Website Rentals by Intuit

I have been concerned by the ads lately being shown by Intuit. The offer clients a chance to customize their prebuilt templates, and then tell them that they will get seen as a result of using Intuit building their website for them.

Freelance developers I have spoken too, everyone always chuckles when I bring this up, all seem to agree that this is a ploy to catch all the newbies interested in getting rich over night.

This article is not to discount the services, as I have no proof that they do or do not work. I can however offer my experience with previous Companies offering similar services. One such company is Yahoo. In the early days of my exposure to e-commerce, I too fell for the ploy that building your website on Yahoo would get you better results at least within their search. Well, suffice to say, simply using Yahoo services does not improve your position in organic results, on Yahoo, or any of the other main search engines.

So, a new company is out there selling a dream. If you are looking to be truly successful on the internet, the best way is to use unique web design, optimized coding practices, and a logical site structure. To date, these elements have proven to provide the best results for good search engine position and good conversion rates.

If you are new to online commerce and would like to speak to an experienced website developer about the most affordable way to develop your online presence, contact me at sgprofl.net.

 

Dreamweaver Crashing

It is a good thing that I can code without Dreamweaver. While I have to admit that it makes coding a lot easier, I can still rely on simple text editors and a good ftp client to get the job done.
However, after the recent time change, Dreamweaver has been crashing whenever I select text in a form, or when I use php in a form.

So all the horn tooting about being able to code on a text editor is great, but I sure missed my WySyWig Interface! So, I started my search on the crash and found a very reliable post with a fix that worked for me. I decided to create this post for my fellow web developers who may use Dreamweaver. I know web design does not depend on the interface, but the time it takes to develop increases.
Long story short here is the link to the fix that worked for me. Whether you are a web designer in fort lauderdale or not, this should help ya!
CLICK HERE

Working With CS Cart

CS Cart is a popular E-Commerce Software. It requires a license purchase, which should give you more confidence in the product. The folks over at http://www.cs-cart.com/ make it very easy to upload and install the proudct. While the product is reliable, there is a slight learning curve.

I worked in conjuction with a friend who is the designer for this project. Shout out to Teon (Black Koi Design). The scope of this article will be limited to the programming side of the install. The task was to copy products from an existing installation to the new installation, including products and product descriptions, etc. The challenge in the task was to disallow product display until visitors were logged in.

From a programming standpoint I found it pretty easy to jump in and figure out the twists and turns. An hour or so of poking around was enough time to allow me to understand the best point to verify login status prior to showing the active products. I must say that it was easy to work with and install.

I will write more as I try out the merchant gateway options and shipping, etc.

Web Design for Anyone?

Is Web Design for anyone? Well, yes and no. Some folks do have the ability to build their own web pages. Especially with the onset of so many open source applications that build the website for you. This blog platform is one prime example. As a web developer, if a client requested that I build them a blog website, I would immediately suggest using the WordPress Platform.

From a developers stand point, it would be like trying to reinvent the wheel. A tried and tested solution, that would take less than a few days to install and take live, would be the more efficient, more cost effective web design solution to offer my clients.

So Web Design is for anyone. Well not exactly. Lets just look at the interface, or the look and feel of the website. Many websites offer free templates for just about all of the possible open source website solutions. There is no shortage of free templates to download and install. There you go, new website. This may not be the best solution for all websites. If you are not looking for special features, or other customizable layout features, then you should have no problems. Then this is not really design then is it? Well yes and no right? The “design” of the interface, includes the functionality of the website as well as the look and feel of the design.

There will come a time in the life of an evolving website, where you will at least seek the consultation of a qualified website developer, like (*SGPRO shameless plug), to find out whether or not the solution you are seeking is doable, and how much it will cost.

In my next touch on this topic, I will discuss how some clients attempt to edit customized websites.

Happy Internetting…

Websites Make Money Right?

Websites Make Money

The ultimate goal of every website is to generate income. Many professional offering their services, can use a simple informational website to offer their services on the web, and potentially generate business from the website by encouraging interested visitors to initialize some form of contact. This contact can come by way of phone call or email, depending on the preferences of the website owner.

There are also E-Commerce websites. This is typically an extension of a brick and mortar establishment, but in todays market, that is not necessarily the case. There are many entrepenuers who simply resell products for a profit. They may benefit from search engine optimization to generate online sales or even use Google Adwords to pay for traffic.

Either way, the website you establish will determine your potential for earning income online. SgPro is a professional web design company based in Fort Lauderdale. If you understand the importance of a strong website, you should contact us for a professional evaluation of your needs, and the affordable solutions that we can provide. We are based in Fort Lauderdale Florida. We have worked with many small businesses in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and the Palm Beaches, to help them improve or establish a strong internet presence. For more details on web design and search engine optimization please visit our website.

Web Design in Fort Lauderdale

Translate Web Pages using JQuery Translate

Developing a website for international traffic was daunting at first. I had looked at some of the online translators available, and was sadly disappointed. Typically free translators, will try to include their brand into the translation service that they offer. This would be either by changing the URL, or by including an I Frame or some other nuisance.

I had settled on Babelfish, a free service from Yahoo, and easy to say, that this was not a good solution. Translations were inconsistent at best. As I was new to this, I tried to incorporate Google Translator, which led me to JQuery Translate. When I say led me to, I mean that Google was not independently offering the service for large amounts of text. Remember the goal was to dynamically translate an entire page. Needless to say I “googled” Jquery translate, and arrived here: http://code.google.com/p/jquery-translate/.

Needless to say, I cut my development time in half using this option. Let me know if you need some help setting this up. It should take about a half an hour or so to implement.

Using JQuery in Web Design

I have been using JQuery in my website projects for only a few months. I am by no means a guru. However, what I am is curious about how far this new advent in the world of Javascript can go.

I might be dating myself, but I do remember the days when I would advise friends and loved ones to disable Javascript. Typically this was a temporary remedy for endless popups. Javascript was almost like the plague when it came to pop ups and utilization in web pages. Before the necessary security precautions were implemented in Web Browsers, script kiddies would terrorize the inexperienced with the power of Javascript.

That being said, we should not underestimate the power of using Javascript. Many websites today use Javascript in the form of an Ajax application. Ajax is an implementation of Javascript which allows users to interact with the site without leaving the web page they are currently viewing.  JQuery takes the power of Javascript and packs it all neatly into a package of functions that can be easy to manipulate if you have some experience with Javascript already. Using JQuery as an introduction to Javascript is doing yourself a disservice. While it is easy to learn, and I am not suggesting that you need to know Javascript in order to use JQuery, it will be better if you learn the limitations of the language, then you can take better advantage of the shortcuts that JQuery provides.

There are tons of websites offering Plugins, or add-on scripts that use JQuery as a foundation to provide dynamic website functionality. Everything from image galleries to flyout menus can be accomplished without using third party apps like Flash. One website in particular I have found very useful, is the JQuery UI website. UI is short for User Interface. This package  of functions includes some commonly used components with the ability to customize the look and feel of the elements of the interface, to match your website design.

Web Design has come a long way since I started out using Notepad to code HTML pages for personal websites. It is very important to stay abreast of the tools that are available to you. Keeping up with current technologies is important to any serious web developer. Using JQuery is just one of the many tools out there that help make design and implementing a website a little bit easier.

Google uses Anchor Links in Organic Results

Just picked up on a tasty morsel of search info. Browsing the blogs, and came across the update on Google that they are now including anchor links in organic search results, when the content is relevant. The idea being that they are taking you right to the most relevant content immediately. Personally I am more surprised that it took them this long to realize this.

What a sigh of relief for all the folks who integrate javascript functionality, and often rely on anchor links to interact with the user. For those who dont know what anchor links are, they are basically links within the same web page. In particular on long pages, it allows web developers to link to content further down the page, without forcing the viewer to scroll. Basically the browser jumps to the content that has the<  a name or Anchor name, that corresponds to the link. Links will contain the # followed by some alphanumeric identifier. Naturally you would want to use a keyword relevant name to increase the relevancy of the page to the targeted keyphrase.

In the comments of the blog, there was a suggestion by a “Google tech” who claims that using the id of a container like a div can duplicate the anchor tag. At the time of this posting, this has not been tested here, on all browsers.

Happy optimization!

For help optimizing your website contact us for Search Engine Optimization Services. We are local to the Fort Lauderdale, Miami area.

Google Picks Up Anchor Links for SERP's

Just picked up on a tasty morsel of search info. Browsing the blogs, and came across the update on Google that they are now including anchor links in organic search results, when the content is relevant. The idea being that they are taking you right to the most relevant content immediately. Personally I am more surprised that it took them this long to realize this.

What a sigh of relief for all the folks who integrate javascript functionality, and often rely on anchor links to interact with the user. For those who dont know what anchor links are, they are basically links within the same web page. In particular on long pages, it allows web developers to link to content further down the page, without forcing the viewer to scroll. Basically the browser jumps to the content that has the a name or Anchor name, that corresponds to the link. Links will contain the # followed by some alphanumeric identifier. Naturally you would want to use a keyword relevant name to increase the relevancy of the page to the targeted keyphrase.

In the comments of the blog, there was a suggestion by a “Google tech” who claims that using the id of a container like a div can duplicate the anchor tag. At the time of this posting, this has not been tested here, on all browsers.

Happy optimization!

For help optimizing your website contact us for Search Engine Optimization Services. We are local to the Fort Lauderdale, Miami area.

Web Design and E-Commerce

Greetings from Fort Lauderdale. I have been working with another company in the Fort Lauderdale area providing programming services for a few projects. The company I am currently contracted to is primarily a Graphic Design House. The Art Director at the Graphics Studio, which will remain un named for now, has many years experience developing concepts for some major corporations.

There are in house designers who are responsible for the great designs that this house is known for. I am blessed to be able to rub shoulders with the caliber of graphics that the guys are capable of. I have seen this as exactly what web design is all about. Web Design is the marriage of form and function. Great designs will encourage visitors to click through, great programming knows what to do with the clicks, and handle the customers visit appropriately. Web programmers are responsible for making sure that the path to conversion is clear and easy to navigate. This is of course cemented together by the desires of the website owner and the overall goal of the website. It takes a clear understanding of the objective in order to formulate a logical, intuitive interface that is attractive to a broad range of tastes.

For experienced web design professionals in Fort Lauderdale, you have come to the right place. Contact me through the sgprofl.net contact page.

FT LAUDERDALE WEB DESIGN