Web Developer: Web Design - Web Development » Web Design

Getting a website optimized for mobile users

joeit79 — Tue, 11 May 2010 10:32:03 +0000

With the expected launch of the Verizon iPhone, webmasters can expect users with higher speed as the company has one of the best 3G network in the United States. However, it isn’t just the old iPhone that is being in focus today but the rumors surrounding a few new versions of iPhones dubbed the iPhone 4g and the iPhone HD is said to be released soon.

So what does this tell webmasters? In short, it tells them to make sure that their websites are supported by these mobile devices. The surge in the use of mobile phones for browsing means that there will definitely be an increase in the number of people browsing through the sites using their mobile phones.

Webmasters need to get ready by making sure that their websites are properly optimized for these handheld users. One way of doing so is by creating a whole new version of their website for mobile devices. CMS users can rejoice because major publishing systems such as WordPress have tons of mobile plugins available for the webmaster’s disposal.

In addition to that, they also need to make sure that their websites are in compliance with the XHTML and CSS rules made by W3C. This is needed because some mobile browsers cannot deliver out websites that aren’t in compliance properly and the result will just be an increase in the bounce rate.

Therefore, it is important to optimize the site fully so that it will suit the mobile users. The visitors will definitely appreciate this new feature to the website.

Detailed information about visitors in a site

joeit79 — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:16:37 +0000

Ever wish that you could know which part of the website that visitors focus the most? Analytics such as Woopra or Google Analytics can tell a lot as to how many visits a website or a page receives but it doesn’t tell the hotspot of the website.

A solution lies on a website named Crazy Egg. What it does is that it visualizes the visitors of the website in a way that it highlights the places that interest the visitors the most. There are two ways of viewing this information: through a confetti layout or a heatmap layout.

There are four packages in total for the potential customers. The Basic package costs a mere $9/month which would be quite the same as a good hosting plan. The Standard version on the other hand costs $10 extra. Plus and Pro packages cost $49 and $99 per month respectively.

While all of these packages have advanced reporting available, only the Plus and Pro package have the hourly reporting feature turned on. This isn’t much of a necessity for a small website because it may not have a lot of visitors on an hourly basis. It is rather good for a big website.

The other difference lies in the number of visits that can be tracked by the system in a month and the number of visits it can track simultaneously. The higher the package, the higher the number for these features.

Tools that can help with web building

joeit79 — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:02:03 +0000

It is no doubt that community plays a big role in determining the success of a website. Websites are no longer built for the community but rather it is built with the community. Constant feedbacks are what keeps a website alive as most of the time, the webmasters cannot know what the user wants if he or she don’t get feedbacks from them.

One way of doing so is through Kampyle. Kampyle is a feedback analytics system that is very powerful and user friendly. It works great if the webmaster buys the Silver package as it comes with Advance Reporting as well as SSL encryption.

The other is through CrowdSound. It also gathers feedbacks in a way that users can vote on them making feedback a lot easier to both the visitor and the webmaster. This gives webmasters a quicker way of reading through the feedback and skipping the ones that are repeated by other people. It also has both free and paid packages.

Uservoice is another popular program for webmasters. It works quite the same with CrowdSound and is used by companies such as Sun, Nokia and a lot more. It can be as cheap as $19 per month to as expensive as $589 per month.