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Blind Sue Target for not being able to Access Website

Published on October 4, 2007 in Blind Accessibility, Design, Search Engine Optimization, Target, Web development, internet, news, resources, tips and tricks and web design. 0 Comments

image of target.com websiteTarget.com is getting sued, this lawsuit will have worldwide implication for anyone selling anything online. That is scary both as a consumer and a web designer; but issues such as this can be avoided.

There are many ways to include good practice techniques to make your site accessible to the blind; here are a few examples:

  • Adding alt and title tags to describe images and URIs
  • Structure your site to present the most recent news/post first from top down when you view the source page of your site
  • Avoiding pop-ups

Here’s an interesting article to make your blog blind friendly by the American Foundation for the Blind.

Emphasis on building sites that are not only standard compliant but also accessible for the blind will pay off in two folds:

  • You will provide service to the 1.5 million or so blind web surfers in the US, who would otherwise turn to competitive sites
  • Your site will be more search engine friendly, the bots that crawl your site pretty much follow the same flow technique used by the software that converts sites to voice interpretation

Those are just a few I could readily think off, but it really is not about the webmasters, it’s about the users. To check your site’s accessibility, try the Truwex (True Web Experience) test, believe me, I have a lot of work to do on my own site!

10 Tips to Increase Traffic with Alexa Web Marketing

Published on April 26, 2007 in Alexa, Alexa toolbar, Amazon, Blogging basics, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Site Stats, Strategy, Traffic Booster, Traffic Graph, Web Marketing, Web technology, ranking, tips and tricks and web traffic. 16 Comments

TrafficAlexa.com if the #1 Traffic Ranker in the blogosphere.

1. First and foremost, add the Alexa Site Stats Button to your site, if your site ranking is high, flaunt it in a visible spot. Even if your site ranking is not high, the toolbar will act as a constant motivator for you to be a active blogger.

2. Add Alexa Toolbar to your own site and let your readers know that it also blocks pop-ups!

3. Find out your competitor’s ranking. If yours is higher, display a comparative traffic graph proudly on your site with Alexa’s free traffic graph banner.

4. Alexa is owned by Amazon. The reviews done on Alexa can be a part of your Amazon profile. If you don’t have an Amazon profile, get it now!

5. If you have an associate ID, Amazon will include your ID in your link. Also, any purchases made at Amazon using the new Alexa toolbar will earn you commissions.

6. Thank your customers and well-wishers for writing good Alexa/Amazon reviews for you. You can also thank your customers by providing them a discount or a free gift. This might encourage them to be a repeat publisher for you!

7. Once you establish a friendly base with your new customers, you could request permission to re-publish the review on your own site as a testimonial. Even better if the individual/site who reviews your site is more reputed than yours, or at least as good as your own.

8. If your site traffic increased by adding affiliate products to your site, highlight it with the free dynamic Alexa traffic graph and encourage others to be your sub-affiliates. High traffic could translate into high sales.

9. Keep a track of the upcoming and current trends by visiting the global top 500 sites on Alexa’s homepage. If you want to capitalise on the difference in economies in different countries, I would recommend a thorough study of country-specific top sites.

10. Last but not the least, do visit Alexa at least once or twice a day!

If any of you have tested any of the Traffic Booster softwares online, do leave your comments here!

10 Basic Steps for Beginners to Increase Traffic to your Blog

Published on March 2, 2007 in Advertisements, How to's, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Web technology, Weblog tools, WordPress, niche sites, tips and tricks, web sites, web traffic and yahoo. 11 Comments
  1. Talk, talk, talk. Advertise your blog, let everyone know your blog, your family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates, relatives, etc.
  2. Set up a feed on MyYahoo.com. Go to MyYahoo.com, sign in, add your URL feed link and keep checking it everyday. In a while, Yahoo will start spidering your site regularly.
  3. Write intelligent comments on popular and high traffic niche sites in context with your own content.
  4. Use Ping-O-Matic every time you publish a post. If you use WordPress, your post will automatically get pinged.
  5. Every page of your website should have the link to your blog.
  6. Send a link of your blog along with your emails, newsletters, sales reports, other reports, autoresponders.
  7. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures and flyers.
  8. At least post one post a day, irrespective of whether your traffic increases. It will eventually increase, don’t give up, enjoy it.
  9. Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts.

Related post: Click here for tips on how to improve your site’s ranking.

FREE SEO Website Evaluation: Rank Better now!!

Published on March 2, 2007 in Alexa, DMOZ, Google, How to's, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Technorati, Web 2, Web 2.0, Web technology, crawl, free, increase page rank, keywords, metatags, ranking, tips and tricks and web traffic. 8 Comments

Here’s a quick checklist of tips on improving site traffic (in no particular order):

  1. Submit URLs to search engines and web directories to start the ranking process: Technorati, Google, Alexa, DMOZ.
  2. A good domain name and targeted meta tags can help improve search engine rankings. Keep your tags relevant to your data.
  3. Check your site validation from time to time.
  4. It would not hurt to keep a banner ad of search engines on your website to boost your own ranking.
  5. Trading links and advertisements with other web sites similar as yours will bring you more web site traffic.
  6. Linkbaiting will tempt viewers to place links to your website from other websites. One of the most important features of site engine optimization is to find a way out to attract all potential viewers. Common ways are providing information, humor, or digging in controversy.
  7. Post your ad on free classified advertising sections, free link sites, free yellow pages directories, free bulletin boards, basically use every FREE opportunity.
  8. Pay close attention to the statistics regarding unique/repeat visitors, length of stay of each visitor, number of hits, traffic ranking, search keywords, most popular pages of your site and so on. Restyle and grow your blog/website accordingly.
  9. Search engine spiders are unable to read images. If you have text on an image, make sure it gets highlighted with a mouseover, else the content is meaningless for search engines.
  10. Check how your website looks in different browsers and check for different screen resolutions. Make sure your pages don’t take too long to load. Aesthically pleasing, easy to navigate and content-rich websites are likely to get more hits and repeat viewers.
  11. Start networking, both online and offline through social and business networking sites, online communities and forums, discussion and chat rooms which fit your personality and business models.
  12. Think globally, if your site has a universal appeal, the better. If you are familiar with other cultures and people around the world, use that experience to optimize your links.
  13. If you are a good writer, submit your articles to e-zines: goarticles, ezinearticles, ideamarketers, contentdesk
  14. Show interest in other people’s work and leave comments or feedbacks. Good comments usually open doors to your own site.
  15. If you have a business, do make a newsletter for your clients and keep them updated about your latest offers. Even if you are not a business owner, you need to constantly add to your viewers’ curiosity. Be creative.
  16. Set up a survey/opinion poll on your website. Ask questions which are irresistible and compel your audience to vote. Ask for reviews of your own work and share your opinions with others too. Communicate freely with your target audience.
  17. Observe what your competitors are doing and act ahead of them.

And of course don’t forget to write a blog on this topic yourself!!

How to choose a Web Hosting Provider: 8 easy tips

Published on March 1, 2007 in How to's, Weblog tools, tips and tricks, web host and web hosting. 9 Comments

If you want to move from Blogger-WordPress.com-own domain name, the first thing you will need is a web hosting provider.

Here’s the checklist for choosing the right web host provider for your weblog:

Reliability: This tops the list, because all those who consider to spend their valuable time in visiting your website are most valuable. They could be friends and family,  new or repeat visitors, potential and past customers, and so on.  Besides, if your traffic ranking is high, you are likely to suffer potential losses even if  your host servers are down for a few hours.
Say in case of a major power failure or server breakdown, its important to have a web hosting provider, that assures you a guaranteed uptime and running.

Disk space: The amount of storage space you need versus the amount of storage provided to you by your web hosting service provider.  Graphics and multimedia would eat up a lot of your space, so evaluate your own needs first.

Bandwidth and upload/download speeds: If you have too much traffic, your site needs greater bandwidth.  Keep an eye on your  rate of traffic increase or decrease and choose your hosting provider accordingly. Slow sites and frequently down sites are a big NO. Check your site speed graphs at peak hours and non-peak hours. Web surfers are likely to be impatient and would leave your website pages took too long to load and probably would never return.

FTP Access: FTP access, or the ability to upload your pages by email or browser is mandatory.

Operating System and programming tools: Your website should be uploaded through secure servers using the latest operating system. Most web hosts run on a UNIX based operating system, usually Linux or BSD, supported by various web applications like ASP, .NET, MS SQL, SBS for running your website. For these, you need a Window based host.

Security and backup: If you have an E-commerce website, security is most important for safe transaction and to minimize losses.  Even otherwise, it is important that your web host can monitor any kind of fraudulent activity and provide secure solutions to prevent hacking your personal accounts and of course, data backups in case of any kinds of technical failures.

Pricing and support: Generally, before you buy a product or a service you would like to compare prices and read reviews. Do your homework thoroughly to keep your site up and running while you need it. Low pricing need not necessarily mean bad service, sometimes you good get services at affordable rates. Check the availability of a customer service representative for chat/phonecall round the clock.

Money-back guarantees: You can have your own pick. Many web hosts offer 30, 60 or 90 day money back guarantees for those who try their web hosting services for the first time. Some others allow you cancel your membership anytime with a prorated refund.