Google Analytics is one of my favorite tools, and it can be really exciting when you get new referring sites in your reports, right? Well, not if they're stealing your code and faking traffic.
20 Years of the World Wide Web, 15 Years of Sitepro
On August 6, 1991, a service was made available to the public for the very first time: The World Wide Web. A mere 20 years later, there are over 25 billion web pages, 1 trillion unique web addresses and hundreds of millions of users!
Sitepro has been there for 15 of those 20 years, and we'd like you to help us celebrate!
With the recent announcement of Internet Explorer 9, the discussion of which browser is the best seemed approprioate. For many people out there, Internet Explorer is the browser of choice if not simply because it came with their installation of Windows, and it's what they are familiar or comfortable with. Though many people have been flocking to the many other browsers out there. There are plenty of reasons for that too. Hopefully we can cover a few of those reasons here.
In the early days of the internet before modern browsers, search engines and social networks the creation of a website was a much simpler process. With early versions of web technologies and lack of bandwidth website builders were limited in their ability to display pixel perfect designs and handle interactive functionality.
On Saturday, February 13th, Sitepro was the proud host to the first ever Chippewa Valley Ruby Camp. Developers from all over the Chippewa Valley and even into Minnesota were in attendance.
As much as you might enjoy CSI or 30 Rock, it’s probably hard to see how those shows relate to your own web page. After all, they’ve got to create a compelling story in a short amount of time through a fast-moving visual medium. Nothing at all like the internet.
After you’ve washed off the sarcasm dripping from that last sentence, take a look at these five things web writers can learn from television – remember that TV has been pretty much the same for the last 60 years, they must be doing something right.
Episode 7 of the Sitepro Podcast is now available. The Sitepro Podcast was created to help educate clients and the community about various aspects of web, video and other multimedia content. This is the last of four episodes of the podcasts that focus on the the Grace Lutheran Foundation and all the multimedia work that Sitepro has produced for them. Be sure to subscribe to get all of the episodes of the Sitepro Podcast.
Introduction:
In this blog post I will provide simple instructions for finding the right keywords to focus your SEO efforts on targeting. Search Engine Optimization or SEO is simply getting the search engines to give you high rankings for certain keyword phrases. Since ranking higher is directly related to getting more website traffic, everyone wants their website to rank higher in the search engines.
Common Factors of Social Media Success
Question: Don't you think its tough to measure social media?
"If you think you are a leader and no one is following you, you're actually just going for a walk"
- John Maxwell
One of the best quotes I have seen in a long while...
What does it really take to be a leader in this new global economy?
Bing search service launched in early June by Microsoft. It is their version of Google. It is different because you can ask it questions, as opposed to Google, where you mainly search for just information. Bing is capable of answering questions; it is like a decision maker.
After spending a little more time with the mobile web, there's a bit more to be said about issues surrounding designing websites for the mobile browser. Differences in phone technology as well as new software technologies in development are changing the field of mobile web design. This post takes a look at some of those phone issues and new developments.
Armed with a tag cloud and an RSS feed spitting your company’s insights into the twitterverse, you might think you’re good to go. Don’t. Like most things, there is always something else you can do to make your social media presence more effective. The first of these is a flickr widget.
Continuing my series on company blogs, I’m now going to describe for you the myriad benefits that come from what MTV might call "Pimping Your Blog". These nifty techniques have nothing to do with the words you write, but rather how people see, interact, and (most importantly) broadcast them around the web.
With the rise of the iPhone, Google Android, Palm, Blackberry and several other touch screen phones out there that are not only web enabled, but offer a browsing experience similar to the one we are familiar with on desktop computers, the need for mobile friendly websites is becoming greater. I've had several web enabled phones, but the most recent one I purchased has given me a much more fluid and intuitive web experience. It's shown me, though, that most websites aren't coded with mobile phones in mind.
We’re not going to focus on the design or the layout of a website, although we may mention some basic elements that will relate to the design, but more importantly, we’re focusing on how the website is structured so it can be successful.
There’s no question on arguing how a website can help you obtain a successful online presence and that it’s the most effective marketing strategy one can have as a designer or a company. A successful website should already have basic information where a site visitor can learn, identify and quickly understand how you can help. Essentially, a website provides a solution to a problem.
CNN Money is reporting that Microsoft and Yahoo have reached an agreement to integrate search technologies and share revenue in their ongoing battle for search supremacy. Both companies trail Google, who currently enjoys a 65% market share. Even though Microsoft attempted to purchase Yahoo last year, this is a somewhat surprising development in the world of search advertising.
Read on past the break for more details about this new deal!
5 years ago clients typically wanted videos in a format that they can easily hand out such as DVD or interactive CD. As a multimedia supplier, Sitepro.com was unique from other production companies in that we were streaming videos within client websites as well. While physical deliverables and inter-website distribution have still been a stronghold, more clients are inquiring about services like YouTube, Facebook and other social media applications.
While there are lots of other social video sites out there, YouTube has proven to be the top of the crop. Did you know that YouTube is the number one video site on the internet? Get this: It’s the 4th largest internet destination in the world and the #2 search engine behind Google and before Yahoo…….just huge. Often clients ask me questions like :
"How can I get my Video on YouTube?"
"How can we create a Facebook account and put my videos in it?"
"We just want to make some simple videos and upload them. Where do we start?"
Follow this series, YouTube Video 101, to gain some insight on these questions as well as thoughts you may not have considered when developing videos for social media and website use.
"I've never had a hard drive crash on me." That is the phrase I kept using as an excuse to put off setting up a backup system for my home computers. That and the tons of space that I would need to fully backup my important data. Images, mp3s, videos, important files, etc., on multiple computer... oh the logistics! Well you can pretty much imagine what I'm going to say after the break...
Not content with Chrome browser for desktop platforms and the Android OS on mobile devices, Google is planning to release Chrome OS later this year. Beyond that, it has plans to partner with hardware manufacturers to include the new OS as a standard install on netbooks.
According to the news posting on their blog, "Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve."
Read Google's blog here, or read some additional thoughts about Google's Chrome OS after the break.
