Friday 19 April 2013

Creative Design in Social Media Profiles will Help You!


Let’s talk about design for websites. We know that a creative and attractive design will attract more people. So design for a website plays a big role in driving more traffic to your site. 

Consider real life. If you are going for an interview, you need to be ready like a professional employee. The first impression is the most important impression in any field of work; so it’s also applicable in the online world. But we may add that we have more freedom than in real life. 

Suppose you are thinking of launching your personal website. You can design or decorate it as per your wants. You may design in a creative manner. People like to see creative applications across the online world. 

Creative Design in Another Way!

Design for Social Media

Suppose one of your friends has not contacted you for a long time and if he/she might be using social media networks, he/she will surely try to find you on the internet. 

Whenever I use my social networks, I always get interested in profiles which are designed creatively or different from others. Social media plays a big role in our online world as well as in our real world. On the other hand, it is not necessary that people will follow your profile by seeing your creativity and visual profile; but it is true that people will be attracted by that profile. 

What is the Challenge?

Here the biggest challenge is that you should be one of the persons that I would like to move towards rather than ignore. It might be a time-consuming process, it might take more effort and even some cash. But it is not impossible; you need to work hard, you must give some time and you will be rocked within a few weeks. 

I believe that any person can create finest profiles and it is time to move on to harvest the benefits in the long run in terms of social media. Yes, it is always great to be in front of the competition. 

Why is it Important?

Earlier, people were not familiar with the importance of good design. Coders didn’t have knowledge about good designs for websites. Designing social media profiles is different but the perception is the same. We all are using these social media networks but we are not designers and also not aware about creative and attractive design of social media profiles. 

Right now attractive web design is the key to focus on for all websites! 

Anyone can find you via a simple search in Google if you are using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. It will be beneficial if you look your best. In the online world, having an online identity with social media will be helpful to you. 

Keep in mind that it is tough to get back missed opportunities. 

How can we make it best?

The question is how can we make it best? If you are using Tumblr, then make sure that you have customized Tumblr blog design. On my Facebook page, I have posted attractive images and videos. If people really like your fan page by visiting it once, it gives reason for them to know more about you. 

If someone goes through your good looking profile, then he/she will be interested in your content like pictures and videos which you have posted in your network. People will spend more time checking out your profile. 

It is very important that you do well in this step which will help you to gather more followers or fans!

Consider Facebook Fan page. Make your fan page more pretty by posting appealing things. People would then like to follow your page. You will have more comments and likes to your particular post. People trust good looking and attractive profiles. 

Here are some points which play a big role in designing a good looking profile:

  • Use of visual media
  • Be inspiring
  • Keep away laziness
  • Know what to share

Use of Visual Media

Almost all of us are not going to get customized design for our social media profiles. So what should we do to improve their design? The answer is to focus on visual media.

Photos are a most significant feature of Facebook. Take help of that. Take a great picture for your profile picture. Place different photo albums of different places where you have enjoyed with others. Photos should have high quality. This will make you different from others in the online world. 

Be Inspiring

In this segment, we will talk about professional touch rather than design. Post inspirational status updates which will be liked by people. Share about topics on which people would like to talk… don’t share only about yourself. People would like to know something new and interesting. This will attract your friends and followers to your profile. 

Keep Away Laziness

Don’t post photo albums without title. Every album should be labeled. Go through each tab like info, about, photos etc and make them clear by removing unnecessary things from your profile. Try to be active on your profiles as people would like to follow those who are active. Most importantly, delete spam content and post from your profile. 

Know what to Share

It is also essential that you need to know what to share on which platforms. Share different things on different platforms. Content of post should be good. 

These are really simple methods which can be managed by anyone. 

Summary

In short, if you want your “online identity,” then be active on your social profile. Make it creative and attractive. Share interesting things which would be liked by people. For assistance, visit www.spinxwebdesign.com for creative and professional web designing solutions. 

If you have any creative experience with social media networks, let me know via comments… 

Saturday 30 March 2013

Target Your Worldwide Audience With rel="alternate" hreflang="x”

In this age, we need to be in touch with different people and to support them; so we need to use different languages.

Supporting a website with different languages or having a multilingual website is not a new concept. But search engines and different browsers are dependent on structured data. Make sure that you are using correct markup as it is very significant today.

To make correct markup for website with different languages, rel="alternate" hreflang="x” are used.

This particular element supports Google Index and gives a local version content to your users who need an alternate content language.

This tag is basically more helpful when you have a website with regional specific content in different languages.

When do We need to use this tag?

As per Google Recommendations, this tag can be used in these situations:
  • You have translated alternate versions of your website.
  • Only navigation elements are translated and remaining content is the same.
  • Website with single language but targets different regions.
According to above specifications, there are two kinds of websites: 

1) Multilingual
2) Multiregional. 

Now, the question arises, what is the difference between multilingual and multiregional?

Multilingual websites give content in two or more languages. Like a Latin American website has content with two different languages, English and Spanish.

Multiregional websites can be defined as those with content that aim at users in various countries. Some of these websites may be multilingual and multiregional.

How to Deal with a Multilingual Website?

First of all, ensure that pages of your website have clear default language for search engines as well as users. This can be done by declaring that language in header of every page, and maintain a constant language. 

Multilingual Website SEO

Important Note: Never use auto translated version of website. It will be considered as spam. However if you have used auto translated version of website because of some reason, then block auto translated versions results through robots.txt. 

Consider user experience of all in website URLs.  It would be best to use sub-directory in URL for local website URLs and if it is not possible, use sub-domains. Sub-domains need more configurations.

Sub-directory example: 

http://www.yourwebsitename.tld/local_extension

Sub-domain example: 

http://www.local_extension.yourwebsitename.tld

You can translate the words in URL into the local language by using  UTF-8 encode in URL.

Getting Away from a URL

It is a serious component and is not discussed in global SEO.

Make sure that you predetermine all characters that are prohibited in your URL to UTF-8 equal. This is proper and appropriate syntax.

For instance, suppose space in the URL ( ) which is illegitimate character in URL. So when you are trying to enter URL with space like http://www.domainname.com/with space, should be encoded like this: http://www.domainname.com/with20%space or http://www.domainname.com/with+space. Here ‘20%’ and ‘+’ are UTF-8 backed characters for illegal syntax. 

Target Particular Countries

How will Google understand website targeted countries?

Here some elements which are used to determine targeted countries by Google:

Server Location: Servers are chiefly key signals for the Search Engines, via IP address of the server. Nowadays, many websites are hosted on distributed hosting.

Top-Level-Domains (TLDs): ccTLDs are also important to identify targeted audience countries. They represent particular countries like .au for Australia and .de for Germany. By this both search engines and users can come to know for users of which particular country the content on a website is.

Geo-targeting: You can set particular country in Google Webmaster Tools to target your users. 

Other Signals to Website: To make your website local, you can add address, phone number, local language and others.

How to Structure URLs?

For multilingual website, structuring your website URLs is most important.

Below are some points which will help you to make your website local:

URL Structure Pros Example
ccTLDs Clear Geo-target www.example.de
Sub-domains with gTLDs Easy to Set up and can user Google Webmaster Tool for Geo-targeting www.ie.example.com
Sub-directories with gTLDs Easy to Set up and can user Google Webmaster Tool for Geo-targeting www.example.com/jp/

Solution to Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is the most critical situation which should not be ignored. Putting identical content on 2 dissimilar URLs will be considered copied content which can affect the website’s organic ranking. 

You can use these options for duplicate content:
  • 301 redirection
  • rel=canonical

How to use rel="alternate" hreflang="x"?

Do you have identical content in other language on the same website? Simply, you can use this specific element on your website if it contains content in a different language.

Suppose you have a website like http://www.yourwebsite_name.com and other language website is http://www.yourwebsite_name.com/fr/. Below are methods which can be used to show that French URL is French language equivalent to the English page. 


1. HTML Link Element 

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="http://www.yourwebsite_name.com/fr/" />

2. HTTP Header


If you don’t have HTML content and website contains other content like Word document or other files, you can indicate particular language for that URL:

Link: <http://www.yourwebsite_name.com/fr/>; rel="alternate"; hreflang="fr"

3. Sitemap


You can also include language specifications into website sitemap.
 

Example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlsetxmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<url>
<loc>http://www.yourwebsite_name.com/</loc>
<xhtml:link
rel="alternate"
hreflang="fr"
href="http://www.yourwebsite_name.com/fr/" />
If you have a website with different languages, then every page for different languages must contain rel="alternate" hreflang="x" to classify all languages itself. Suppose if your website has pages with English, French and Italy languages, then the French version must contain rel="alternate" hreflang="x" for English and Italy versions. Similarly, it should be done for Italy and English language versions.

If you have different URLs targeted with same language but different regions, it will be a good idea to give a general URL for geographically indeterminate users. For instance, if you want to target all searchers in UK, you can specify the general English-language (en) page for all UK users. You can specify URL for users in France (en-fr) and for users in Italy (en-it).

Supported Values for hreflang

Values for hreflang classify the language in the format of ISO 6391-1 and region in the format of ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 for particular alternate URL.

Be sure that you use correct syntax for countries and regions to make sure appropriate functionality of rel=”alternate” tags.

Ending Summary

Well, in multilingual and multiregional websites, there are three scenarios where you require to use rel=“alternate” hreflang=“x”. When you have a website with different language and region, you have to specify tags and mark up your data. By using this tag, you can inform Google that your content is in a particular language or your content is for users in a particular region. Consider URLs structure to create better signals for search engines to target your particular country.

Click here to get more information about web development solutions. I have tried to cover all things about rel=“alternate” hreflang=“x” and about managing multilingual websites. If I have missed anything, let me know.Your comments will be appreciated.

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Enhance your Business Recognition Through Social Media


The craze of business marketing through social media is the primary option for business owners nowadays. Social media marketing is useful for every industry like retail, pharmacy, consumer goods or any other services. Through online marketing, you will have the chance to double your profits. Social media directs your online business to promote the brand name successfully.

It is a platform where you can interact with a number of clients globally and understand their needs and preferences. Through social media, you can understand the market requirements and people. Many companies and business owners are dependent on using social media. Proper and effective use of social media will provide you with new levels of business. I will list some tips to be followed and some that need to be avoided. 

Tips to follow on social media for online business: 

  • Place reliable and related information on social media profiles.
  • Update post time to time. This will engage more users towards your profile page.
  • Use different ways to share your posts and updates through messaging to users, uploading videos, writing articles and notes and much more.
  • Use simple and sweet language in your article presentation where people can understand easily.
  • Retain your account privacy and ensure that you post and update according to your account.
  • Don’t get confused when you are posting links and information. Interact with different social media personalities.
  • Give your comment in every feedback from your connections at least with thanking comment.
  • Get the information about social networks and decide your targeted market and audience. Facebook is a platform where you can share with your connections where Twitter is a public platform where you can share with people around the globe.
  • Be professional about your posts and updates
  • Provide informative knowledge.
  • Place an attractive image. Image works better than content. People don’t like to read content. 

Avoid these tips on social media for online business:

  • Don’t place any story line in your article post.
  • Avoid submitting invalid information that directs users in a wrong way. If you provide correct information, then submit post and give reply.
  • Don’t give reply in negative manner to any comment of your friends.
  • Don’t post personals and particulars of your business.
  • Avoid placing any wrong spelling and wrong grammar in your article. It will create bad impression of your on user’s mind such as you are uneducated.
  • Don’t make use of derogatory language.
  • You must avoid spamming links. It will be harmful to your business reputation.
  • You must avoid placing racial statements. 
I hope these tips will help you to make your business recognition with use of social media. Let me know through your comments if I miss any...


Friday 25 January 2013

Most Web Development Trends for 2013



With every passing day, there have been numerous trends emerging in the web development. It has become a huge task for both the designers and developers.

I will like to share the development trends for 2013.

Responsive Web Design

This form of design is mostly applicable for website development. In the recent times, there has been a significant rise in the number of Smartphone and iPhone users.
People prefer to use these gadgets rather than desktop and laptops. The design has to match up to the expectations of mobile user and differ to what is available on the desktop. You may lose potential users if you fail to fulfill their requirements.



Multi-Device Design

It is a huge challenge for designers and developers to develop such a module having a multi-device design aspect. People not only expect mobile website but also want a website for television.

HTML5

One more trend is HTML5. In the past, designers used flash players for attractive banner ads or headers. But after the introduction of HTML5, it was designers who mainly preferred to use it. Flash is preferably used in web games or desktop games and much more.

Efficient Website

Placing a huge site is not a good idea but website should have good efficiency. User interface and user experience is important for a website.

Modular Design

In designing process, building blocks will be a new trend in 2013. A website would have more structured layout in 2013. By creating modules and blocks, web maintenance process will be made easier and economical.

Involvement of Standards

The main trend in 2013 is that web standards will be followed by web developers. There will be a negative impact if web developers do not follow these standards.

New tools for Design and Development

CMS vendors are already looking to provide mobile support for managing content. Another step is to optimize CMS software interfaces and to provide total flexibility for content creation.

Videos on Website

People are keeping track of new videos hitting the stands this year. So, the use of videos has increased in web development.

Content Strategy and Storytelling

Content is most important and people would like to read new content day by day. One should update it on the website.

Profit Making Website

Developers focus on making a profit making website. In order to develop it, developers must concentrate on user experience and user interface.

Experimental Design

Year 2013 will be for new and experimental design. New features will be added into design to keep people’s attention. This experimental design model really works well.

Improved Layout

Website layout is improved by better typography. CSS will have a flexible and grid layout.

Scalable Web Design

Scalable web design is a technique which can be used in websites to make capable displayed on screen with both low and high pixel densities. It is a group of creative ideas, latest techniques and web standards.

These trends will be followed in 2013 by web designers and web developers.


Sunday 6 January 2013

An overview of e-commerce design for buyers

Nowadays online shopping trend is increasing. There are many e-commerce sites or online shopping sites available. There is no doubt that many persons are thinking of starting their own online business. Setting up an online store is not so easy, however.  Find the best web development firm like SPINX Inc which will help you in starting up your business. Think that you are the user and what you will look for in an e-commerce site.

In this article, basic points for e-commerce design are explained. Follow them to boost your business online.



Basic features of e-commerce site


In simple terms, an e-commerce site includes many products and services for sale, where people can browse all products, can buy and pay via payment gateways online.

An online shop includes:

  • Product catalogue where all products have their own detailed page with all information and images.
  • Shopping cart where people can add their products which they want to buy at the same time.
  • Product search facility if users want to search what they are looking for.
  • Check-out gateway which includes delivery details and other product information which is selected by the user.
  • Back-end admin to monitor all transactions and user information.


A web solution company which you have selected will place these all features on your website. It will also give suggestions for making the site user friendly.

Features of online shopping site


It is very complex to create an online shopping website. The site should be easy to browse and to manage. You should be transparent in your web development firm to make this task as simple as possible. Sometimes one error in the website may turn off your users.

Graphics: This is a very important aspect. Product images or other images should be qualitative and website layout should have a proper look. If product images are not clear, you will get fewer users. Layout and color scheme should be clear for users. The focus must be on products and not on Flash layout.

Software for shopping cart: This software should have all facilities included search product, add and save products information which is selected by user in shopping cart, facility for managing inventory, delivery information etc. All this information should be discussed with your developer.

Payment options: Most common option is PayPal. But many e-commerce sites are now using secured Visa options, COD (Cash On Delivery) etc.  Some of them are accepting credit cards too.

Client testimonials: Place your client’s feedback on your website. By doing this, use can get trust in your site. Many websites are now including product review option where buyers can place product review.

Being social: This is a marketing tool which permits users to share product information on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. This will help you to get more users to your websites and turn them into true clients.

So if you are going to start your own e-commerce business, consider these points. Hope this article will help you!!!