Sidebar

Microsoft starting a new social network? By: Sean

Posted on: July 16th, 2011 @ 3:33 pm

With all the recent hype about Google’s social network Google+ it seems that Microsoft has been feeling a bit left out. Microsoft recently published a live version of its ‘Tulalip’ social media website to the web at http://socl.com. If you visit the site now it reads “Thanks for stopping by. Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn’t mean to, honest.” However, it makes you wonder how such a website that important ‘accidentally’ gets published to the web. Despite all the bad press Microsoft has received in the past, they aren’t THAT incompetent. It seems like this was more of a publicity stunt than anything, and it seemed to have work. With the prospect of another major social network, the questions is which one will you choose.

Tulalip

(Image courtesy of http://fusible.com/)

5 basic SEO tips to get your online presence started By: Sean

Posted on: July 8th, 2011 @ 8:44 pm

When hiring a web development agency, a lot of Abbotsford businesses don’t have the resources to outsource their search engine optimization needs as well. It can be very costly, and time consuming depending on the goals that the company has. Especially if the target keywords are national, instead of local (i.e Website design vs. Abbotsford website design). So, we figured we’d give away from freebies to help steer you in the right direction when trying to create an established website presence.

1. Establish keywords.

The first thing you want to do if figure out what keywords are the most suitable for your business, and are going to get you the most targeted traffic. For example, if you are a website design agency in Abbotsford, you wouldn’t want the keyword “Gardening specialists in Abbotsford” even thought you could possibly rank highly for it, and get lots of traffic.

2. HTML Markup

This is probably one of the simplest things you can do. By adding a relevant title tag, and a meta description with keywords in it, search engines will be more likely to favor your website. Also be sure to make proper use of the strong and header tags to emphasize important keywords.

3. Backlinks

By obtaining backlinks to your website, you are telling search engines that you have quality content that people are wanting to share. It is also a good idea to edit your anchor text to reflect your keywords. However, don’t use the same anchor text for all your backlinks.

4. Social Media Presence

This is probably fairly obvious, but some people may overlook certain aspects of social media. They key to a good social media presence is not focusing on just one network. A good social media campaign incorporates quality content, and multiple networks.

5. Quality Content

Search engines love quality content. If you have a blog that gets updated frequently, search engines will crawl your site more often. This is also one of the best ways to drive organic traffic to your website. If people like your content, then they will read your articles, and link to them, which will drive your search engine ranking up.

With these 5 tips you will have a basics to start your online presence. However, it is important to note that search engine optimization is a complicated process, and you can’t rely on just one technique to help boost your websites ranking.

Browsing Google with encryption (HTTPS) By: Sean

Posted on: July 5th, 2011 @ 10:04 pm

You have probably had to use HTTPS sometime before, most likely when logging into a website for payment, or something similar. However, most people don’t realize it is a good idea to use HTTPS whenever possible – especially in public places – to ensure that any private data you are transmitting is secure.

Without HTTPS SSL encryption, your information can be intercepted rather easily, and in some cases with a simple browser add-on. While there is a far higher risk of this in public places such as coffee shops, than in your own home, using encryption is a good habit to get into. With encryption enabled, sensitive information is much harder to obtain.

To ensure that your Google browsing is encrypted, use https://encrypted.google.com/ as your homepage. Note the https:// in front of the URL, instead of the normal http://

It should look something like this

Google HTTPS

For a guide on how to browse Facebook with HTTPS SSL encryption, check out this article on Get Socialed

What is a CMS and why do I need one? By: Sean

Posted on: July 3rd, 2011 @ 4:14 am

When designing websites for our clients in Abbotsford, we generally try and use some form of content management system (CMS) to make their lives easier. Unfortunately, not many people are aware of the full benefits to using a CMS.

First let’s take a look at what a CMS really is, and some of the major types. Many people are familiar with WordPress as a blog platform, but not as many people understand the connection as a content management system. WordPress allows its users to easily add important content through a few clicks, and with barely any knowledge of HTML, CSS, or PHP. This is one of the main features of a CMS. Users with no web development experience can edit content on their pages. Without a content management system, the user is forced to navigate through what is often hundreds of lines of code to change and update data. This also means that there is a good chance of unintended consequences, such as broken links, and missing code. Time is money, and by having a content management system installed, you will be saving both in the long run.

However, WordPress isn’t the only CMS out there. There are others, such as Drupal, and Joomla, to name a few. Most content management systems provide the same basica functionality, however some are more optimised for search engines, and others offer a wider support of plugins and themes. We are here to help you decide which is best for your website.

There are plenty of pre-made themes and templates available for content management systems, which can make them appealing to individuals and smaller businesses. However, we prefer to design the themes ourselves, as this tells the world that your business is unique, and has something special to offer.

Many content management systems offer a wide range of plugins, which can make sharing very simple for visitors. This can increase your publicity drastically. There are often plugins that can help to make optimization of titles and URLs easier, so that you don’t have to hire a Web Consultant every time you go to post a blog article.

In short, by implementing a CMS you will be able to drive more traffic to your site through streamlined SEO management, and save money by being able to post and edit your own content quickly, and efficiently. Whatever your CMS needs, if you are in Abbotsford, the Lower Mainland, or the Fraser Valley, we are the go-to website design and development experts.

Copyright © 2010, 4th Street Web Design and Development, Abbotsford, B.C
Subscribe to our feed