7 things to know before you develop a website

You want to develop a website that will help your business get visibility, attract visitors and convert those visitors into customers. You need to design your website in such a manner that it reflects your business objective and gives customers precisely what they want. This means that you need to do some serious planning and homework before you really start your website. We look at some of the basic stuff that you need to know to ensure your website succeeds, in this article.

1. Purpose of your website

Remember you can’t change plea in the middle of an argument. You should have started out with a clear purpose in your mind and also the contours of how you are going to implement that. This is extremely important as many firms start out with some objective and end up doing something else altogether.

2. Domain and hosting

This is the first thing to do to get visibility. You need to choose a name that people can remember well and choose wisely and appropriately, as to whether you will use .com or .net or something else. As for hosting, choose a reliable looking at how much capacity you will need.

3. Technology

Discuss and finalise the technology that you want to use. This could depend on a number of factors and it finally boils down to what you want. The options are HTML5, CSS3, PHP, Jquery, Javascript etc.

4. Layout and colour

Colour affects the feel of your site. Neat layout is always preferred. Don’t forget about the footer too. A good website required equal focus on all aspects.

5. Content

Before the content, first create a sitemap and flowchart. As to the content, remember that your website needs to provide good and informative content to the users. Target certain keywords to rank high in search engines. The type of content like language, picture, video, etc has influence of how fast or how slow the website will load.

6. Ads and pop ups

Do not include too many advertisements in your website. If an advertisement is not necessary, just don’t put it there. As for pop ups, prevent them from appearing. It is the most annoying type of advertising because of slow loading and sometimes you can’t close it.

7. Cross browser capability

A good website has to be able to be viewed properly in all types of modern browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari.

Major issues in creating responsive designs

There was a time when businesses thought of going mobile. But that’s no longer a choice. It’s a necessity. Designers and developers understand this and are shifting to responsive design more than ever. But, it is also a fact that it is much more complex than a normal site or a dedicated mobile website. This article looks at the major problems that designers face and provides tips on how to recover from them in order to ensure that your site is properly optimized.

Website Loading Time

The main reason behind going for responsive websites is to enable convenience for mobile users. Yet most of them fail in this attempt. A recent study tested more than 300 sites and found that irrespective of the site under test, the page size and load-time results were almost the same. All that you need to do is the following:

Avoid using larger Image Files and Videos

Avoid large assets on a web page, particularly Javascript.

Avoid using unwanted links and personal comment icons

Restrict ads and social media pop-ups

Avoid having too many Widgets

Over-Resourcing

Responsive designs rely on multiple images and CSS scripts for getting a customised layout that matches different screen sizes. At times, this might cud lead to a user downloading images that are not required as well.

This is where you conditional loading comes into play. If you want your design to run on desktops too as a dedicated mobile website, do care to check the code two to three times to ensure it is fully optimized to run smoothly.

Poor User Interface

That your ecommerce website runs well on mobiles need not at all mean that it is mobile friendly. Don’t look at only the aesthetics when you create a mobile web design but look keenly at the differences between needs of users who visit your site from different places.

Above all, it is important to know your customer’s feedback on what they intend to do on a mobile device as against their desktops. Make sure your responsive design adequately meets those needs.

Top tips for web designers and developers

The first thing you should know as a budding internet professional is the difference between web design and web development. A web designer is a bit like the window dresser of a web site. As a web designer your job is to grab the attention of window shoppers, in other words, people surfing the net.

In contrast your job as a web developer is behind the scenes. You are at the helm for the smooth opening of the site on various browsers. The web developer makes sure that all the apportionment of the web site operate flawlessly in the minimum of time.

Of course the exemplary person for the assigned task is someone who has both the attributes of a web designer and a web developer. A lot of free software is available on the internet today. Many people have learned simple web designing and developing by using templates and image libraries. One cool tip for budding artists of the cyberspace is that you need a deeper knowledge of web design and web development software to become successful. It is necessary for you to get professional training.

In the role of a web designer you must strive to create a home page that holds the interest of your visitor. This can only be adventurous if your web development has been efficient. The images should download immediately and the content should be in easily readable fonts. Try to keep it simple.

Trial runs of your website are very necessary before you put it on the World Wide Web. There are many prominent websites which grant you to assay your site on their software which simulates the most popular browsers. This will grant you to make sure that your web pages open on all genus's of screens and on all the popular search engines. This is where your technical adroitness as a web developer will be tested most.

The constituents of the web site have to be written by a professional. You might be great at web design or web development but it is a specialist's job to write the text. Remember to place the text on a background which makes it easily readable.

In the antiquity a lot of technical knowledge was required to be successful in web design and web development. Modern software has made it easy for you to design and develop without having to know all the technical stuff. Still it is necessary that you learn the ropes of HTML and CSS coding as you progress along your chosen profession.  

How to use wordpress for ecommerce

What comes first when you think of a CMS for your ecommerce website? Content, of course. You must make use of user-friendly softwares to increase traffic onto your website. Consumers use ecommerce primarily to avoid travel and time costs. We are given to thinking that Wordpress is a CMS meant for blogging. But it is beyond just that.

Why should you consider Wordpress for an ecommerce site? Remember, you can't keep changing the HTML codes all the time to update your website. This is why you must consider using Wordpress to transform your Website into something more new and creative. 

When you start using WordPress for your ecommerce site you will be able to maintain, manage and administer your website easily without having to check your site round the clock. Managing and maintaining a website can be difficult and to end this difficulty it is essential that you make use of WordPress.

There are numerous templates in Wordpress that can sort your website and make it look neat, so that every time a customer visits, they will be able to view what they desire without having to waste much time browsing. This creates in a positive impact on the viewer as the more genuine a site, more the traffic accumulation.

You can change the theme without changing or updating anything else. You can add, remove and change widgets on your sidebar individually without having to change the other items or codes. You can easily install this and once it’s done you can get started right away. You will see a drastic improvement in your website traffic, provided you have something good to offer. The Wordpress site gives you all the information you need so you can plan out and determine how you can make the best use of it.

When you open an ecommerce website you should know how to get the best out of everything you have. Social networking is a very good way to increase traffic on the website. WordPress can help you convert the traffic into prospective buyers so that in the end your profit margin goes one step higher than what you expected. When you plan on opening an E-commerce site, you need to make sure that you give Wordpress a shot so you experience its benefits yourself.  

What is a Web API: Why and how it is used

A web API can be defined as a Restful framework for building http services. What do we mean by Restful? It is an architectural style that abstracts the architectural elements within a distributed system. It needs to be remembered that Web API is not exactly a replacement for WCF (Windows communication foundation) and must be used only if you are working with http. In short, it is an API for both the web browser and web server.

The Asp .net web API is a framework for building HTTP services that can be used by a wide range of clients including mobiles, iphone, browsers, and tablets. As a web API, it has minimal friction and provides multiple hosting options. Your job is also simplified by the fact that it does not need multiple protocols.

Though not a part of the MVC Framework, it is very similar to ASP.NET MVC since it contains the MVC features such as routing, controllers, action results, filter, model binders and IOC container. It does form a part of the core ASP.NET platform and can be used with MVC and other types of Web applications like Asp.Net WebForms. It can also be used as n stand-alone Web services application.

Advantages of Web API

• It’s opensource
• If your requirement is a web service(and not SOAP), then look no further than ASP .NET
• No laborious configuration requirements, like defining extra configuration settings for different devices that are found in WCF
• Simple creation of service when contrasted with WCF which is used primarily to deploy a service oriented architecture(SOA) to support distributed computing.

With other impressive features such as support for OData MVC feature support and dependency injection that make it a robust, efficient and ideal choice for building http services. Firms like Openwave already provide extensive services in the domain of .Net web applications furthering the reach of APIs.

4 Stages of web design

Stage 1 - Style above substance

The first stage in designing a site that CEOs, venture capitalists, and ad firms would like to see. All modes of design are brainstormed at this stage. The site might entirely be a Flash animated site, or there could be a few good JavaScript mouse over effects or drop-down menus, but the message is always clear - style over substance.

Stage 2 - Designing for online visibility

Here is where you begin to take the hit if your website design were ineffective. Your site will not be indexed by the major search engines, get rejected by major directories, or attract significant traffic or sales. This is also typically when companies decide to try a professional online marketer to promote the site. Unfortunately, many web site owners fall for doorway page companies or fly-by-night operators. Yahoo may have rejected their site, or the site may have been listed in Yahoo but there would be no description next to their company name and the company cannot understand why. But ad agencies or doorway companies would never tell their clients the truth -- they simply did not design and write an effective web site -- because that would entail losing thousands of pounds in business

Stage 3 - Designing for your audience

By this stage, web site owners have figured out that they did not design an effective Web site that addresses their target audience. As usual, web site owners will call upon usability experts to analyze potential problems in the site and present various solutions. But the better option would be to bring in a search engine marketing expert who can come up with web designs&templates that are search engine friendly. This can potentially save the company thousands of pounds in marketing costs.

Stage 4 - Site redesign

After having carefully studied usability and search engine visibility, web site owners finally have an effective web site. So, what is that ‘effective’ website? Well, it’s a site that is written, coded and designed to deliver ease-of-use and search engine visibility and gets the most traffic that drives sales.

So, paramount to designing and maintaining an effective web site is understanding the products/services your target audience is looking for. When you launch a site, you have to make an educated guess as to what your target audience wants. Tools such as site statistics software can help you identify exactly what your visitors are looking for. Content and marketing strategies can then be adjusted accordingly. 

How to find a good web design company

Looking for a web design company? This article looks at how exactly you identify a good we design company from its portfolio page.

1. Presence of portfolio

It’s pretty obvious that web design company must have its own web site with a neat portfolio of its previous works. But don't be taken away by the site alone. Portfolio is like a "face" of a web design company. It tells you about what the company did and how well they did it. But this is not all.

2. Total number of works

Though this provides a lot of indications, there is no standard number that can guarantee that you’re going to deal with web design guru. It is true that 50 projects is better than 5, but quality is equally important. Check out on that. And while you do that, do remember that an average website design takes 2 to 4 weeks to be finished.

But what can this information then give you? Firstly, you can see whether the company has enough expertise. Also, it can tell you if it has a stable employee base, a well-oiled development process, and enough staff to enable round-the-clock performance, so as to ensure that when you commit your site design to the said company you can be sure that it won’t be new work for them.

3. Type of work done

Look carefully at each project in the portfolio page. How many of them are similar to the one you need? Analyse this by industry, site, technology used, and look and feel?

2-3? Good!

> 5? Excellent!!

None? There could be reasons for this too – such as the owner not wanting publish it, or web site not being live anymore - so if the company has passed all these tests, you must then ask the company if they have ever done the task that you now need.

4. Quality

Look at all the sites the company has designed/developed. See how long it takes for the home page to load

A few seconds? Fine, the web designer knows how to optimize images.
A few minutes? This is okay for a Flash site since the whole site is loaded at once in case of Flash and can also take longer because of sound and visual effects.

But if a simple HTML web site takes more than 2-3 minutes to load you know something’s wrong. Check other HTML sites from the portfolio - if they too take ages to load, it's better you search for another web development company.

Ecommerce PCI Compliance – What is it & Why is it important?

None of us are experts at compliance laws, we just comply with what we’re asked to. Ecommerce vendors and customers need to ensure PCI compliance. This article provides an overview of what PCI compliance is and how merchants can ensure compliance of the same.

Overview

 If you're in the business of selling online and accept credit, debit, prepaid, ATM, e-purse or POS cards as a payment method, it is necessary to understand PCI and comply with PCI DSS. So what exactly is PCI? PCI is short for Payment Cards Industry, and DSS for the Data Security Standard that regulates the way credit card payments are processed to ensure security of customers' card information during a transaction. Every merchant who accepts credit cards needs to be PCI compliant, irrespective of the size of their business or industry they are in to.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is an information security standard for businesses that handle, store, and process credit cards. The standards are defined by the PCI SSC (Payment Cart Industry Security Standards Council), which includes MasterCard, Visa International, America Express, JCB etc. These standards have 12 core requirements with the aim of protecting cardholder data and maintaining a safe network that has strong access control measures. Those who don't comply to these standards run the risk of having their data security breached, attracting fines as high as $500,000 per incident, debarred from accepting credit cards and customer lawsuits, apart from damage to the company's reputation and brand value.

The 12 core requirements for PCI compliance for merchants are:

• Build and maintain a secure network

1. Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data

2. Abstain from using vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters

• Protect Cardholder data

1. Protect stored cardholder data

2. Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks

• Maintain a vulnerability management program

1. Use and regularly update antivirus software or programs

2. Develop and maintain secure systems and applications

• Implement strong access control measures

1. Restrict access to cardholder data by business need to know

2. Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access

3. Restrict physical access to cardholder data

• Regularly monitor and test networks

1. Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data

2. Regularly test security systems and processes

• Maintain an information and security policy

Maintain a policy that addresses information security for all personnel.

Web Design Trends for 2015

Designers and developers across the world are looking to capitalize on the web boom and leap to higher returns on investment. In this article, we look at the dominant web design trends that will define the year 2015.

1. Material design

We’ll see design inspired from Google’s Material design language. It’s a richer approach to flat interfaces using touches from the physical world be leaving it open to what’s possible with digital interfaces.

Designers will build more layered interfaces and utilize animation as affordance. We will witness purposeful movements, flexible design components, and a graphical approach to design that is user action-based.

2. Typography

3D effects and typography is one area which could see lot of action. This would include gradients, shadows, and colour overlays. Subtle gradients, various forms of shadows added to create a sense of depth and multiple colours in illustrations makes the whole work more dimensional and designers are breaking new ground in it.

3. Mobile optimization

Mobile optimization must be accompanied by a better understanding of user needs and performances. This is a trend that could continue long after 2015. Its detractors say that it’s bad for performances, but that’s mostly when it’s poorly done, like when people try to fit a 1900px 10MB site into a 320 mobile phone.

4. Full-screen media

People love websites with big, full-screen displays of images, type and video- it is simply more engaging. 2015 will see an even greater use of large background images and full screen video as a means to connect with visitors and communicate with brands personally.

This approach to web design might kill the traditional brochure as a means of selling a service.

5. Bigger text and bigger image driven websites

With the increased use of retina and HD screens, it’s now essential for designers to serve large copy-driven text and high resolution images that will resize and optimize for both server load and screen sizes.

6. Cards, Cards, Cards

Cards are contained pieces of information that are visually delimited by their card-like appearance. Borders around or a drop shadow, usually with a white background, hit right in the spot of users who want small information bites before digging through the real and possibly lengthy, content.

7. Long scroll

This really caught on in the 2013-2014, and we expect it to continue in 2015 as well. This means companies will have to simplify their content, not to forget the parallax!

Pitfalls you must avoid in Drupal development

Among the current crop of Content Management Systems (CMS), Drupal is certainly a leading player in developing impressive content that is well tailored to the web. Drupal does require in first place, some knowledge on web design and development (for novices, there’s Wordpress). Therefore, certain things need to be taken care of when you build a Drupal website. Let us look at what you should avoid when you build a Drupal site.

Pitfall 1: Overlooking security during deployment

It doesn't take much time for a developer to take possession of production code and install it on their systems. Which essentially means it is free for use by anybody who wishes to use it. While you can let developers take a few snapshots and have other access to the development environments otherwise, do not allow access to the production environment except to those who are involved.

Pitfall 2: Repair (is not) better than maintenance?

By all means, Drupal has gained the reputation of a well-built CMS that is expected to stay for a long while. However, keeping things updated ensures an optimum experience for your visitors. If gone unnoticed, chances are that the site may be hacked which of course, would cost you much more.

Pitfall 3: Outdated code for Core as well as contributed Modules.

Some times, businesses do prefer outdated code thinking it will save them some money. But ask developers, they will tell you that keeping all modules and core as current as possible holds you in the long run.

Pitfall 4: Outdated development and staging environments.

Let’s say for instance, that developers test only during production since the other environments have old data or no possible connection to an external service. Make sure that you maintain the testing environments as close to production as possible. By doing this you can migrate to production with ease and execute tests thereby assuring that code changes work when moved to production.

Pitfall 5: Saving extraneous files in the VSC repository.

Image files, pictures, and database dumps are usually relegated to the repository which is an extremely unhealthy practice. You need to keep the VSC as clean as possible.

The evolution of SaaS

Saas or Software-as-a-service is a service distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the internet. Now, the obvious question is how is it different from other models? For this, we first need to know what those models are, and compare them with SaaS.

IaaS

Infrastructure as a service is a model where service providers offer pools of abstract IT infrastructure resources like servers, storage, and network components to customers on a pay-per-usage model. The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, cooling, operation, and maintenance.

PaaS

Platform as a service is a model where service providers provision fully-functioning computing and solution stacks on which applications are deployed. The provider provides the networks, servers, storage for the environment, as well as manages varying levels of scalability and maintenance.

In IaaS, the client typically pays on a per-use basis. In PaaS, the client typically pays for the services used. Seen from the point of view of value visibility to end users, IaaS serves network architects and application developers, PaaS serves application developers, while SaaS reaches the end users.

Evolution of SaaS

As companies looked to reduce costs, Application service providers offered businesses the service of hosting and managing specialized business applications with the goal of reducing costs through central administration and the solution provider’s specialization in a particular business application.

Software-as-a-service essentially extends the idea of the ASP model. The term Software-as-a-service (SaaS) however, is more commonly used in specific settings. Most early application service providers focussed on managing and hosting third-party independent software vendors’ software. As of now, SaaS vendors typically develop and manage their own software.

Now, it’s important to know that they require only an internet vendor to use. Initial application service providers offered more traditional client-server applications requiring installation of software on users’ personal computers. Contemporary Software-as-a-service relies predominantly on the web and only requires an internet browser to use.  

How to know if a domain has been dropped

With more and more businesses building an online presence, a useful original domain name may be difference to find. However, dropped domains may be the perfect opportunity for you to begin building your business’ online identity.

What is a dropped domain?

A domain is, simply put, the more memorable name of a website or URL rather than a string of letters, numbers, and symbols. Examples: facebook.com, e-bay.com, google.com

A dropped domain means that it has expired. The owner hasn’t renewed the license with their domain registrar. The registrar can sell the domain at auction. The process and timeline can vary from registrar to registrar.

Know before you pay

Check the page authority (PA) and domain authority (DA) for domains before you buy. There are tools available on the internet that let you judge the quality of the domain. Make use of them before you take a call.

Know if it’s banned from Google

• It may have a high rating, but if it cannot be found by search engines, it’s not useful.
• Check domain names in Google cache, an online tool that allows you to see what version of the page is currently in its index.
• If you find a good domain that is banned, you can take the risk to purchase the domain and then appeal to Google with a ban consideration request.

Know if it’s banned from Google Adsense

Look at tools to check if a site is banned. Bannedcheck.com, Isbanned.com and iWebtool.com are some of the sites that let you know if a domain has been banned.

Check the website’s archive

To know what kind of website was associated with that particular domain, go to archive.org, type in the domain URL. A calendar will let you choose a date, even as far back as two decades, to see what the website looked like then.

Transfer of information

Check the WHOIS database for domain information. Has it been banned from search engines? What type of content has it been associated with? Check the internet archives to see if it was relevant to your business.

So, these are just some of the tools with which you get to know if a domain was really dropped or not. In the next article, we shall look at how to buy dropped domains.

All you wanted to know about net neutrality

As internet users, we’ve all watched with great attention, the current debate and vote on net neutrality. But few of us (apart from geeks) actually know what internet neutrality means. What is it? Why is it of important? And most importantly, how does it concern us? Join us as we discuss some of the basics of Net Neutrality that we believe you have a right to know.

Internet Neutrality is the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally by internet service providers.

ISPs- They provide you with a connection to the internet. (They are against Net Neutrality)

FCC – Federal communication commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. (They’re for Net Neutrality)

YOU- Who use the internet, (Decide!)

The conflict

You have a computer at home. You are provided with an internet connection by an internet service provider (ISP). Example: Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance etc. The internet service provider lets you access websites such as facebook, Google, youtube, Gmail, blogs, gaming sites etc. The ISP lets you access any website and download information from it at the same speed regardless of which website it is.

The ISPs do not want this. They want to be able to block certain content and charge extra to use certain services. ISPs demand a cut from every website in order to funnel that content to customers. So, you may end up with faster speeds for a few websites and slower speeds (or no speed at all!) for some others.

ISPs want to settings up blocks to

• Discriminate: Smaller sites will be harder to access

• Double-dip: Network owners want to charge you for internet access and then charge extra for content viewed.

• Prevent competition: Start-ups and entrepreneurs will have an extra hurdle to overcome in order to compete with larger providers.

Benefits of Internet Neutrality

• Freedom to access the information you want
• Freedom to create competition
• Freedom of speech
• Protection against unfair pricing
• Ability to innovate

So which side are you? Do you believe Internet Neutrality is a realistic possibility or is it just a pipedream? Please let us know what you think.

Online security threats

The internet has proved to be a most powerful and useful tool for billions of people worldwide. However, in the same way that you won’t leave your house unlocked, you shouldn’t go online without taking some basic precautions. But where do you start? And what are the types of threats in store? Yes, that’s precisely the question we answer. Join us as we discuss more about online threats and ways to protect yourself.

Malware

Short for malicious software, this is a type of software that is installed without your consent. Worms, Viruses, and Trojan horses are examples of the malicious software referred to as Malware. Wondering what Viruses and Trojan horses are? Read further.

Virus

Viruses are harmful computer programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another and interfere with computer operations. A virus can corrupt or delete data on your computer and damage your hard drive.

Trojan Horse

A Trojan Horse is a destructive computer program that masquerades itself as a benign file or application (such as .jpg or .doc). It then opens up a backdoor or access to your PC without your knowledge.

Worm

This is a self-replicating malicious computer program that uses a computer network to send copies of itself to other computers on the same network. Unlike a Virus, it doesn’t need to attach itself to an existing program. Worms almost always cause some damage to a network.

Botnet

Botnet is a large network of compromised computers. A “Bot” is a malicious software that enables cyber criminals to control your computer without your knowledge and use it to execute illegal activities such as sending out spam, spreading viruses etc.

Spyware

A Spyware is a software (that can even be legitimate), which monitors a user’s online activity and collects various personal information such as internet surfing habits, etc. Spyware is dangerous as its presence in a system is typically hidden from the user and can therefore be difficult to detect.

Phishing

Phishing is another type of online identity theft that uses email and fraudulent websites designed to steal your personal data or information, such as credit card numbers, passwords, account data, or other information.