Category: WebDesign

How good link text makes you a better blogger

I’m going to tell you a little story and then I’m going to give you a quiz.

A few days ago, I posted a guest article by Lior called Increase your SEO Knowledge in 2011: Must Read Blogs. Lior sent me the post pasted into an email. I use Microsoft Entourage (a Mac mail program that is part of Office) for my email. In Entourage, the links Lior sent all looked like this:

This was a guest post written by Lior who is a marketing advisor to iAdvize, a live chat support software <http://www.iadvize.com/>  company.

I changed all the links when I was formatting the article for the blog post. I changed the links to the various blogs Lior recommended to h3 headings with links to the blogs. And I changed the last line of the article, with the guest author credit and link, to read:

This guest post was written by Lior who is a marketing advisor to iAdvize, a live chat support software company.

I didn’t give it much thought, I just made the site name the link as I had done with the blogs Lior recommended. Big oops.

Shortly after that, I heard from Lior, who didn’t like what I had done with the link in the author credit line. Then it got a little crazy, because every time Lior sent the “correction” to me, Entourage showed it exactly like the example above, with no clickable link text and a URL in brackets. Finally, Lior sent me a PNG, showing exactly how it should be.

How did Lior want it? Like this.

This was a guest post written by Lior who is a marketing advisor to iAdvize, a live chat support software company.

Okay, thanks to the PNG image, (with no help from Entourage) I finally got it.

The Quiz!

Now the quiz. Why was it so important to Lior to have live chat support software be the link and not the name iAdvize or not a URL in brackets with no link text?

I’m going to suggest three answers, any of which you may have thought of, and which may have been the reasoning behind Lior’s patient attempts to get me to do it a certain way.

Being an accessibility person, my first suggested answer is about accessibility. The link text live chat support software is the most descriptive about what to expect when the link is clicked. AT devices can be set to skip from link to link, reading only the link text until the user finds the link to click.  Think about how much more information Lior’s choice of link text gives a user than either iAdvize or a URL to iadvize.com. A link like iAdvize could be to all sorts of advice sites from financial advice to party planning. The words Lior chose tell the user exactly where a click will take them.

click here

As an accessibility aside, it’s not helpful when every link says click here. Nothing descriptive at all about that link text. In some situations, it can be a compelling call to action, but it needs a title attribute (plus alt text if it’s an image) that provide more descriptive information about the link destination.

Back to the quiz. Another possible answer involves search engine optimization. Search engines take a close look at link text. Good link text adds to your search engine ranking. It provides indexable information about where a link is going. That’s important to you in terms of links to posts on your own site. Links to your own internal pages or articles help the search engines find what’s on your site, and the text used for internal links makes a difference in how the information is understood.

Guest posters want credit, because it helps bring traffic and quality links to their own sites. Lior took time and effort to write the guest post and wanted to make it count with incoming link text that would improve search engine rank. Anyone needing chat support software will search on chat support software, and not on a word like iadvize. It can’t hurt to have incoming links with the words chat support software floating around the web when someone asks a search engine where to find chat support software.

Finally, there’s the usability answer. Good link text also improves usability. Clarity in link text removes confusion or ambiguity and makes the site more useful.

What else?

Was your quiz answer the same as any of mine? Or did you think of something else? How else could you answer my question?

I was syndicated on BlogHer.com

How to Find the Right Online Shopping Cart for You

coins

An efficient and user-friendly online shopping cart is an essential tool for any business or website owner involved in e-commerce product sales. But with so many online shopping carts available, it can be hard to decide which cart application will be up to the task at hand.

To begin with, there is the issue of selecting a free product or opting for one that has service charges. Naturally, everyone would choose the free option if they could, but there are occasions when free software may not possess the level of sophistication required. If this is the case, then purchasing a licensed product may be necessary, but then which one will be the right shopping cart for your transactional requirements?

Free Shopping Carts versus Paid E-Commerce Platforms

There are many well designed and functional free online shopping carts available. Most of these are open-source and operate under a GPL (General Public License). A lot of high-end shopping cart designers also produce free versions for smaller businesses or individual users.

Businesses or websites that have a larger product base or high sale yield may need to opt for a more substantial e-commerce platform. This will be a commercial licensed product that has advanced features and greater transactional control. Some of these platforms will charge a reoccurring monthly fee, while others may simply charge a one-off license payment.

The first decision should be whether the online business or product-based website can justify the price of a fully-fledged e-commerce platform, or will a good free GPL product suffice? This depends on stock levels, projected sales and expected consumer interaction. Once this decision has been made, it is then time to evaluate available products that meet the necessary criteria.

Online Shopping Carts: The Essential Features

In order to clarify things, it is probably best to initially outline a few necessary features that every online shopping cart and e-commerce platform should possess. This will help eliminate some feature-deficient products and help focus on only those products that meet, or surpass, the primary criteria.

  • Catalogue Support – The ability to arrange products into accessible sections
  • Customer Database – Keep track of customer information
  • Order Management – Real-time status of current orders and refund organization
  • Payment Processing – Wide range of commercially acceptable payment options
  • Shipping & Handling – Email notification of orders and delivery fee calculation
  • Statistical Analysis – Analyze orders, sales and conversion rates
  • Multi-Lingual Capability – Translate into other languages
  • Localization – Accept foreign currency and calculate taxes
  • SEO Consideration – URL rewriting and provision for sitemap creation
  • Security Measures – Secure logins. SSL compatible.
  • Efficient Administration – User management and site maintenance
  • Optional Customization – Advert insertion and featured product options

These features should come as standard, even in free versions. The more exceptional e-commerce platforms will come incorporated with more advanced features. Many of these full-feature platforms may charge for their product.

Advanced Features

  • Additional Levels of Security – PC DSS (Payment Application Data Security Standard) compliant. This is a regulation enforced by the PCI SSC (Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council). You can find more information about these regulations and standards at the official PCI DSS website.
  • Gift Card and Coupon Facility – Customers can purchase physical cards and use coupon codes
  • Store Credit Available – Issue store credit for refunds etc.
  • Rewards Systems – Ability to encourage return custom by awarding customers with redeemable loyalty points
  • Customer Subscription – Allow customers to subscribe to newsletters, promotional emails etc.
  • Advanced Analytics – Geo-location statistics, integration with Google Analytics.
  • Social Media Compliant – Ready for integration with your favorite social media sites
  • Advanced Customer Assistance – Breadcrumb trails and one-click bookmarking features

This is not an exhaustible list. Nor should a product be penalized if it happens to neglect one or two advance features, but then excels in most of the others. These are simply guidelines to help weed out the lower-quality shopping carts and e-commerce platforms.

Recommended Shopping Carts and E-Commerce Platforms

Now that the required and desired features have been highlighted, here are a few products that readily possess the above features and functions. (Note: Some of the free versions may not possess advanced features).

Shop Around to Find Your Ideal Cart

The selections above are an ideal place to start looking for an online shopping cart. But there are many alternative options. For anyone that has never used e-commerce software, it may be prudent to start with one of the free platforms and see what features and functions are preferred.

Every platform will have its own user interface and different modules and sometimes finding the best online shopping cart is a matter of locating a respectable product that you feel comfortable with. It is true that some versions will require more interaction and individual development while others will be more novice-friendly and possess almost one-click functionality. Finding a platform that you can use with ease is a large part of the selection process.

Don’t be afraid to try before you buy. Many paid versions will offer limited-time trials and even if that option does not appear available, in many cases the designers will gladly allow you a free test if you contact them directly.

Finding the right e-commerce platform will optimize you online business, help you to organize your storefronts, generate return business, and efficiently process and manage sales and transactions.

About the Author: This guest post is contributed by Roko Nastic of WebmasterFormat.com, a website focused on delivering advice and actionable tips on writing, website promotion techniques, best web hosts and the latest trends in web development technologies.

HTML4, XHTML, HTML5 DOCTYPES: What’s a teacher to do?

Reading an excellent article at Accessible Web Design called It’s still important to talk about HTML 4 got me thinking. It was talking about beginners finding out-of-date information on the web and how we need to continue to promote best practices with current information. One point made in the article:

It’s still important to talk about older technology: it’s still relevant to write or promote articles which offer tutorials on simple tasks, like changing font color using CSS or properly forming an unordered list. The reason it’s relevant is because the internet knowledge base is polluted — those who are in control of outdated material should take responsibility for updating their information, ideally, but we don’t all have that power. The best we can do is continue to promote best practices in all areas.

Last week I was teaching a continuing ed class at UNM. The class was a basic overview of how to create and maintain a web site. Here’s what I did and why I think it was a decent compromise for the current state of the web.

  1. They looked at the HTML 4, XHTML, and HTML5 DOCTYPES. I gave a brief overview of what each one meant and how they differed. (Very brief. This is a 12 hour continuing ed class we’re talking about. Keep that in mind.)
  2. I told them it was okay to start using the HTML5 DOCTYPE. I think that’s safe. Browsers know what to do with it.
  3. When they got going with HTML, I taught them HTML 4 Strict syntax. I didn’t let them use the choose-your-own-style syntax of HTML5 in their page building. I think they are a lot safer in terms of browser rendering and accessibility if they stick with a rigorous syntax model like HTML 4 Strict (or XHTML Strict).

Before I started teaching it to them that way, I hadn’t really thought much about the pedagogy of it. But the article at Accessible Web Design spurred me on a bit.

HTML5 hasn’t been implemented fully enough to be mainstream at the present time. Beginners trying to cope with new HTML5 elements with spotty implementation would have more frustration than they need when trying to learn the basics of web design. Learning something that is currently best practice, and rigorous enough to work in any situation seems like a better choice. However, using the HTML5 DOCTYPE is simply easier and will work, even if the rest of the document is formatted as HTML 4. And it eliminates the need for one of those long-winded earlier DOCTYPES.

What are other teachers doing with DOCTYPES and syntax models these days?

Breakthrough thinking

Writing that recent post on trends in tech got me thinking about where trends and new ideas come from. If you wanted to be the creator of the next big thing, what kind of thinking would help you figure out what the next big thing might be?

Plain old creative thinking is important, of course. The technical know-how to implement your creativity is needed. But what else?

One way to answer that question is to look at how things we use now may have begun.

Wouldn’t it be great if . . . ?

I think many great ideas we see as trends now probably started with someone saying this. Twitter, Flickr and many other successes probably started with this question.

That’s really great, but . . .

Dissatisfaction with something you use but would like to see improve is probably a big motivator in creating new ideas that take off. That’s where HTML5 came from – messy and chaotic as its growth has been. That’s where the ideas that knock a former leader out of first place come from. When everyone agreed that Internet Explorer sucked, people went out to create browsers that didn’t suck and we got Firefox and other browsers.

Half a billion people are currently using Facebook. We use it but we don’t trust it. There have been privacy issues with Facebook from the first, and they persist. If someone came along with a social network that did what Facebook does, minus the privacy concerns, it could be the next big thing.

I want to . . .

I want to be able to check my email from any computer. I want to be able to pay my bills online. I want to be able to back up my data on a disk that is outside my house and not on my computer. I want people to be able to read my posts and leave a comment with their opinions about the topic. I want to see a TV show on my computer or my smart phone.

Thoughts like that have lead to huge changes in what we do with out online lives. What’s the next thing that people are going to want to do online?

What else?

What kinds of thinking and questions lead to breakthrough ideas? Can you suggest some?

User-Friendly Website Navigation: How to Ensure Visitors Don’t Get Lost

Road Sign

Creating a well-organized, structured navigation system is essential for any website. Without an understandable, pragmatic system for instructing visitors what your website has to offer, and how they can reach it, your site is at a serious disadvantage.

Establishing a sensible navigational path is not difficult if you remember to pre-plan and take the necessary steps highlighted in this guide. Here are 8 essential principles you should take into consideration when designing a navigation system for your website:

1. Preparation

Navigation should be part of the website design process, not something added in after the main design has been completed. In order to provide an efficient and systematic navigation system, you must visualize how a visitor will access your website and move around all its various pages. Once you have constructed a user-friendly hierarchically linked navigational system, the next step is to consider the simplest way to explain your system to visitors.

2. Clarity and Brevity

Navigation should always be as simple as possible. The route to any point within your website should be as direct as you can make it. Many people still try to adhere to the old navigation guideline “No page should be more than 3-clicks away from the homepage”. While this guide has website navigation best interests at heart, it has become outdated. Websites are now far more complex and it is often necessary for visitors to use more than 3-clicks to reach their desired destination. There is no punishment for breaking the 3-click guide. But the aim of good navigation is to allow visitors to find what they are looking for in as few clicks as possible, without getting lost. Implementing a breadcrumb Trail system (covered in section 4) will help to address this problem.

The naming of navigational links should also be kept clear and concise. There is no need for ‘Homepage’ or ‘Main Page’ when a simple ‘Home’ will suffice.

3. Simplicity

It may be tempting to use flashy graphical menu buttons to make a website look more appealing but this can create issues. The problem does not lie with visitor confusion, it stems from page load speed. Graphics take longer to load than text. This is bad practice for two very good reasons.

Firstly, nobody enjoys waiting for a website that is struggling to display what it has to offer. Secondly, Google has openly stated that load speed is now a ranking factor. A complicated graphical navigation menu will probably affect page load speed and your site could suffer for it.

4. Website GPS

A website that cares about navigation should always include a breadcrumb trail. Usually located just below the top navigational menu, a breadcrumb trail allows visitors to see where they are and travel directly to any point along their current path. A typical breadcrumb trail could look like this:

Home>Products>Mobile Phones>iPhone

Anyone seeing this instantly knows they are in the iPhone section and they can just click the Mobile Phones link within the breadcrumb trail to go one category level above. Breadcrumb trails are a terrific navigational aid.

Another reason for always including a breadcrumb trail is that visitors may land on one of your website’s sub-pages via a search engine query. They may not know what category that page comes under unless they can see the hierarchical path in the form of a breadcrumb trail. Think of it as an essential guide rope that visitors will be very grateful for.

5. Sitemap

A sitemap is an essential for every website. Not only does it give a clear overview of your entire site, it is often used by search engine spiders to efficiently crawl a website. If you want to have a useful site-wide navigational map and have your website indexed successfully, you will need a sitemap.

6. No Place Like Home

There must be a clear link back to your website’s homepage from every other page. This could be in the form of a ‘HOME’ navigational tab, or a simple textual link at the bottom of each page. Whatever the format, a website should always offer visitors a direct route straight back to its primary page.

A common way to achieve this is to link your websites header graphic, title, or logo to the homepage. This is fairly standard now and most visitors will expect to be able to click one or all of these and be returned to a homepage.

7. Consistency

The navigation for any website should remain the same no matter where a visitor lands. It looks unprofessional and proves inefficient to have different navigational options on different pages. The navigational system you choose should be obvious enough to be easily visible to visitors but subtle enough to meld in with your website’s overall design.

8. Instantly Accessible

A visitor should not have to scroll down to see a navigation menu. Anyone landing on a site must be able to see the options available to them without excessive searching. It is good practice to include a top navigation bar that includes your main categories at the very least. This needs to be in the top-third of the page.

Good navigational systems will also have a bottom navigational menu, or footer. This allows anyone who reaches the bottom of page content access to navigational links with no need to scroll up unnecessarily.

You should spend time and effort creating a great looking website. You will need to fill it full of quality, relevant content and remember to update this regularly. Then you have to work on search engine rankings to capture those organic visitors. But all of this is pointless if the people visiting your site then have trouble discovering what the site has to offer.

Prepare and implement a simplistic, efficient, reliable navigation system and help visitors and search engines travel and locate every piece of content your site contains.

About the author: Roko Nastic is editor at WebmasterFormat, a useful resource for those wanting to learn how to build better and more profitable websites and how to find best web hosting companies.

Top HTML5 Posts

HTML5

The list of HTML5 posts on Web Teacher is getting rather lengthy. Here’s a wrap up of the top posts.

That doesn’t include links to useful HTML5 resources that have been posted here. You can find many of those using the HTML5 category tag.

Useful links: Tutorials, content strategy, iOS4, and some good advice

Think Vitamin has a set of video tutorials that can be viewed free. Some look suitable for classroom use.

Content Strategy Roles and You has some great ideas for organizing your workforce to fill content strategy roles. Be sure to check out the great infographic on approaches to web content strategy.

Speaking of content strategy, find out what’s coming in The Elements of Content Strategy and let the author know what you’d like to see there.

Immediately Improve iOS4 Performance with these Tips is some news you might find you can use.

The Web Design Community Offers Advice to Beginners is an inspiration and a cautionary tale at the same time. Good reading for students and instructors alike.