HTML5 has been in development since 2004 now and we’re still far from being able to call it finished, or even close to finished! It will however, provide a great, new platform for website designers and developers to show their creative flare and make better use of their time with simplified tags and all-round options. Whilst there have been quite a few examples of HTML5 in the past year or so (http://lights.elliegoulding.com) we’re still a long way off from seeing it on every website, as well as actually being able to see it in a wide range of browsers. Below I have made a quick overview of 5 features within HTML5 that will make your lives easier and your code a bit more lively!

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Many website owners are not aware of how to utilise the tools that they have been given to create the most value for their customers.  Few websites pay enough attention to their readers and realise that they are the most important part of the site, without visitors there is no reason for the site to exist.  When you consider there are thousands of people creating new websites each and every day, the bar for entry is raised as someone who is engaged and enthusiastic about a topic starts a new site. (more…)

Designing a professional and high quality web site can seem like a difficult task. In reality, there are a few tips that can help anyone when it comes to designing a great website. These tips can come in incredibly handy by pointing out some key areas that both amateur and professional web designers should keep in mind when designing a web site. Even if the person designing the site does not stick to exactly what each tip suggests, he or she should still keep in mind the general idea of the tips that are mentioned in this article.

Tip #1: Consider Your Audience

One of the biggest mistakes that designers make is taking their creative freedom and going crazy with it during the design process. (more…)

Improving the quality and ranking of a website often depends upon a high quality SEO plugin.  These plugins can provide you with a comprehensive analysis of a website that can aide in increasing the success of the website and generate traffic and popularity in most any niche. Listed below are reviews of the top five SEO plugins for Firefox that will help improve the quality of any website.

SEO for Firefox is the number one plugin available in terms of quality and usability.  It contains a wide variety of features and can be downloaded absolutely free of charge.  This site is popular with over 130,000 users worldwide utilising this service.  It has many useful features including a complete view of the competition directly within the search results.  Overall, this product is the most useful with the widest range of features to use.  In all, you can receive a £200 value application for free simply by signing up for an account.  (more…)

WordPress 3.0 is one of the most highly anticipated web application releases of 2010; A major version update to the most widely used blogging/cms software that brings with it 1,217 bug fixes and feature enhancements to improve the blogging experience from both an admin and user perspective. We’re going to examine some of the most important changes which will benefit you, the WordPress blogger! (more…)

There are a number of useful tools available to web developers, both on-line and on-board. Some of the most convenient, however, are those that rest on the toolbar, or are integrated into the right-click menu. Here are five outstanding FireFox add-ons that you might want to consider adding to your arsenal.
 

1.  Quirk SearchStatus 1.33
   

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/321/
 

SearchStatus is an unobtrusive icon on your taskbar, which you can right-click when visiting a webpage, and view information such as meta tags, link report, Archive.org data, WhoIs, robots.txt and sitemap.xml. You can also highlight all nofollow links on the page, view keyword density, highlight keywords, show all indexed pages, and all backward links. Additionally, it allows you to place indicators on the taskbar for PageRank, Alexa Rank, Compete Rank and mozRank. It consumes very little memory, and provides a wealth of information. (more…)

The award winning Joomla software is very popular. With its long list of features and because it so easy to use, it is not hard to understand why. You may have even chosen to use Joomla for your own site.

If you have chosen Joomla you may be thinking about a theme or style that is suitable for you. There are numerous options available to you. In fact, there are far too many to count. Where should you begin? We have taken a lot of the guess work out of this task and created a starting point for you.

1. Theme Base

You will find over 1300 absolutely free Joomla templates at Theme base. Theme base offers templates for both Joomla 1.0 and 1.5. These templates are divided by category and are search-able by ratings, name and date. (more…)

There are many excellent ways to build traffic to your site. Search engines are one of the best, you don’t have to pay per click and they guarantee the person was looking for the information that is on your site. For new web site owners Search Engine Optimisation can seem overwhelming. Even seasoned webmasters and bloggers can find SEO rather difficult.

Whether you are using WordPress as a platform for your site or blog, it isn’t too difficult to make your site search engine friendly with the use of plugins. Although WordPress alone is excellent in this capacity, there are a ton of things that you can do with this script to aid in better site rankings. Of course altering the code is a possibility, but it isn’t needed. Ther (more…)

The usability of your website is one of the factors which can make or break it. Who doesn’t get turned off by a poorly designed website with hard to read text and difficult to navigate? According to a study of surfing habits, people immediately place lower value in content on a badly designed website, even though it may be correct or very helpful! Hence, it doesn’t matter to them that you are the best chef in the city or a hardware expert, people are likely to hit the Back button if the site doesn’t present this information in an easy to read and attractive way. In this article, I will list some basic usability measures you can undertake to improve your website.

1. Navigation

Navigation is extremely important, if readers can’t get to your content it doesn’t matter how good it is. If you’re running a personal website and someone interested in your particular field chances upon your site, the first thing they might do is search for other interesting material on your site. The tougher you make it for them to navigate and find this content with confusing links and such, the more likely they are to leave and not come back. You need to be doubly careful if the site is for business. Your website is the online headquarters of your company, users want to be treated to an easy to use, intuitive and navigable interface. Always remember to place all important links in one place on each page with obvious names. For a blog (or even a commerce website), use helpful widgets to point the users to similar products or posts. One of the essentials of a good navigation system is a search function. These days, one can add a custom Google search bar to search your website for free.
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Do Your Own Real-Time Editing

Web Developer 1.1.8 is a “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) – website editing, debugging, and validation tool. This add-on for the Firefox browser has been in use since 2004, making it a seasoned web developer’s tool. The age of this resource, can assure users that most of the development bugs that can plague newer software, have already been remedied by creator Chris Pederick and Team.

When you download and install Web Developer (WD), it adds a menu option and toolbar to your Firefox browser for easy access. Keep in mind, as you read this article that you do not need to be a design guru to use the tool – it’s designed so users of all levels can start using it quickly. Many people have relied on their Content Management System (CMS) in the past to make changes, however, using a tool strictly designed to edit, debug, and validate can simplify your task when you need to make a few quick changes.

Following are my favorite standout features that the Web Developer toolbar has to offer: (more…)