Essential Best Practices to Improve Markup and CSS

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Benefits of CSS Tableless Designs

CSS is the short form of Cascading Style Sheets. In the year 1996, the World Wide Web Consortium introduced it with the purpose of separating presentation (layout, fonts, page structure, colors etc) from the web page content (images, multimedia, written copy). Apart from this, another important goal of CSS is to increase web accessibility. In the true sense, CSS is an important tool for modern web designing.

Since CSS is being contained in a separate file from an HTML web page, it is often called the external style sheets. When an HTML page loads like .php, .aspx, .cgi, the page is called the external CSS file. The CSS file usually tells the HTML page about how to style the the content of a website. In earlier times, HTML along with tables were used to construct web pages. However, with the technological advancement, the process has become more advanced and dynamic. In this era, a new concept is followed for designing web pages. This approach is known as CSS tableless design.

This tableless design is not possible without CSS. However, in the place of tables, a tableless designer can use “DIV”s (the short form of “division”). A DIV is basically a container, where web content is stored.

Reasons Behind the Superiority of CSS Tableless Design

Still now, there is a confusion regarding the superiority of CSS tableless design over the traditional table-based website design. However, some of the reasons for which CSS tableless design is more preferred for modern website designing are mentioned below:

* CSS tableless design enables the designers to create more complex designs when developing a site. It also allows the website designers to express their creativity. However, the table based layouts make the site more rigid and inflexible and does not allow the designers to show their innovative style.
* CSS tableless design helps in improving search engine rankings of your website by designing smaller web page file and by eliminating “junk”. As a result, the search engine spiders could easily crawl through the site and gets favorable ranking in the search engines.
* In the CSS tabless layout, all pages are allowed to use the same CSS document. So, in this case, the change in the entire website can be easily done. In the true sense, the CSS style sheets maintain the visual consistency all through the site.
* A CSS tableless site updating is less time consuming and easier. In this form, look of an entire site can be altered by changing the properties in the CSS file. In this case, the HTML code of the page is not needed to be touched.
* Redesigning a site by using CSS tableless design is less costly and faster than redesigning a site by using table based design. This is because in a CSS tableless designs, the same file is being used for the content and the layout design. So, the web designers can quickly make changes in the whole site.
* Since in CSS tableless design, DIVs are used, page structure can be easily changed. Usually, DIVs are easily re-sizable than a transparent image, which is being used in a table-based site design.
* CSS tableless web design reduces the file size of a web page and thus makes the page loading faster.
* CSS tableless website design makes the website more accessible to the readers by proper navigation of web site.
* Another advantage of this design format is that CSS allows the designers to attach multiple style sheets for various media types.

There is no doubt in the fact that the CSS tableless design is an excellent way for the development of modern websites. It is observed that by using CSS tableless design, the website could be made more usable and accessible. Added to these, faster page downloading and more elegant design are also possible. For the website developer as well as the site owner, CSS tableless websites are less expensive and easier to redesign.

Search Engine Friendly CMS

Content management system is being now widely used for publishing, creating, editing and archiving electronic text. Actually, it is above and all a computer application system that allows its user to make necessary changes in content without relying on external assistance all the time. In short, CMS has ushered a revolution in the field of web development by facilitating the task of adding or modifying content in a website. However, most of us have a common notion that CMS and search engine optimization are two contradictory concepts but the fact is just the different. Modern content management systems are much advance as compared to their previous versions. They now have more advance features, which have made them search engine friendly as well as user friendly.

Choosing the Right CMS
Static website has become a rarity in the online industry as it does not allow a user to make necessary changes in its content if he does not have professional exposure in this domain. However, you can break free from this limitation by integrating a content management system in your website. Mambo, Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal etc are some of the popular content management systems that are available for free online. However, you need to check out some basic SEO issues that are intrinsically associated with updating content in CMS:

Custom HTML Tags
Most of the search engine friendly CMS offers some flexibility of using HTML tags. You have to make sure that you can use some common HTML tags such as tags for subheadlines or headline and “nofollow” tags for links. Besides, you need to make sure that your chosen CMS will allow you to make some changes in the HTML manually. You need to make sure that you can access built-in features of your CMS without facing any hassle.

Anchor Text Flexibility
Internal linking of anchor text is a vital issue that you should give utmost attention while choosing a CMS for your website. A SEO friendly CMS should offer this flexibility at any cost.

Intelligent Categorization
A poor category structure is as worthless as poorly formed URL. The accessibility of pages should not be limited just because a CMS does not have that flexibility. In order to avoid this situation, you need to opt for a CMS that offers customizable navigation panels.

301-Redirect
It is a fact that most of the CMS does not have this crucial feature, which often plays a critical role in the optimization of a website. 301-redirect is indispensable for those pages, which are being removed or are expired temporarily or permanently.

Static Caching
If your website is getting a large volume of traffic on regular basis, you should opt for a CMS, which offers caching options. If your CMS does not have this feature, you are on the verge of loosing media attention because connection error is bound to occur in such situation.

Static URL
No longer you will have to bear with dynamic URLs. Most of the content management systems are now offering a unique chance to create keyword rich static URL. Be sure check out this feature before making a final decision.

Developing a Search Engine Friendly Website

The process of website development includes web design, server administration, programming, testing, content management, marketing and deployment. A number of people work in a web development team, each specializing in his/her respective field. The ultimate goal of a web developer should be to create a search engine friendly website.

In the true sense, website gives online identity to a company or an individual involved in the process of Internet marketing. Its represents an organization and sells a company’s name by attracting more visitors.

In recent times most of the business corporations prefer to launch their own websites for promoting their products and services and it is seen that websites are one of the most effective tools that contributes a lot in the field of profit maximization.

A website should be designed in such a way so that it can reflect corporate identity of a company. In a business website, mainly the unique selling points of a product should be highlighted. The content should be persuasive and should make the readers aware of the fact that your product is different from all other similar products available in the market. Site content should be informative enough to motivate the online visitors to purchase the products of an organization.

A good website should be well-designed, easily navigable, attractive, user friendly, interactive, well written. Otherwise, it will not be able to retain the attention of the visitors.

The main steps of website development are as follows:
* Define the website business objectives.
* Translate these objectives into web requirements.
* Create such a design so that it can very well reflect the objectives clearly.
* Set standard for user interface and content design.
* Develop client-side scripting and graphics content.
* Develop the server side program content.
* Monitor the usability component.

Stages of Website Development

Website development may seem a tough job if you do not have any idea about it. If you do not have even a minimum idea about the different stages of a site development then there is high possibility that web development company can charge you exorbitantly for their services.

Some of the vital web development stages are discussed here:

* Analysis of the Project: This is the very basic stage of web development in any web development company. Before starting off it is required to gather some of the basic information about the project. The objectives and purpose of developing a site is to be known. It is also important to know for whom the site is going to be developed.
* Documentation: Once the project analysis is complete, it is required to know whether it is feasible to carry out the project. The cost has to be also calculated. Documentation is prepared which is passed on to the clients for their approval.

* Designing a Site: Site designing starts once a project and its pricing are approved between the client and a web development company. Now the look and feel of the site is planned and designed.

* Developing a Site: This is one of the essential parts of web development. Development of a site comprise designing a database and prepare proper coding for a site. This is a back end coding that helps to run a site.

* Testing: Once designing and development of a site is complete, it is given for testing. The test engineers are assigned with the duty to check whether the site is properly working or not. On finding errors they are conveyed to the developers of the site for required modifications. The testing process is continuously carried out until the site is completely error free.

* Setting it Up: After the testing engineers it is the client’s turn to check the site. Following a customer’s feedback it is either sent back to the developers or if it is approved then preparations are taken to set it up.

* Regular Maintenance: This is the last but not the least stage of web development. A site after going live needs regular maintenance. A site should be also regularly updated from time to time.