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New features in Google Sitemaps

The Google Sitemap program has brought a high level of assistance to web developers, web designers and business owners who want to optimize how their website’s web pages are seen by the Google search engine. We all know how important page ranking is for a web page. The higher your page rank in Google, the more chances that it will be clicked and visited by visitors. Increased internet traffic is what drives sales and awareness for products and services.

The Google Sitemap program has become very popular because it made the task of submitting web pages to Google so much easier. A web developer or designer does not even have to worry about making frequent changes to the web pages because it is more easily known by Google. By presenting a constantly fresh index of web pages for your web site you are assured that what is presented in Google is the latest pages that you are maintaining.

The very high popularity of Google Sitemap has encouraged Google’s team of engineers to develop and add more features to the program. These additions seek to make Google Sitemaps more intuitive and effective in its functions.

Google recently announced that it has again added a bevy of new features for the Google Sitemap program that just made certain aspects of the program so much easier to understand and maintain.

Here are the latest new features of the Google Sitemap program:

Query Stats. Knowing the top position of your website is important. With Google’s Query Stats, you will now know the top search queries where the results included your website as well as those that Google searchers actually clicked on. The position given is the average statistic posted over the last three weeks.

Top mobile search queries. Google acknowledges that there is a growing number of people who use mobile devices for browsing the internet and also consider it as a separate “demographic”. For this reason, the top mobile search queries feature shows web designers and developers the top search queries made from mobile devices in which the results showed their website. Web designers and web developers will see both the mobile searches of all web sites as well as the mobile searches of mobile-specific web sites. The results given by this feature will only appear if it is available in your web site. At this point of the development of this feature, Google only shows the top search queries and not the clicks made for those queries.

Downloading Sitemap details, statistics, and errors. Your Sitemap account now also contain additional information. You can now download information in the form of a comma separated value file. This type of file can be opened by using any text editor or spreadsheet program. You can decide to download the information on a per table basis, or you can opt to download Sitemap details, errors or statistics for all of the web sites in your Google Sitemaps account in one convenient file.

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Advertise the Smart Way

If you have your own web site and want to get the word out on your products or services, there are a few things to do in order to advertise the smart way. No matter what size business or product that you are selling, you can draw lots of traffic to your site by advertising correctly.

Many web developers throw money around without doing the proper research and analysis on who their customers really are. Before you throw money around make sure that you have put plenty of thought and analysis into which ways are the best way to advertise your product. Here are a few tips.

Make sure you know who your customers are. A lot of web developers place their advertisements on the wrong types of web sites, which bring them little if any traffic. If you decide to use techniques such as email and popup advertisements, be forewarned that these types of advertising are considered nuisances to many customers. Many advertisers make the common mistake of advertising in one big shot instead of growing a market and following trends. So the next time you commit to an advertising campaign, make sure that you are advertising the smart way.

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Things To Consider While Selecting A Web Development Company

Selecting the right web developer is a task that needs careful consideration. It is essential that you zero in on a reputed web developer who is skilled adequately and equipped with all the necessary facilities. Here are some points that can help you to decide whether your web development company is the right choice.

Are they sufficiently marketing oriented?

A web site is an important marketing tool. It is therefore essential that a web development company has adequate marketing experience and relevant qualifications. Your web site may have high-end graphics and built using superior technology but unless and until it is not in sync with your target customers needs, it is completely useless. Try and get a look at previous marketing plans, customer research surveys etc Cutting edge copy is a vital part too as it directly speaks to your target audience. Check to see if this service is available. Browse through previous projects and client testimonials. If possible, don’t hesitate to ask for references or speak to past clients.

What does your developer’s own site have to say?

An individual developer’s own web site can tell you a lot of things. Is the site regularly updated? What about the design? Does it look tasteful and uncluttered or is it messy and unappealing? The developer’s web site was most probably created by the in-house designers and they will be likely to deign yours.

How good is their portfolio?

Browse through the web developer’s portfolio. It will give you a fair idea of their talents and skill sets. Do their previous designs look appealing? Have they worked on projects similar to yours? How clear is their copy? All these will help you gauge the quality of their work.

Will they provide you with the code?

Most reputed web developers generally provide you with the web site’s code in any form. (live CD, email etc) Will the web developer in question provide you with the same? Don’t hesitate to ask.

Can you communicate directly with the developers?

Its best for you to meet the developers assigned to your project. Face to face communication is vital for optimum results as it can help you communicate your creative ideas and clear any technical doubts. It will also save any extra time involved in rework.

How efficient is customer support any good?

Customer service is an important factor to consider. Can the web development company provide customer service throughout the day? Will they answer your calls courteously and reply to all your emails promptly?

Any web development company that is appropriately and adequately skilled will be able to satisfactorily answer most of these questions and working with such a company will put all your fears to rest.

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Front-end Web Developer Metamorphosis

Web design is not the be-all end-all in developing a site. This is the very reason why metamorphosis has led to the recent discovery of frond-end developers.

Front-end web developers are what are formerly known as web designers only that they come now with a click. What is the click on its name all about? Well, added duties as well as expectations are imposed upon them so as to make them an extraordinary web artist.

Front-end web developers make sure that crucial in the site is displayed on the browser. Another is to create a catchy and navigable design that contains useful data.

Being a front-end web developer is not as easy as it sounds. Though, skill about complex programming is not necessary. All they need to do is to hack together some codes and link pages. Nonetheless, there is the element of uncertainty hanging above their head. There are also great ways that the web developer can be broken down by the users and customers. If the site did not work with the specifications of the customers, he also gets the blame.

In order to keep the design safe, it is crucial that every designer follow the standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The drawback though is that the browser industry does not tell the truth whether it follows the standard or not. This results to a number of web site development services failures.

When you are interested into web development, you can go extra mile by being flexible and knowledgeable. You have to know the exact needs of the site, design and the visitors.

A front-end web developer is a web artist with codes and responsibilities. It needs constant improvement and a wide-latitude of imagination and skill. The site has to look good and is accessible and reliable.

The web developer’s failures can bind the site and clients and the viewers. Thus, as early as possible he must be skilled in code and content which can be published with outstanding accessibility to everyone. Be sure to test them ahead before using.