Launching Something New in 2017? Tips for SEO-Friendly URL Structure
A lot of companies will be launching new initiatives in 2017. Those initiatives may require a new website, or new additions to an existing website. If so, here are some things you should consider when picking a new web address URL or when adding new pages to your website. 1. Keep things simple This is Google’s number one most important advice – a site’s URL structure should be as simple as possible. For your main website URL that means it should be short, memorable and as...
Do You Have a Strong Web Development Team?
In today’s competitive web market, all companies strive to get a leg-up on the others to win over potential clients. There are many types of web clients; some wanting to be hands-off and allowing the web development professionals to do the work, while other businesses need to manage their sites completely and are simply seeking marketing strategies along the way. One thing is for sure; time has proven that if you want to keep your clients happy or obtain new web development clients, you...
How to Plan Your Website Architecture
Planning your website architecture is like laying the foundation of a house. Taking the time to plan it properly will save you time and money in the long run. A well-planned site is not only beautiful and functional, but will also convert better and allow your visitors to interact with your content in the most intuitive way. What is Site Architecture? Website architecture is the approach to the design and planning of websites that require particular attention to the business plan, usability...
3 Things to Consider When Developing Your First Website
What is the objective of your website? Before you start building your website, it’s advisable to sit down and write out a business plan. How does your website fit into the plan? Is it going to be used as a resource to inform a buyer before contacting you? Is it going to be used as a point of transaction? If so, it may make sense to incorporate a software solution designed for e-commerce. Your business plan should dictate the type of website you are planning to create based on the...
Improving Website Functionality
When building a website, many people do not take the time to stop and take a step back to check its functionality. However, website functionality can be a make or break feature when it comes to users interacting with your site. When considering how your website functions, you should look at it from the user’s perspective. Think about how your users interact with the site, in other words, how they navigate it, how they fill out forms, view pictures, and more. Navigation One of the...
Reduce SPAM without CAPTCHA using a CustomValidator
There are plenty of resources and methods out there you can use to reduce the amount of submissions to a form on your website by non-humans. Some website administrators get hundreds or thousands of submissions from bogus people. They are often automated bots searching for open holes your website to infuse content for whatever their purpose is. Many times it is to promote their own website, content, or services. Sometimes they are attempts to cause the website or webserver to crash, inject...
How To Create An iPhone Favicon For Your Website
Favicons are very important for branding your website and your services. As you might already know, the favicon.ico shows up in several places. The greater exposure to of your brand, the better effect it will have on your visitors. Does your site have an iPhone favicon? If not, don’t worry. I’ll tell you exactly how to get one. But first, let’s look at what I mean. Load up your website in your iPhone or iPod Touch. Once it has been completely loaded, click on the...
How To Make a CSS Sprite Rollover List Part 2
I know there have been many people anxiously waiting for Part 2 of How To Make a CSS Sprite Rollover List. Didn't read part 1 yet? Well before you learn how to make a CSS Sprite, why don't you head over to part 1 and learn Why Use CSS Sprites. View the working DEMO Now let's get to work. Follow these easy three instructions on producing a cross browser compatible list with a CSS sprite and rollover functionality! 1 Create your image First thing is first. Go ahead and create your CSS sprite...
Why Use CSS Sprites Part 1
You’ve heard the term bouncing around the Internet, but still not sure what, why, or how to use CSS Sprites. I’m here to enlighten you on this neat little feature that is sure to help speed up your site. This is part 1 of a 2 part series blog. Part 2 will entail How To Use CSS Sprites. Why would I want to use a CSS sprite? CSS sprites reduce the total number of http requests, can reduce the total size of the images, and increase your pages load time. For example, if you build an...
Nested GridViews in C#.NET: How to display relational data together
First, you must understand the purpose of a GridView in the.NET framework. A GridView control displays rows of data in a table like structure. It displays one record from the table per grid row. This article explains how you can extend the functionality of this powerful control so that relational tables can be displayed together.
This article shows you how to accomplish such a task. One reason to nest GridViews in.NET would be to display data in a one-to-many relationship. In some cases...
Parsing data in C#
Parsing data in C# is a simple process, and can be done using some basic language syntax. Sub Strings provide this functionality, and when used properly can make data collection, or simple parsing operations a much easier task. First when parsing data from sources such as a web page, it is important to first remove all data at the beginning of the document which is unnecessary, in order to prevent the parsing utility from finding the wrong information. <?xml version="1.0"...
Automated Spanish Translation System for Websites
Miami Children’s Hospital MCH recently requested the assistance of Sales & Marketing Technologies to provide an effective solution to dynamically translate their English content from their web site to Spanish using the third party vendor, Translations.com. SMT’s in-house Programming team worked closely with Translations.com to perform the initial Spanish translation by building the necessary XML file needed for input into their system. Once the translation was complete, the...
Protect your website from SQL Injection Attacks
Is your website vulnerable? Very possible. You could do a few quick checks, but explaining how to write SQL Injection code is out of the scope of this blog. Websites written using Classic ASP language, PHP, AJAX, and other website languages are vulnerable, but that doesn't leave.NET websites in the clear. Any website that gives full access to the SQL database is vulnerable. That gives the hacker full range at manipulating the information in your database. So, what are some ways to protect...
What’s the hype about SQL Injection?
You may have heard of the term SQL Injection often or never before. So, what the heck is it? And, why should I worry about it? Below I try to put in lamen's terms what it is and why it is a bad thing. In basic terms, it is a way to hack into a database and a website. First, I will explain a little bit about what SQL means. What is SQL? Is it an acronym for something? Yes. It stands for Structure Query Language. It is not only an abbreviation and a programming language, is also a database. SQL...
Template CMS Based Websites
There are many companies out there offering very attractive hosting and website solutions. They promise to give you 99% uptime and tools to build your own website in minutes for a low monthly fee. Many of these services are focused on certain niches such as golf courses, churches, hotels, etc. These are great solutions for businesses who just want an online presence and a url to put on their business cards. However, these template type systems generally have some huge seo drawbacks for those...