10 reasons why webmasters should use .htaccess files
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I am not sure all of you might have heard of htaccess files. Also may be thinking what can be done having an htaccess file on your site. The people who would have heard would have used to implement custom error pages and for protecting directories which needs a password access. But htaccess file can do more than that. Below I have mentioned few quality tips on how to use .htaccess files for webmasters to their advantage.
1. For Password Protection - If you have a specific area or folder that needs to be protected and only certain people should have access to it. Then .htaccess is your answer. There are several client side based scripts to protect your password which is not secured but using server side htaccess you are safe.
2. Block users with their IP - If you think you need to deny access to certain IP address or blocks. You can also allow and deny by domain name rather than the IP address.
3. Block referrals sites - If you think certain sites is misusing your content or images and hot linking without a legitimate one then you can block them through htaccess. An apache mod rewrite is required to be installed on to the server first most servers have them.
4. 301 redirects – 301 redirect is the most effective and Search Engine Friendly method for redirecting a web page. It’s not a difficult task to implement it will preserve the ranking and credibility of that particular page.
5. 404 error pages creation - Everyone get frustrated when they encounter a broken link page. But you can help the users by creating a custom 404 error page and tell them that this pages doesn’t exist which will make the reader to think that you care them.
6. Prevents from access htaccess - htaccess files allow you to prevent accessing certain part of your website. htaccess also can protect certain directories as password protect folders and give access to only specific users.
7. Create user friendly URLs- With htaccess and an apache module called mod_rewrite you can setup URLS in which ever way you want. Often ecommerce and a website on content management software generate URL with many special characters which are not search engine friendly. But with .htaccess file you can mod_rewrite them.
8. Enabling server side includes- One of the trickiest aspects of a maintaining a website is constant update on a certain part of the design which occurs on every page. But with Enabling server side includes instead of copying and pasting the new code on all the pages you can use a include file which will modify and will replace all the pages. You should also be able to do that using .htaccess
9. Set time zone of your server- You can set server time zone to local time zone using htaccess which will give the correct time being return in your web form.
10. Block bots and Cache of the web pages- Another advantage of htaccess is for blocking bots and caching of your web page by the search engines. This can be prevented too by htaccess.
htaccess is one of the smallest things that we all overlook. but I see many things I have listed here are very invaluable tool for a webmaster.
10 common usability mistakes by web designers
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There are million of web pages offering useful information, products and services. But a majority of them are difficult for the user to use and ultimately doesn’t attract the your to stick with the website. As a professional web designer you should take a visitors interests and need while designing the website.
This blog posts presents 10 important common usability mistakes by a web designer.
1) Formatting linking text - An anchor text link is format with an underline which makes the user it is a clickable text. The current trend among web designers to make the remove the underline text decoration can make unnecessary confusion with the end user.
2) High contrast text on a light background - Another design trend which I have noticed lately among the designers to present a light text color like grey on a white background, this practice make vast majority of the users won’t be able to read what it is displayed.
3) Cluttered text - Another common mistake what I see in some websites are how the text is presented within the layout of the site with cluttering of the text. Remember the amount of time your get the visitor to impress is limited if the text is cluttered and make it difficult for the users. The best practice should be to have a fine balance of white space and text which increase readability and message mentioned on the website is easy to scan.
4) Confused navigation - It seems that many designers try to make new method of site navigation. Navigation should be clear and consistent through the all the pages. If you are using image and DHTML navigation make sure that you have a text link at the footer of the page.
5) Logo Consistency - Often this part is neglected most of the designers. The logo should be consistent through out the page and should have a hyper link to the home page.
6) Browsers - The layout of the website should be compatible with all version and different kind of browsers. Most of the web surfers have lower version of different browsers so make it compatible with all of them.
7) Online Order - Make the ordering process simple and faster, don’t make the visitor frustrated asking to do so many steps before they buy the product. If you can reduce the steps in the buying process it will increase the conversion of the site as well.
8 ) Bread Crumbs - Is a very type of navigation which will tell the users where they are currently located on the website architecture. Some sites ignore this accessibility issue and make the users lost inside a website without knowing where to go.
9) Loading time – Due to the over use of big graphics and other programs and multimedia like applets, flash files and videos elements can reduce the loading time of the website which make the visitor to leave immediately and your site will have a higher bounce rate.
10) Surprising the visitor – Most of the users are not comfortable with unexpected things occurring while they surf the web page like automated downloads and video and audio without the permission of the user.
The bottom-line is many, many sites are neglect the basic principles of a website design which mean the user is wasting time as they are looking inside the site trying to make some sense of its purpose.
6 ways to make your website traffic stick
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Traffic is a very important aspect of online marketing and success of any website. So how does you make that traffic stick around more time around your website. Online traffic has little patience and getting their attentions and making them engage with your site is key to any success of your website.
Several factors are involved in making your site compelling and make that traffic to stick around more. On an average the average visitor time spend on a site is 8 sec. And you all know with 8 sec you achieve any action from the visitor’s side. So what makes the visitor stay around for a while?
I have put up few point to which will make your visitor to stay longer on your site.
1) Informative Content - One of the compelling reasons for a visitor to spend more time on your site is because of the magnetic quality of the content. Providing content which can’t be found anywhere else. So they have a reason to stay longer on your site.
2) Update your content - Adding content on a regular basis can keep your website fresh with good new content. Visitors don’t like to read content which is old update your articles, add more new pages will lead your visitors to stay long on the site.
3) Fast loading page - If you web pages loads faster visitors are comfortable with sticking with your site. Sites with heavy graphics and flash intros scare away the visitors and finally they stay less time on the site.
4) Don’t distract your visitors - Some website owners think adding flashy kind of stuffs to a website will attract visitors to stay for a longer period of time. If you think that is the answer Study shows that using popup and other kind of flash stuffs are not comfortable with web visitors, so stay away from that.
5) Information architecture - is the structure, organization, navigation, labeling and indexing of a website. Information architect is the backbone of any website. Information architecture is a vital component of defining the user experience which make the visitors to stay longer.
6) Engage your visitor to contribute - In today world website are interactive where a visitors can put their thoughts about your products and services like adding components on your website where you can make the visitors engage like putting comments, rating, forums where discussion can be help etc.
You have got just 8 second to grab the attention of your visitors so when you build you site is comfortable to the user so that they will stick longer and your website will be a success.
Is Over Optimization dropped your traffic?
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Recently most of the website owners started seeing a big drop in traffic some of them as much as 90% drop in traffic. Some of the owners also saw a drop in ranking as well for their main keyword terms.Do you think it is Google penalized for sites which is over optimized? A thread on webmaster world today there is a huge discussion about that.So what constitutes an over optimized pages? Below are few tips on avoiding over optimization of your web pages as well as keep your ranking on the search engines.
1) Don’t Over optimizing the title with repeating the keywords several times. Just focus on one keyword at the beginning of the title, and try to write the title as a sentence so that it is use for the human visitor.
2) Write your
3) Don’t make your H1 tags as keywords but make it a sentence and make sense to the user.4) Instead of using keywords strategically inside the content make keyword flow look like natural you can solve that problem using long tail keywords.
5) Don’t use the same keywords phrase to link back to the website use different variation of the keywords and make sure that look like natural in the eyes of the search engines.
Reducing over optimization can get back your lost traffic but it is always try to do it right the first time so that way you don’t need to go through all these kind of trouble.
21 Weird ways to start a PPC Campaign
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No PPC campaign is perfect it needs constant monitoring and tweaking and testing to get the results through Pay Per Click. Often some of the following ways are ignored while managing a PPC campaign. I often came across these kinds of problem with each new PPC Account I get to manage. Managing with these weird ways can cost your Campaign a pretty good fortune.
1) Add 10000 keywords in one ad group.
2) Use your company name as the title of the AD.
3) Use Keywords like Best, Cheap inside the AD.
4) Always use your Home page as the destination URL.
5) Use one AD copy for the entire campaign.
6) Bid on Broad Phrase Keywords.
7) Having Privacy Policy, Terms and Condition, about us and Contact us links on the landing pages are a waste of time.
8 ) Target the whole World to get more traffic.
9) Use Positive Keywords instead of Negative Keywords.
10) Always Bid High to be on top.
11) Run your PPC campaign on the search engines.
12) Don’t Turn on the Time Schedule on your campaign or your might loose traffic.
13) Turn On the Search Network and Content Network.
14) Click on your own Ad to increase CTR.
15) Add the conversion Code on the Landing Page, Product page and all pages but not on the success page or thank you page.
16) Writing an Boring Heading on the landing page.
17) Adding keywords to your Ad copy will reduce the Quality Score.
18) Use generic keywords like loans, homes & cars.
19) Get into a bidding battle with your competitor.
20) Create the Adwords and Analytics accounts separate for tracking purposes.
21) Put Contextual Ads like Google Adsense on the landing page to cover the PPC expenses.
If you think there are more ways you can mess up your Pay Per Click Campaign please post that on the comments.
