to teach you:

Web Design Graphics

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Always think small. In order to optimize your page and avoid slow loading pages, make sure you set your graphics to a file size of only about 10 to 12KB per image. It is true though that broadband technology have advanced leading to increase of speed, but the number of broadband users are increasing at a steady rate as well. Slow pages are always annoying, and no doubt your web design company will agree with this.

Use graphics that are suitable to the page content. Adorable pictures should not be posted on the page just because they are adorable. Make sure that all your graphics have something to do with the site. An exception will be on design images, which are made up of photos and graphics that make up the page design and have nothing to do with the content.

Minimize the use of blinking, rotating, flashing or changing images or graphics. These types are the ones which annoy and distract people the most. You need your online visitors to look at the contents of the page, and not get distracted by these graphics.

Web Design Layout

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Try to get by with standard layouts. I have seen them all: from those pages with eight frames, to those which you need to scroll to the right then downwards. These layouts are novel and cute, but they are pretty darn confusing. The reason why your web design company suggests the use of the standard 3-column layout is because it is what works well with the general audience. The same is true for newspapers and other media print. This can prove to be boring, but you have to bear with it to make sure you do not drive your visitors nuts.

Pay attention to whitespace. You should know that whitespace is not just a CSS property, but is one of the functions of your layout. The whitespace actually has a bearing on how the page content is viewed, and is just as important in your web page layout as it obviously is in paper.

Use graphics as actual elements in your layouts. If you use graphics as actual element in your page layout, it serves a far better role.

Web Design Fonts

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Use standard fonts. You can get by using Serif for your headlines and Sans-Serif for your actual text. Do not wonder if your web design company advises the use of this font family. Serif fonts are actually easier to read on monitors than it is in print since screen resolution is lower in the former.

Minimize the use of different fonts. It is undeniable that ages with varying fonts here and there look like they are made by an amateur. Doing this will not make your web design company very happy. Try to limit your site and page to about two or a maximum of three standard font families. Trust me; they look a lot more professional.

Use only standard fonts. You can use rare fonts that look pretty good. However, the chances that your online visitors will have the same font installed in their system might be low. If you stick will general fonts such as Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana, your pages will look better and your designs will likely be in the right places once they are viewed.

Web Design Advertising

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Never be greedy of advertisements. Yes, you and your web design company have the actual control over the ads that can be placed on the site. However, know that your readers do not visit your page to read the ads, but they need significant content. Do not overwhelm them with ads that overshadow the content of your site, or you might tend to lose their interest immediately. Instead, keep them small and subtle (no flashy ads, please), but relevant and strategically placed to draw attention.

Web Design is about remembering Your Readers

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Make sure to test your page in different browsers and operating system combination. Your web design company requires you to come up with sites that are viewable and effective. Coming up with a page that is only compatible with the most modern browser and the latest operating system is simply unacceptable. Make sure that your page design is compatible with as many browser and OS system combinations as possible.

Write the content that readers want. Remember that you are making a website that is not for yourself, but for your readers. So make sure that you create content that covers topics that your visitors would like to read. Your web design company will appreciate this as well.

Source: http://skyje.com/2010/12/web-design-basics/

Current Web Design Trends – An Overview

Web design trends keep on changing with every passing year or within a period of few months. There had been significant changes last year whose impact can be seen more clearly in this year.
Popularity in the mobile device space has immensely increased in the sense that Smartphones and tablets like the iPad have made the interaction between users better and have facilitated easier accessibility to contents. Moreover, now people can take more and more advantage of the latest and the optimized features.
And this is possible because of web standards like HTML5, web fonts and CSS3, but What about the small businesses? It actually becomes difficult for them to stick to the latest designing trends because of factors like cost of the redesigns and the need for reaching a wide range of users.

Here, let’s discuss certain new technological designing trends which can prove useful for small businesses.

1. Goodbye Flash

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Continuous debates in the past show that people are moving away from Flash. But that does not mean it serves no useful purpose. It still continues to give interactive designs and a few Rich Interactive Applications. However, for those small business owners, not showing any type of experience, trading Flash for HTML5, JavaScript and CSS3 would sound more sensible. Why? Actually the problem is that Flash does not work on most of the mobile devices and if they do, all the elements are not supported reliably.
Suppose, you visit a website from your mobile and are not being able to access it completely, like; unable to access the contact information, list of products and services or location information for the reason that navigation or core content was built in Flash. Will you like this? Obviously no!
The old circa-2005 Flash template is no more a very good option, and for good results, I would advise you to switch on to a modern system soon this year.

2. Web Fonts

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Web font has been one of the important factors in web designing. It is not at all easy to customize the font .Because of technical restrictions; vibrant fonts used on the web have been limited to a small subset of styles. As a result, most designers used either the small selection of web-safe fonts or workarounds such as: text images or Flash in order to replace texts.
But there is a different scenario today regarding this. Today, you can use web fonts for your site without breaking your head too much into it. And the credit for this goes to services like TypeKit, Fonts.com Web Fonts and Google Web Fonts which allow you to use fonts at lower costs.
You can follow the latest trends in fonts like Web Open Font Format, JS lettering, taking mobile support or choosing Web Font while customizing Web App. If you wish to know more about these latest trends, you can get the information here: trends in web fonts.

3. Compatible and optimized sites

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It’s time to make your sites fully compatible on different browsers as well as different devices and fully optimized, as, every website today wishes to make their site friendly to small screen. These are few tools that help you optimize your website for mobile devices:

• MoFuse and MoFuse Premium
• Mippin
• mobiSiteGalore

To know more about them, you can read optimize your website for mobile devices.

4. HTML5 and CSS3

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Very true that there still exist corporate networks and users using some very old browsers. But one must know that the latest versions of the major web browsers — Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome Safari and Opera—they all support CSS3 and HTML5 features and elements strongly. Moreover, any latest Smartphone you will come across will support advanced CSS3, JavaScript and HTML5 features. Therefore, it’s quite beneficial for you if you start experimenting with HTML5 or CSS3 elements.
So, with such more upcoming new trends in the web designing field, you cannot lag behind; keep yourself updated with these trends and try implementing them as folks in the industry start adopting them.

Source: http://skyje.com/2011/01/web-design-trends/