IT and technology-related issues are frequently reported in the media. A well-known website is hacked, a new technology is unveiled, user feedback is discussed… Many times articles contain factual inaccuracies. The problem is that reporters are not “techies” and often provide misleading or erroneous analyses.
Archive for the ‘Website Development’ Category
Propagation of Misconceptions About IT in the Media
Posted March 9th, 2010 by Barnaby Knowles in Security, Website Development
User Expectations – Does Your Website Meet Them?
Posted March 9th, 2010 by Chrisi Reid in Miscellaneous, Website Development
Inspiration can come from unusual sources. I am a regular reader of several blogs and forums, and happened to notice an interesting discussion on one of these yesterday. The participants were reviewing the newly launched website of a brick-and-mortar shop, and how the site – despite the company’s generally good reputation – failed to meet some critical customer expectations.
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Comparing mysql and mysqli
Posted February 24th, 2010 by Barnaby Knowles in Website Development
PHP offers you more than one way to connect and interact with your MySQL database. Two common ways to interact with MySQL through your PHP script are the mysql and the mysqli extensions. Both accomplish similar things but there are distinct and notable differences between the two.
Text Formatting in a CMS – CSS for Clients
Posted February 23rd, 2010 by Chrisi Reid in Content Management, Usability, Web Design, Website Development
So, you’ve designed and built a visually attractive website, uploaded the client’s content and you’re about to turn it over to the client to maintain themselves. You’ve used the latest in CSS to create a fantastic look and feel for the site, and you intend to add this site to your portfolio as a showpiece. The client is thrilled with how the site looks, and can’t wait to start search engine marketing or pay-per-click campaigns to get the traffic coming in.
Hold on just one moment… how much does your client know about CSS – and how long is the site content going to retain the look and feel they’re so pleased with if they’re not confident with HTML?
Redirecting to Search Engine Friendly URLs
Posted February 9th, 2010 by Barnaby Knowles in Search Engine Optimisation, Website Development
Static URLs are preferable to dynamic URLs that contain variables such as the page ID where search engines are concerned. It’s worth investing the time and/or money in setting up URL rewriting on your website so that www.example.com/index.php?pageID=1 can now be viewed at www.example.com/page-1.htm or even better at www.example.com/page-name.htm. The latter two URLs appear to be static HTML pages but using Apache’s mod_rewrite module and an .htaccess file you can serve the same content as the first URL. The next step is to ensure that anyone accessing the original URL is redirected to the correct new URL with a 301 HTTP status code.
E-Commerce Web Design 12 Quick Pointers
Posted February 2nd, 2010 by Stephen Harvey-Franklin in Web Design, Web Standards, Website Development
Here’s a quick list of pointers to consider when designing an e-commerce website
1- If it is an e-commerce website, make sure it looks like one, display credit card signs, show a basket
2- Display your main offers and products on the home page, don’t clutter the home page with your life story or mission statement.
3- Don’t waste valuable space and prime search engine optimisation with “Welcome to Our Site”
4- Always have a phone number clearly displayed so that people can contact you, don’t hide it on the contact page or in teh footer
5- Ensure that prices and offers and taxes are clear
Why should I completely replace my website?
Posted January 29th, 2010 by Chrisi Reid in Miscellaneous, Website Development
If you have a website that was built a few years ago, you might be thinking about updating or replacing it. Browsers have changed, with the introduction of new options like Google Chrome – and the coding standards are slowly shifting towards the use of HTML 5 and CSS 3. These things can affect how an older website is shown to your users, and as markets change, it makes sense to review your site and see if it’s time to replace it. But why is it so difficult for site owners to justify rebuilding a website from the ground up?
Password Protecting Websites with Apache .htaccess
Posted January 27th, 2010 by Barnaby Knowles in Security, Website Development
Keep Out!
There are likely to be areas of your website that you don’t want others to be able to access, such as admin areas. Or sometimes you might want to do some quick updates to your code without the website being accessible to the public. If you’re using the Apache web server the hypertext access (.htaccess) file lets you add password protection in a flash!
Introduction to Apache mod_rewrite
Posted January 20th, 2010 by Barnaby Knowles in Search Engine Optimisation, Website Development
Choosing an Optimal MySQL Data Type
Posted January 11th, 2010 by Barnaby Knowles in Website Development
MySQL supports a wide range of data types, which determine how MySQL will store your data. Any one of multiple data types can be used to store a piece of data, but which one is optimal?
