Archive for March 27th, 2005

How does a web server work?

Sunday, March 27th, 2005

Check Hosting Marketers it is a hosting company which offers, all that can be expected from a high quality hosting company, but with the cheapest prices on the net.

When you are going to order cheap web hosting, it will be a good idea to know more about how does a web server work.

Nowadays, the data exchange between web browser and the web server has grown more complicated than before. The main reason for this is the need for dynamic Web content that is used by firms and individual customers to manage online business operations. So, we decided to create this article for your understanding how a web server works. You can use it to be more acquainted with this when you will look for your cheap web hosting.

In a general way, Web servers operate with simple, static content: HTML documents and images. Web server pick up the users request for files and takes it to the host file system. The needed file is loaded from the disk and in the end is delivered to the Web browser by the Web server.

The web browser and the Web server communicate with each other using HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). A single TCP connections are opened that dispatch first the HTML document and then images, one-by-one, correspondingly.

Dynamic content is the powerful tool for e-commerce and the important reason for the whopping growth of the World Wide Web. It wants large databases or other program software. The Web server delivers a dynamic content of Web page to the web browser that is made in response to the user direct or indirect input. This process generally takes up many server-side resources and requires CGI usage.

CGI is in the main a web server extension protocol and widely used standard for delivering dynamic content. It may be noted that CGI is not language specific; it’s a protocol that allows Web server to communicate with a program. CGI defines how the Web server has to run programs locally and transmit their output to the Web browser. For example, a Web server starts CGI program to send the parameters as requested by the users browser. It then retrieves output from the webstore.cgi program to pass output back to the browser. This is how CGI programs dynamically serve HTML data based on user input. CGI’s adverse conditions consists in its slow processing since each request for dynamic content builds on a new program to be started. CGI scripts can be written in many languages: Perl, C/C++, Python, TCL e.c.

HTTPS is a security protocol that allows a safety Web connection. This means that with HTTPS it is safe for an exchange of sensitive data between user and the server across the insecure network. URLs that begin with ‘https’ are handled using SSL algorithms that setup a secure, encrypted link between a Web browser and a Web server.

MIME type is the fundamental mechanism to show content downloaded by the browser. It tells browser about the content type being delivered. MIME types are identified using a type/subtype syntax associated with a file extension.

In out time web servers are able to process and deliver multiple requests in a simultaneous way to deal with a lot of users at a time. This parallelism is accomplished in two different ways - multi threading and multi processing. The most web sites run web servers that support either multi threading or multi processing and can manipulate a much higher load. So, I think this will be helpful when you search for your cheap web hosting company.

5 Super Easy Secrets To A Winning Domain Name

Sunday, March 27th, 2005

Are you having sleepless nights thinking of the
right domain name for your online business?

Well, everyone and everyone’s grandmother knows
by now why having your own domain is so important.
To sum it up, here’re the main advantages :

- It shows You are serious about your business
- It creates instant credibility for your business
- It creates a branding for your business
- It builds your online identity and is easily remembered
- It can be an excellent marketing tool when used correctly
- It is an investment and intellectual property owned by YOU

Needless to say - having your own domain is an absolute
NECCESSITY if you’re serious about doing business online!

But aren’t all the good domain names gone you say?

It’s true that most short or one-word or generic names
are taken up, BUT you can still win at the domain
name game by following the simple steps

Here are the 5 super easy secrets to a winning
domain name anytime!

== BRANDING ==

Every business needs to be branded, and that
does not exclude your online business!

Now what’s branding in simple terms?

It’s an identity that you want your customers to
remember you by, and the best way to do that
online is by your domain name!

For instance, your business branding may be
“Best Quality Service”, so why not use that as
your domain name, BestQualityService.com
if it’s still available for registration?

This is a great way of creating a CONSISTENT
branding and identity!

== PHRASING ==

How about using familiar or unique phrases
as your domain name? This can help differentiate
your site and heighten the recall factor

You can think up many catch-phrases for domain
branding, how about “CowJumpsOverTheMoon”,
“MakeLoveNotWar”, “SaleOfTheCentury”, etc?

But it’s important that the phrases you use is
aligned to your business, you wouldn’t want to
use a domain like CheapAndGood.com when
you’re selling high end premium products,
it just doesn’t gel!

== KEYWORDING ==

An important and smart approach to selecting
domain names used by many marketers is to
create the domain based on rich keywords
relating to their businesses. The reason behind
this lies in the fact that it helps enhance search
engine rankings, especially pay-per-click listings
which is essentially a bidding on top keywords.

As an example, if your site deals with golf
improvement, you may want to identify your
main keywords and come up with a domain
like “improve-golf-lower-scores.com”?

My personal example is my ezine site at
http://www.Marketing-Make-Money.com
which utilised the keywords ‘Marketing’ and
‘Make Money’

== EXPIRED AND EXPIRING ==

A wonderful method of grabbing quality
domain names is by registering domains that
had expired or will be expiring!

Thousands upon thousands of domains are
expiring every other day and getting a good
one is real possible

Try this site http://www.DeletedDomains.com
to source for such domains, I grabbed
http://www.UltimateEbooks.com from their list
the last time I did a search

== BUYING ==

This option is a little more costly and risky but
you’ll have a better chance at finding a domain
that you really want.

There’re three main ways to go about this :

1. Email the webmaster of the existing domain
about your interest and intention

2. Bidding and buying at domain auction,
sale sites like http://www.Afternic.com; or

3. Typing in the name you need and you may
land on a ‘for sale’ page

Here are also Three domain registrars that charge
less than $10 for each domain name registered
through them (no hidden charges).

I’ve personally used and tested them with my
own domain names and they’ve proven themselves
to be reliable and provide quality services.

Why spend more when you can save more?!

http://www.Namebargain.com
( a division of Register.com)
http://www.GoDaddy.com
http://www.GKG.net

Can you STILL Win the domain name game?

You bet You can!

Appearance, Usability and Search Engine Visibility in Web Design

Sunday, March 27th, 2005

I was recently asked by a visitor to thesitewizard.com to take a look at her company’s website, designed by a university student. I will not give the URL for that site, partly to protect the innocent, and partly because by the time you read this, it’ll probably have been modified.

The site was heavy in its use of graphics with images adorning most parts of the page layout, to provide curved borders (to replace the sharp corners in enclosing boxes), different background images for different parts of the page, etc. It had a top navigation bar, driven entirely using JavaScript. The navigation bar mimicked the sort of menu bar you find in computer programs - there is a horizontal menu bar with different items listed. When you move your mouse over one of those items, the menu will automatically expand vertically. As you move the mouse cursor down the pop-up menu, the item beneath the pointer is highlighted. Click it, and you will be delivered to another page on the site.

In general, that site is typical of the kind of sites produced by newcomers to web design. It scores well in terms of prettiness and gadgetry (although only under one browser, it doesn’t work well under other browsers), but fares dismally in terms of usability and search engine readiness. In fact, the reason my visitor wrote to me was because the website suffered a significant drop in the number of visitors after it was redesigned in its current form.

This article uses that site as a starting point for discussing some of the issues that a web designer needs to consider when creating a website that must exist and compete in the real world (as opposed to a site that is created merely to fulfill the course requirements of a school or university).

1. Appearance is Not the Most Important Issue

Over the years that I have dealt with newcomers to web design, it is my observation that they tend to focus excessively (and sometimes almost exclusively) on the appearance of a website. The site I mentioned earlier is a case in point: the designer tried hard to make the site look beautiful (and, if I may add, succeeded too - the site does indeed look pretty). However, as hard as it may be to believe (if you are a newcomer), appearance isn’t the most important thing to look at when you are planning and creating your site.

Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying that appearance is of no importance. Far from it. However, in this article, my intention is to address the excessive importance newcomers place on beauty. In fact, if you belong to the other extreme, discounting the value of the appearance of a website altogether.

Having said that, your site can still survive (or even thrive) if it is a plain-looking site like Google. This is not necessarily the case if you overlook the other important issues in web design.

2. Usability is Important for You to Achieve Your Purpose

All sites are created for a particular purpose. Some were created so that their owners can sell something. Others are information resources (like thesitewizard.com). Still others are designed to showcase their owner’s talents (such as sites displaying the owner’s resumes and portfolios).

The usability of your site is important to help you achieve that purpose. The basic question that you need to address when dealing with usability is: can your visitors easily access the information they need so that they can do the stuff that you want them to do? There are quite a number of things involved in this question.

  1. Information Availability

    Is the information that your visitors need to make informed decisions available on your site? For example, before they can buy a product, they will want to know more about that product. A brief one-line summary about your product’s features may work for your main page, but you will probably find that you get more buyers if you can provide a link to a page that gives a detailed list of features of each of your products.

  2. Information Accessibility

    Not only must your information be available to your visitors, it must be easily accessible. A page that gives a detailed description of your products is not going to help your visitors if they have to work hard at finding it. In fact, my experience is that if visitors have to work at finding something on your site, they are not going to find it. Either put the information right under their noses, or put a link to it in that place.

  3. Navigation

    A good navigational system for your website is crucial. A navigational system is one by which visitors can move from one page to another. For example, on thesitewizard.com, one way in you can access the main pages on the site is to use the navigation buttons on the left column of the page.

    There are a few features to a good navigational system:

    1. If you are using a navigation bar or panel, standardize its location on all the pages of your website. Don’t make your visitors feel as though they are embarking on a treasure hunt every time they reach a new page.
    2. In addition to your navigation bar or panel, provide short-cuts to places where visitors are likely to want to go. Don’t force your visitors to have to go through your main page (or your site map) every time they need to visit another page on your site. In fact, put direct links in logical places - for example, on your “Products” page, you should have a links to your “Buy / Order” page as well as links to the pages with detailed information about individual products. Think like a visitor and ask yourself what are the things a visitor might want to know or do when he/she is at a particular page.
    3. A good navigation system must be usable by all your visitors. As a result, try to avoid things that are dependent on certain facilities or features being available. For example, don’t make your menu dependent on a specific browser. If your menu is JavaScript-driven, make sure that you have an alternative facility available for people who do not have JavaScript enabled.
    4. If your site has a large number of pages, a site search engine will improve your site’s usability. Not everyone mentally organises information the way you do. Hence a logical arrangement to you may not be logical to another person. Giving your visitors a way to search your web site will help them locate what they want.
    5. It’s always good to have a Site Map, unless your site has only a few pages. This allows people to have another route to the other pages on your site. It also helps search engines locate all the pages on your site, particularly if you use dynamically-generated links to your pages (like JavaScript-created links).

3. Search Engine Visibility is Your Site’s Lifeline

As I mentioned earlier, the problem that my visitor faced when her site was redesigned was that it no longer appeared in search engine results even when relevant terms were used for searches.

The problem in her case was that her site relied exclusively on a JavaScript navigation menu. Apart from the links generated by the JavaScript menu, there were absolutely no other links on her site pointing to other pages within the site. Since search engines bots can’t interpret JavaScript (at least not at this time, to my knowledge), they could not follow any links and could thus only index her main page. As a result, her pages were not listed in searches for her keywords (since only the main page was indexed), leading to a drastic drop in visitors.

This is a problem fairly easily fixed (for example, one way is to create a site map and add a normal link to it from the main page), but it illustrates one of the most important issues a real-world website faces: search engine visibility. If your site is not listed in the search engines, you’re not going to be able to get many visitors, if at all. Without visitors, you’re obviously not going to be able to achieve your purpose for the site.

Designing a site that is search engine ready is a lengthy topic, so I am not even going to try to address it here.

Conclusion

This article is about the importance of factoring usability and search engine readiness into your web design. Usability is important because it improves the chances that your site will help you accomplish your purpose. Search engine visibility is crucial because without it, you will get few visitors. Plan with these two aspects in mind, even as you look into the appearance of your site, and your design will go far in helping you achieve the goals for your site.