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Shopping traffic for the holidays is right around the corner. And your business should be ready for more website visitors. With the increase of online shopping rising year over year, companies are doing more website advertising in an effort to increase traffic. And with the rise of targeted traffic vis-à-vis professional social media marketing, every business with a proprietary web presence should be ready for a significant rise in Internet traffic.

Why Traffic to Your Website Means Trouble

It’s always assumed that having more website traffic is a good thing. But if your site isn’t up to the task, it may well crash. Worse yet is people not finding your site–at least if the site can’t handle the load, it’s being found and used.

…retail sales this year will expand by 4.1 percent from last year to a whopping $586.1 billion, and the long Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend [is] expected to top last year’s record $52.4 billion…–San Francisco Chronicle

Of course, those are extremes. But in between are a few elements and functions which have to be present and ready in order to handled a bigger amount of website traffic. Without them in place, your shopping traffic might turn from potential customer to window shopper. And you want the conversions directed by targeted traffic to engage and act.

Being Ready for Shopping Traffic

Search engine optimization is designed to bring more visitors. And to increase web traffic during the holiday season, your site will have to have certain elements in order to turn those visitors into shoppers. Your site’s shopping traffic will be looking for certain things, so make sure it’s delivering:

1. Get your online promotions ready. Remember, shopping traffic will be 24/7. Have your featured products and/or services front-and-center. In addition, any discounts you’re offering. Specialty coupons are a great way to increase activity. And be sure to have enough inventory on-hand to handle the demand.
2. Keyword your site now. It takes search engines time to crawl, index and rank new content placed on a site. Don’t miss out on the shopping traffic by not driving targeted traffic to your site. You’ll need to do some research based on last year’s data along with anticipating what will be hot this year.
3. Make changes where necessary. Put your graphic design skills to work and create a holiday-centric logo. If your site supports or is an e-commerce store, then get your deals, gifts and other incentives ready to go. Create additional pages for specific items to make them more easy to find.
4. Address any weaknesses your site might have. Shopping traffic tends to peak at the same time during the holiday season. And your hosting, along with your site’s functionality, has to be able to handle those peak occurrences. Make sure you have the bandwidth and your payment processing capabilities to support the increase in views and use.
5. Talk-up and give visitors a sneak peak. If you send out a newsletter or just email updates, then give your shopping traffic the heads-up. Offering some early deals or “insider deals” is an effective way to increase web traffic.

If you want to make sure your website can handle shopping traffic for the holiday season, contact us. We’ll be happy to evaluate your site and get it ready for more web hits.

Virtually everyone on the web has read blog posts. Many of the hugely popular and most attractive blogs are using the WordPress application. This article will teach you more about WordPress.

Choose a design that is relatively unique when making your WordPress blog; don’t just choose the design everyone else is using. Although it can save time to use a standard design, you won’t have a professional image. It’s essential to create a website that shows your business’ individuality.

If your post contains a long title, be certain to adjust your permalink. Extremely long URLs are usually made up of excessively descriptive titles. Instead, try making the permalink “tips-parents-uncontrollable-children” or something comparable based on the SEO keywords.

Make sure you’re taking time to get familiar with the tools and other options you can use when you do some WordPress blogging. For instance, clicking the “kitchen sink” button gets you a multitude of formatting and importing options to distinguish your site. That will help you with formatting.

Educate yourself on WordPress before you get started. The more you’re able to do in advance, the more you’ll be better prepared when you start. Learn all you can about SEO, good content and using WordPress to your advantage.

Make a schedule when you wish to start posting. A schedule helps you keep your eye on the deadline; so as the deadline approaches, it may give you more incentive to write that piece. You might want to create posts up to a week ahead of time, then set the posts to upload on a schedule.

You want no special characters visible within your URLs. Spiderbots may have difficulty with them. It is also wise to make all URLs as short as possible. Only use the key words to avoid overwhelming those who visit your site.

No matter how into blogging you are, WordPress can offer you a lot. It is to your benefit to be as knowledgeable as possible with regard to this program. Remember this advice when you are next exploring the world of blogs.

TechCrunch reader and former Mark Zuckerberg Exeter classmate Nate Chastain noticed our post the other day about Zuckerberg continuing to code at Facebook. He pointed out a web page that Mark created in 2001 when he was 16 or so, and we found a couple of other pages with his name on it, too.

Blogging can be so easy to do because everyone seems to be doing it. It seems everyone is running a blog nowadays. If you want to have a successful blog, than you need to take the time to make a plan, and also make some important decisions. Use these tips and tricks to build the perfect blog for you.

Comment on other blogs to raise your blog’s profile. If you have a Google Reader account, create a folder for blogs in your niche that provide high-quality content. Comment on these regularly, when there is something you want to divulge.

Frequently add blog posts. It is common for bloggers to begin writing a blog as though they were going to a fire and then, over time, to gradually fall into blog posting less and less frequently. Your readers will want new content to keep them interested and will forget about your blog if they are waiting for new material. A good rule of thumb is to create new blogs weekly and send out email updates.

Make frequent updates to your blog. New content is essential for finding new viewers and keeping the ones you have. By not posting new content, readers will have no reason to come back to your blog. Post at least daily to keep your readers coming back for more.

Do not neglect the world outside of your blog. When you fail to take time away from your computer to enjoy all that life has to offer it can lead to obsessive behaviors, often resulting in blog burnout. Make time for walks, visiting friends, or just a five minute break. You’ll come back refreshed with a bunch of new ideas to include in your blog.

Be authentic and real. Don’t offend your reader’s intelligence. Try to be open, honest and transparent. Make authenticity a hard-and-fast rule. You can and should use your blog to express your individuality, uniqueness and identity. Don’t waste time in trying to reach perfection; rather, try to write better. Of course you will make mistakes from time to time. You are unique and no one is like you.

Embed pictures into your posts. Are you aware of the saying that a picture contains a thousand words? That is definitely true in the area of running a blog. Often, you will find that images can convey much more than words can alone. You want to make sure that you include as many images as you can.

As was stated at the beginning of this article, running a blog seem to be an easy feat, at first. Everyone has opinions and advice that they would like to share. But you then come to the realization that blogging requires organization and a concrete plan to pull off effectively. The advice from the article you just read will help you create the blog that you have had in mind.

Every business owner knows exposure is key to marketing. Unfortunately, television, radio and print don’t come cheap. Ad buys for these mediums is pricey, not to mention demanding. But business owners can reach more customers for less money embracing the power of the Internet.

Publishing a website will only go so far. In cyberspace, there were nearly 267,000,000 sites on the Internet in December 2010, according to a research study out of India. That number has grown since. To make a dent, a business owner must think outside the box.

Difference Between Blogs and Websites

To the average person, there is little difference between a website and a blog. To the average website designer, there is also little difference as the two are rapidly becoming indistinguishable. But to search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!, the difference is stark.

A website site is published with static content, meaning the products and services a business offers don’t really change. That’s a bore to search engines whom have already “seen” the site. To them, it’s been there, done that. But a blog is an entirely different matter. Blogs are updated regularly with new content. And search engines love new content. What’s more is blogs, unlike websites, are interactive. Comments made by blog readers get indexed just like the blog posts.

How Blogs Make Money

A small business owner might think this information is well and good, but ask how it applies to selling their goods or services. Frankly, it applies when you give stuff away. Not inventory or free services, but the very commodity the Internet is based on: information.

Posting on a blog means giving customers information they can use. The more relevant the information, the more credible the source becomes. For instance, if your business offers HVAC services, writing a blog post with tips about troubleshooting a central air conditioning system will give customers real value. What’s more, it is your business customers will phone when needed.

Blog Revenue Streams

Blogs can also provide a business with independent revenue streams, just ask Gary Vaynerchuk, small businessman turned marketing guru. Mr Vaynerchuk turned his father’s Springfield, New Jersey, liquor store into an Internet monster by launching a video blog in 2006 called Wine Library TV. He simply uploaded videos featuring himself speaking about wine. Wine enthusiasts began to follow Mr. Vaynerchuk’s blog. He averaged 90,000 viewers just two years after its launch.

That means advertisers. And blog advertisements bring in money.

A small business can make a big impact with the right combination of aesthetics, content and promotion. Using social media to broadcast the latest post is one way to lure customers. The more eyes-on a blog has, the greater its advertising value.

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level and add a new dimension, contact XTELWEB at 866-396-1181. Your blog and future customers await.

We’ve given you a look at some best practices for responsive design, but beyond the nuts and bolts of @media queries and flexible grids, there is something more subtle, and more important, at work behind the moniker responsive design.

Good design has always been about not just putting content first, but making it easy to read that content — give people what they’re looking for or they will go elsewhere.

It sounds rather basic, but if good, content-driven design were actually common on the web, then we wouldn’t need tools like Readability, Safari’s Reader or Instapaper, which are all services that strip out superflous distractions and give people what they want — content. If you’ve read through our guide to designing for readability first, hopefully you’re already streamlining your website and focusing on the content rather than sidebar, ads and other distractions. Responsive design picks up where that idea leaves off.

The cornerstone of any responsive design is a flexible grid system that adapts to different screen sizes, but that’s really the least interesting aspect once you master it. In the larger sense, responsive design is not about fluid grids, it’s about determining the constraints of the reader’s screen and how those constraints change the way your site needs to display. It’s about shifting your content based on the screen size of your reader and ensuring that your visitors have the best experience regardless of what device they might use.

In other words, responsive design is about making sure that the reading device being used doesn’t matter. Screen size is the obvious place to start. The constraints of small screens dictate some design choices, for example a single column of content, and means putting the primary content at the top of the page. It also mean ensuring your typography looks good. For example, the typical desktop browser font sizes of 14-16px often feel too small on an iPad.

But screen size isn’t the only thing to bear in mind when you’re building your site. Don’t ignore other aspects of today’s myriad mobile devices, like touch-based interfaces, access to GPS data or screen resolution. For example, your site might have a nice flexible grid, but if half your links require a hover state to be noticed, your site is no more “responsive” for a touch screen user than the average archived Geocities page. Also consider the impact of transitions and animations which can help guide users and create a greater feeling of responsiveness.

Different devices also have different built-in tools. Test for things like geolocation support using Modernizer and if the device supports it, use it. For example, a location-based form that works well on your desktop site might be better served by using the location data automatically on a mobile site.

In the end responsive design is not just about the size of the screen, it’s about how your arrange you information to give people what they want. Every site is different and you if simply jump on the flexible grid bandwagon without giving proper thought to your unique content, you’re not going to have an effective website.

On page SEO optimization is the practice of making a site’s code and content search engine friendly. SEO on page is also about a site’s architecture or how easy it is to navigate, its load time, its depth or number of pages, its age and the site’s authority. But every website or blog has to start somewhere. Very few can launch a site that immediately shoots to the top of search results. Those that do have advanced publicity. For the majority, it’s a matter of sweat equity which includes a good dose of on page SEO optimization.

In order for a site to be indexed, it must first be found. This is done through on page SEO optimization and off page optimization. Literally speaking, search engines must be told the site exists and what appears on it. That makes an on page SEO checklist necessary.

WARNING: The following on page SEO optimization tutorial requires manipulating elements and code in a specific fashion. If not properly configured, your site might be miscategorized or penalized for over optimization.

On Page SEO Optimization Elements

In completing on page SEO optimization, it’s helpful to know which elements are most effective. Assuming a site has a good navigational structure, the remaining SEO factors have to be properly configured. Without these elements being addressed, there is real no on page SEO optimization. Below is an on page SEO checklist which discusses these very elements:

• Meta Tags: each meta tag must have unique descriptions. These elements are found in the HTML code of a website and store what is known as “metadata”. Index robots read these tags to learn about the site.
• Image Alt Tags: another type of metadata, search spiders use these descriptions to decipher images placed on a website or blog. Because robots can’t “see” images, they rely on image alt tags to know what’s in an image.
• Robots.txt: these are known as “exclusion standard” conventions which literally tell index bots which pages to crawl and which to avoid. This is especially helpful for duplicate content, like printer-friendly pages. Duplicate content is penalized if there isn’t proper on page SEO optimization through robots.txt.
• Sitemap: an XML data source, a sitemap includes links to all posts and pages created on a website. The site owner controls the frequency of the sitemap’s updating and search engine submission.
• Headings: Each page and post must be structured in a search friendly manner. Descending headings are part of a website’s on page SEO optimization.
• Content: in on page SEO optimization, content is king. Content must be relevant and contain targeted keywords. This requires in-depth keyword research and strategic placement. Content is the single most important factor in on and off page optimization.

Once all the on page SEO optimization is completed, it is then time to run an on page SEO analysis. This dot’s the I’s and crosses the T’s of a site’s on page SEO optimization.

If you have launched a site or want one built with the best on page SEO optimization available, then contact us for a free consultation. We’ll be happy to discuss your needs and give you an opportunity to see why we lead the industry in on page SEO optimization.

If you’ve been seeking a great way to build a site, you should think about WordPress. This tool is easy to learn, and it is rich in features. It is really up to you when it comes to the difficulty level in planning your site. Continue reading to find out more.

Make sure you have a unique template for your WordPress blog. Although it can save time to use a standard design, you won’t have a professional image. You need to show your individuality with your site.

Does one of your posts have a lengthy title? If so, use permalink to clean it up. Use only the most important keywords so that your URL isn’t too cumbersome. To help shorten your permalink, use “tips-parents-unruly-kids.”

You have to make sure you use Alt and Title. text as you are uploading images to your posts. This way, you can add a lot more keyword phrases to your content, and visitors who have images disabled on the computers will get a good idea of what is there.

It is simple to add video to a site created with WordPress. While this might take a little extra preparation on your part, it is worth it. Many users want to see videos. A video is just able to do so much more than the written word can when it comes to communication.

When it comes to posting, keep a schedule. You will increase your motivation if you know exactly how long it’s been since your last post. In fact, it is possible to create a whole week’s or month’s posts in one day, and then utilize the scheduling feature to get WordPress to upload your postings for you.

Clean up any unnecessary comments and content on your website. Your visitors will appreciate your efforts. Akismet is a great plugin that you can include that will help you to filter out the daily spam on your site.

You now know just how powerful WordPress is. It does not matter if your are creating a website for your personal use or for your company, WordPress is the right tool for you. If you spend more time honing your own skills, you will get great results, and your website will be all the better for it.

WordPress themes and the various plugins supported by the platform might sound as though their hyper technical and impossible to manage, but actually, that’s simply not true. If you want your business’ website to perform well in search, even free WordPress themes will help greatly. That’s because of the technology behind not only the application, but the many free plugins which help refine your SEO efforts.

The software itself runs on PHP and MySQL, which sounds complicated, but it all works seamlessly in the background. In fact, there’s a ton of things which happen behind the scenes you as a business owner won’t ever have to see. What’s really great about each and every WP theme is that they come loaded with some of the best SEO features. In short, Google and Bing love WordPress, because the sites are configured in a way that makes them very easy to find and crawl.

But that’s certainly not where it ends. There are many benefits to using WordPress themes and plugins. Like the fact that WP is a CMS, or content management system. What’s that? You might ask? Well, let’s just take a look-see.

The Versatility of WordPress

WP was developed by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little and was first released in late May of 2003. Currently, there are approximately 60 million WP sites worldwide and some of the largest international corporations are among them.

WordPress themes are built on what’s known as a content management system. What that means, in plain English, is that when a site owner makes changes, they take effect sitewide. That might not seem very impressive, but it is when you take into account the fact before CMS applications were a reality, every page had to be changed individually.

Your company might already have a website, but perhaps it’s not as easy to update as you’d like. Or maybe you are interested in creating a dynamic new company blog. Whatever phase you’re in of creating or cultivating a web presence for your business, WordPress is an option worth exploring. A WP developer says for small businesses it is ‘cost effective, [with] easy to manage updates and the SEO features will help you gain a digital footprint quickly.’” —Inc.com

What’s more, is that pages and posts can be individualized, with custom templates. Moreover, WP is an open source application, which means some of the world’s leading web developers are putting their best efforts into it, making improvements and innovating different aspects. And when you consider the fact WP is compatible with plugins, that makes it all the more valuable.

What are plugins? They’re tiny software packages that “plug in” to the application. And they pack a huge punch. Plugins perform specific functions, such as SEO compliance, Google Authorship, a sitemap, contact forms, polls, chat platforms, video plugins, and many other functions.

When you combine the power of WordPress themes and various plugins, you’re unleashing a website that’s very easy to maintain, and has several SEO functions built right in.

Choosing Trustworthy WordPress Themes and Plugins

So, with all this power and all these benefits, why is this article titled the way it is. Well, because with the good come the bad. And while the good folks outnumber the bad ones, it only takes a few to wreak havoc with your site. Since WP is open source, and plugin codes can be written by anyone, there’s going to be mischievous happenings and that could spell big trouble for WP site owners.

To choose the highest quality WP themes and the best plugins, follow these simple guidelines:

• Pass on free themes. Yes, free is nice, but what isn’t is finding your new business site is spamming the web big time. If it does, even without your knowledge, Google and Bing will penalize your site or drop it completely from their indexes. Yes, you can still find and use simple WordPress themes, but paying a little to avoid a lot of trouble is more than worth it.
• Make sure themes and plugins are up-to-date. The WP platform undergoes occasional updates and you’ll get a highlighted message when you login to the back-end of your theme. You want to keep your site updated with the latest releases because they are the most secure. And the same is true for plugins, when an update is available, take a moment to refresh it.
• Check the stats. Lastly, you’ll want to check the theme’s and plugin’s user statistics. Each has a user rating score, a download account, the latest time it was updated, its compatibility with the latest WP platform, as well as user reviews.

If you want to leverage all the benefits and advantages of WordPress, being able to choose from many themes, and hundreds of useful plugins, then contact us. We are a leading WordPress development and customization firm as well as a go-to resource for SEO services. We can customize a WordPress theme that’s perfect for your business, your customers and potential clients will love to visit and share.

People are learning more about web page design today. Learning how to create online is not a bad idea. So learn all that you can so that you can beat your competitors.

If you’re creating a website, you must look at it in more than one browser. What you see on one browser is not necessarily what others see on other browsers. This means that you need to understand which browsers are most widely in use today, and check the site in each one. It’s also a good idea to test out your website on different operating systems.

Ensure your site can pass the NoScript test. See if the website is readable. It will be normal for some content not to work, like the ordering system, but a blank page is a red flag.

People don’t like to wait when they browse the Internet, so your pages need to load fast even on slow connections. If a site visitor ends up waiting for a long time for your web page to load, they will definitely leave your site in search of a similar site that loads faster and will never recommend anyone to your site.

A good website should display and function in any type of web browser, so it is vital that you test your website in every browser currently on the market. Each browser is a little different, and a site that looks fine in Firefox may look wrong in Safari, Chrome, or Internet Explorer. Visually test your website in every browser you can prior to launch.

Design your page so that previously entered information is saved and automatically used to fill in informational boxes. For instance, if a user registers at your site and another form requires the same information again, be certain your website preserves this data to prevent them the useless and annoying hassle of filling it in again. With this “sticky” information, you create a simpler, easier experience for your users, which will prompt them to stay on-site longer.

Avoid pop-ups. Few things are worse than being overloaded with pop-ups. They’ll be much more likely to leave your site out of annoyance if they are confronted with pop-ups. Your customers will be much happier if you give these types of advertisement a wide swerve. If you use a host who forces you to utilize pop-ups, you probably need to search for another host.

Learning about website development allows you to create online. Follow the tips presented here and remember to continue learning about the ever growing and changing topic of web design.