Every person who would like to start their business online will always require a website. With the premise that every person is unique can also be applied on every person especially in the choosing or styling of the website. It is also because of this uniqueness in every person that those who will engage in online business is going to have different types of websites, some maybe based on the nature of the online business but some will base their website design out of their sheer pleasure. Following the old adage that the client is always right, prohibits website designers from incorporating essential features in one’s website. Despite of this problem seen in website design it is imperative that, however the site is constructed, remain to have or contain the basic web design structure.

One of the basic website design structure is the website design elements. Website design elements pertains to the different layout of the web page either a two-column or a three-column website. The website design elements will also determine the type of font that is going to be utilised including its color, size and design. Further , a website design element is also an avenue for the website designer to complete or rather to come up with the websites’ main color scheme.

Second aspect of the website design that should strictly be adhered to is the incorporation of site navigation. Site navigation is being viewed as something that would facilitate the crawling of your website.
Third aspect is the websites’ architecture. Design and redesign would or should always be created according to plan. It is therefore imperative that before starting on coding and designing the website it is important to make a layout using the paper and pencil in order to clearly outline how the website should or would look like and how the different web pages are going to be incorporated into the whole website design.

Fourth aspect is the presence of content, the content is considered to be the heart of your website design because of the fact that it is here where you actually impart the convincing words to your users. The content must not be created for purposes of SEO only but rather the audience must be the primary target of the content.

Every website designer has given much effort in trying to incorporate Adobe’s Flash Files into their website design. This is because of the fact that Flash files adds the aesthetic value of a website as well as its interactivity. Flash files are using a different file format which is the .swf file format instead of the HTML file format. It is because of this that makes ranking and indexing for flash based websites to be very difficult. The fact that it is on a different file format as that of what a search engine recognises gives only a little possibility of indexing and ranking the website. The search engine agents or commonly called as robots or spiders are programmed to follow and crawl or recognise links and documents that are in HTML file format therefore when such search engine agent crawls on a different file format it will have to then skip such file and move on to the next document thus gathering less data for that website and in turn making the search engine process less data which will cause the disqualification of a website from being indexed or ranked.

Although Flash based websites do have this disadvantage, many people engaged in online business still favors the incorporation of flash files in their website because of the fact that it adds to the aesthetics of the website thus making a user stay on to a website much longer and not to mention the fact that the animation brought about by the Flash files would contribute to the convincing factor of the website to convince the visitor to convert or avail of the company’s products or services. Fortunately, SEO companies and SEO consultants have constantly been finding ways to optimise websites including flash based websites.

In order to have the Flash based website to be included in the process of indexing and ranking the flash file is being incorporated by SEO’s and Website designers into an HTML document in other words the flash file is now being embedded to an HTML document which is in a file format that the search engine spider can understand or crawl.

It is because of this SEO strategy that Google has updated its algorithm to cater to embedded flash files. Now , the search engine will allow the flash file to be included in the process of indexing and ranking because of the fact that the search engine will tie up the Flash File with its externally loaded content and source of documents.

The days of pay-per-click is finally going to be revolutionised. Google is on the testing stage of a new search ad format that would or could drastically change the face of the Google search page. Google has employed the services of several advertisers to try out the new search ads or which is known to be called as of this time, “product ads”. One of the observable innovations in these so-called product ads is the incorporation of a much larger space where an advertiser could actually place a much bigger amount of text or information for the advertisement as compared to the current text-ad boxes.

Google has further announced that while it is in fact a search ad format the product ad will not change nor will it replace the current text ads. Another feature seen in the new product ads is the bidding system which would give advertisers the power to bid on how much commission they are prepared to shell out for Google for actual sales that would take place. This mechanism is a new development as the current bidding system is based on the number of clicks a potential customer did on the advertisement. This time the risk of losing money because of unnecessary clicks on the ads will now be changed as the new bidding system would be based solely on the actual sale of the product.

The process of submission of ads will remain the same through the Google Product Search or Google Shopping but Google has promised that those who will avail of this program will be given high priority and prominent postings.

The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language is considered to be the standard web page script that the webmasters should be following, this is according to the World Wide Web Consortium or commonly known as the W3C the organisation that has the power to set the web standards. This power of the W3C to set the standards for the web emanated during the browser wars where there were so many proprietary tags that came out and which caused confusion and incompatibilities among browsers and which it created a troublesome task for webmasters to create the same web page twice just to conform to the proprietary tags that were set by the browser companies like Microsofts’ Internet Explorer and Netscape’s Navigator. At present, the scripting language that W3C standardised to be considered as the lingua franca of the web is HTML and it evolved into the formulation of an XML incorporated HTML which is now called the XHTML.

The main characteristic of an Extensible Hypertext Markup Language is that it is a “cleaner” form of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Clean would mean that the manner of writing the code is supposed to follow certain standards and such code should also be well-formed. The following are the rules that would guide webmasters in their use of the Extensible Hypertext Markup Language.

First the document must always contain the <DOCTYPE> element. The <DOCTYPE> element functions as a document type declaration. In the document type declaration the web master is going to declare what type of standard(s) the web page is following, this can be achieved by using the DTD attribute for the said element.

Second, Elements must always be properly nested and not overlapping. The rule of first to open last to close should apply here. These cases are applicable only if there are several elements or tags that are found in a single content, take for example the following:

<p><b>Website Design</b></p>

Notice in the example given that the <p> element was the first to be opened and the <b> element was the second to be opened, therefore following the rule as stated above </b> should be closed first before the </p> tag or element.

Third, elements and attribute names must always be in lowercase as the Extensible Hypertext Markup Language is a case sensitive scripting language.

Fourth, all attribute value must be enclosed in a quotation mark. An example of this is:

<img src=”image/websitedesign.png”>

The image tag is coupled with the src attribute and such attribute’s value is then enclosed in a quotation mark.

Finally, all non-empty tags or elements, these are tags that has it’s own closing tag, should always be closed. This is because if such tag is not closed it’s effect will continue on throughout the document until it reaches the supposed closing tag.

Following these easy rules will benefit you by having your websites’ web pages validated by W3C and receiving that W3C seal of approval for your website.

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In search engine optimisation the presence of links for navigating throughout the website is very important. Links are seen as a gateway to the next web pages may it be an external link or an internal link. Search engine agents such as bots or spiders uses the links to navigate through the web pages and if the links are not broken and it leads to the proper website it is now easier for the search engine to index and rank  the SEO-targeted website. With the common and stringent competition in the field of Search engine optimisation creative and new ways of optimising the website or web page for that matter can spell the difference in ranking. Links as gateway to the websites’ different web pages is already a known and proven fact that it is already being done by many SEO companies and SEO consultants. But what is new about the links is that it can also be optimised further so as to contribute to the overall SEO campaign. The following are the different ways on how you can optimise your links or more particularly your anchor text.

1. Use the keywords as anchor texts. This is one way to increase keyword usage for your website, rather than using the conventional “HOME”, “CONTACT US”, SEO’s must devise a way where they can incorporate keywords into the anchor texts.

2. The main keyword should replace the usual “Home” link label. This strategy will then increase your usage of the main keyword without being repetitive that could cause your site to be considered as a spam site. It is not repetitive because of course of the fact that the main keyword is used differently not as a content but as an anchor text. It would be better to write “SEO WEBSITE DESIGN HOME” rather than simply “HOME”.

3. Do not overdo the incorporation of anchor text in your home page. Make sure that although you will be utilising this type of technique you still have to follow and conform to the standards of website design and that the links that should be in your website design are only those that are to be used to navigate your site. Do not incorporate links that are only supposed to be found in the other pages of the website. A sitemap will deal with the incorporation of links to the entire website so do not overdo it by placing all the links in your homepage, this might be interpreted later on by search engines as a spamming technique.

4. Anchor texts must standout most especially if you are using keywords as your anchor text. Have it stand-out by turning the text into bold letters, underlined or italicised.

The battle for search engine supremacy in terms of internet users share is still a continuing battle. In April it seems like Google already have the upper-hand or rather Google seems to already have broken away from the pack and it is not going to look back. Competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft are already falling way behind the search engine giant. It is because of this that many search engines are rethinking their position and most of all their strategies. Some search engines have also entered the fray such as Wolfram Alpha and even the micro blogging site Twitter is planning on indexing the different links in its micro blogs. But the main company that actually have started moving forward with change is Microsoft who launched their new search engine to replace MSN Live called Bing. The Bing search engine functions the same as a search engine with a variation or a difference in its search algorithm. Bing is seen, in its launch, to have an algorithm that allows users to categorise their search and it further helps users in their search by incorporating a search assistant reminiscent of the office or windows assistants of Microsoft’s office and operating system.

During the first week of launch Bing actually edged the long time second placer in the search engine business in terms of internet users share Yahoo. This may have been attributed to the fact that Microsoft launching a very expensive ad campaign prior to Bing’s launch, during that time Internet users’ share rose by 1.7% points. On its second week Bing’s users share rose by 0.9% points which is smaller as compared to the previous increase during it’s first week but nevertheless the internet user’s share is slowly climbing which is a good sign for Microsoft and a bad omen for Yahoo and Google unless the two companies will make something happen soon.

The process of website design is a very tedious one, it requires a lot of coding using several website design scripting languages. In addition, website design also entails graphic and image editing that will later on be implemented or transformed into a web page, thus slicing through the images will also become a task that adds to the complexity of website design process. Well that is really the nature of website design, website design is a combination of different processes that actually comes together to form a single website. It is also because of that same fact that website design is a combination of complex processes that committing errors is actually already considered as part of the website design process. What is so frustrating in this “part” of the website design process is the identification and repair of the errors committed. It is thus imperative to know the common errors that website designers commonly commit.

First error that website designers commonly commit is the slow loading of the web page that they have developed. This problem can be attributed to many factors but most common among these factors is the incorporation of images that are not web compatible. This means that the images may actually be on a different file format as compared to that of the web compatible formats. Make sure that in your website design process utilisation of images should conform to the web friendly image file format.

Second common error being committed by website designers is the fact that the websites’ code does not conform to the W3C standard. The world wide web consortium the only web standardizing committee that sets the regulations on web standards have it’s own guidelines. It is of course a very daunting task to read and analyse your own codes one by one just to track the coding errors, fortunately, W3C have provided webmasters with the XHTML, CSS and other scripting language validation tool. This validation tool will function to track down the different coding errors that do not conform to the web standards set by the World Wide Web consortium.

Third common error is basically found on the links address of the anchor text. Broken links are caused by anchor texts that do not have the proper URL to connect to. Track and locate the broken links and focus on the different typographical error or the errors in the file name of the target web page. It is in this manner that you could check for broken links and be able to change the different errors on your anchor text.

Many cyber criminals are actually evolving in terms of the strategy that they are employing in order for them to distribute their malware programs to attack the security system of I.T. companies. One of the strategies being employed by such cyber criminals is the incorporation of such malware into advertisements. Many advertisers nowadays are utilising the flash application with the .swf file extension to add “life” to their advertisement, flash applications has the capability of adding animation to the target program which makes it the perfect, as of now, application to make animated advertisements. Unfortunately, many cybercriminals are also taking advantage of this technology to spread their malwares by incorporating the malware code in the .swf file of an advertisement. Thus making an advertisement look legitimate but once clicked by the unsuspecting user the malware will then be activated. With the proliferation of this type of malware attacks Google recently and quietly launched a website that will combat these kinds of malware attack, this site is known as the anti-malvertising.com website.

Google coined a new terminology which emanated from two words “malware” and “advertising”, the word malvertising is considered as an advertisement which is viral but for the wrong purposes. It is viral not because of the owner’s intention of advertising his or her product but his or her intention to spread the malware program throughout the internet. To mitigate the effects of malvertising Google incorporated in their anti-malvertising website a custom search engine that would provide a background about advertisers, which includes the advertiser’s name, company name, URL and other useful information that could help a publisher or an internet user assess whether such advertisement is reliable and not laced with any malware programs.

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Just recently an Search engine marketing report has been released by [x+1] entitled “Search Engine Marketing in 2009: Reality Not Matching Expectations When it Comes to Performance”. This report outlines the different trends in the world of Search engine optimisation and Search engine marketing as a whole. It features here the state where SEO’s are in to and how some SEO’s attitude could cause the failure of the entire SEO campaign. The key findings emanated from a survey done last March of this year with senior level SEO and SEM professionals as the recipient. The results are very promising despite the fact that the economy is took a downward spiral and at present a down turn that actually injured a lot of businesses including those in the I.T. sector.

According to the result of the survey fortunately most SEO and SEM companies remains unfazed by the current down trend in the economy. Around 69% of the survey’s respondents are expressing their willingness to spend the same budget if not more as compared to the year 2008, where around 13.1% of the respondents are contemplating on spending 20% more in their SEO and SEM campaign, thus showing a strong budget allocation on the field of SEO and SEM campaigns.

The above result also justifies the contention of many SEO companies, SEO consultants and SEM practitioners that the economic crisis did not bring any effect into their business, this according to 48.1% of the surveys’ respondents. The economic downturn may have caused companies to close down but SEO and SEM companies are showing how strong and steadfast the business is during these trying times.

Unfortunately, the survey also revealed the negative side of the SEM industry. Most senior level SEO and SEM’s responded negatively on the question whether there are changes or improvements on the conversion rates of their target websites. Many responded that there is no or little change or improvement. In addition to that only 23% expressed their satisfaction in their ability to constantly improve the performance or output of their landing pages.

Looking back at the negative side of the 2009 SEM report one sure reason can be deduced and that is the reason why most websites targeted by Search engine optimisation and Search engine marketing are having low conversion rates is because SEO companies and SEO consultants tend to stop only up to the point of optimisation, some if not most do not try to go the extra mile and care or even just check how the optimisation process will affect conversion and how a landing page could really entice an internet user to avail of the product or services being offered by the target website. During this time of stringent competition it is better to look further ahead of your SEO campaign as this would determine how your campaign is going to be defined as better than the other competing SEO’s.

During Microsoft’s campaign to advertise the launching of their new search engine called Bing the operating system giant spent more than the average cost for advertising a new product. This means that Microsoft launched an extensive ad campaign prior to the launching of the company’s new search engine. Although the cost for advertising is very steep for Microsoft the company depended on the fact that utilising the advertising media can give their new product a boost in terms of internet usage during the launch day or week. This actually paid of for Microsoft as during it’s opening week Bing gained a lot of internet users’ share in fact it is a lot because it was even enough to topple Yahoo from it’s current second place.

This success in Microsoft’s advertising campaign has sparked a deal between NBC and Microsoft that would allow the Television giant to utilise the technology to be provided by Microsoft to optimise the television advertising sales. Under the agreement NBC will specifically utilise Microsoft’s admira television media market place for it to sell. This will take effect when Microsoft’s Admira will be operational on the targeted last quarter of 2009.

Microsoft acquired Admira along with the purchase of the Navic network. Admira is seen as a complex avenue for purchasing advertising that utilises a real time audience measurement data that can greatly help track down the progress of one’s own advertisement. For NBC, Admira is seen as a tool that would allow the network to track down and segment specific audiences across all its broadcasts allowing for more targeted demographics of the company’s viewership share.