Tag: HTML

Role Of A Webmaster In Creating And Maintaining A Website

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A webmaster is a person who handles the maintenance of a website making sure that the web servers, hardware and software function systematically. He is the sole architect of the information contained in a website that includes both words and pictures. He has other responsibilities like designing the website, generating and revising web pages, replying to user comments and analyzing traffic through the site. A webmaster is generally qualified in HTML and other scripting languages like JavaScript, PHP and Perl. They may also require a thorough knowledge of configuring web servers such as Apache (web server software that played a significant role in the development of the World Wide Web) and serve as the server administrator.

Companies that hire a webmaster usually have different roles for them that depend on their requirements or financial state. In a smaller company, typical webmaster is responsible for many functions simultaneously. In a larger company, a webmaster is hired on account of their sound technical knowledge and programming skills and who has specialized in a certain area of expertise. There may be a team of webmasters who take over the overall corporate web design and policies and work with people who provide the company with its network infrastructure and supervise the design of the companys website. There may be additional web developers whose duties are to organize and develop the web content. All these various departments of webmasters inter-relate the creation of a website, content and organization, for the corporations intranet.

The essential qualities to look for in an efficient webmaster are intelligence, enthusiasm for web technology, exceptionally good communication skills, thoroughness and an eye for detail, integrity, ability to be an efficient team player, courtesy, professionalism, experience in web development and finally knowledge of Perl, UNIX, HTML, CGI and JavaScript. Other than constant maintenance of websites and their designs and management of web servers, they must also possess knowledge of Perl programming, maintenance of site maps, maintenance of mirror sites, assistance in site promotion, writing entries for the glossary, providing top level user support, maintenance of search engine index, HTML validation, generation of the top 100 page from the access logs, monitoring the error logs and reporting potential problems, verification on the validity of the links on the site, checking presentation and readability in different browsers available at various platforms, editing the content, maintenance of the quality and style of the site, finding, creating and installing tools to develop web content and eventually check them for consistency and development of interactive web applications.

Some of the most basic roles of a webmaster in general are as follows:

– HTML Authoring: They need an understanding of HTML 2.0, 3.2, 4, Dynamic HTML including other extensions like tables, frames, server-push/client-pull, server-side includes etc.

– CGI Scripting: Includes having knowledge of Perl, C and UNIX shell scripts.

– Basic Graphic Designing: Must possess the ability to develop attractive web pages that live up to the given standards.

– Internet Awareness: Must be well acquainted with issues concerning the Internet and the World Wide Web.

– General UNIX and PC (MS-Windows) awareness

– Basic knowledge of TCP/IP and Networking

– Graphic Designing skills: An apprehension of graphics applications and techniques like Photoshop, Fractal Painter, 3D modeling and so on.

– Customer Awareness: Must have the capacity to manage a professional relationship with the customers and work within their requirements.

– WWW Server Configuration: Must show proficiency in NCSA, CERN, Apache, and Netscape Commercial Server – including NSAPI.

What To Consider When Choosing Animation & Rich Media In Web Design

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The use of special effects on web pages has literally exploded. Special effects are used either to draw potential client’s attention to a web site or to show off technical expertise. However, many web site designers, graphic designers, and programmers, or HTML “newbie’s” often use special effects without considering how their target audience will react to them. Ultimately, using advanced technology can alienate the very customers designers are trying to attract because they want their web site to look “cool.”

BEFORE you add any special effects to your web site, especially your home page, is your site easy to read, easy to navigate, easy to find, consistent/coherent in design, and quick to download? If the answer to all of these questions is yes, then adding special effects to your web site can be a good idea.

Special effects add to a web site’s download time, and you don’t want potential customers clicking off your site before viewing its content because you wanted “cool” effects on your web pages.

Some special effects require a plug-in. Here’s a typical scenario. Let’s say that some of your visitors do not have the plug-in required to hear the sound. Again, before they see the content of your site, they’re probably going to see a pop-up asking them if they want to download the plug-in. Do you want your potential customers to see that pop-up right away? Or do you want them to see your products and/or services that they are searching for? If visiting your site means potential clients will have to download a plug-in first in order to view your site, products and/or services, they will probably continue to navigate your site. It means that you were thinking more of your corporate image than of your potential customers.

Some special effects, such as animation and music, might be cute and impressive at first. However, after the initial impact, it can become irritating. So irritating, in fact, that some people actually unplug the speakers to their computers.

To show design, technical, or programming talent, we recommend dividing your site into individual pages that showcase one particular talent per page. Doing this can greatly increase your pages’ download speed, and your visitors will know what to expect when they go to a special effects page. An added bonus to this layout is that you can code (meta-tag, descriptive titles, etc.) and promote each talent page differently (i.e. emphasis on different keywords), possibly resulting in better, targeted traffic to your site.

Web Design Melbourne How Your Online Business Can Be Transformed Into A Thriving Cash Cow

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If you plan to enjoy any online success, it is vital that you have a well-designed website. Such a site will look clean, neat and professional, and it will attract visitors. Sites that are well designed will leave a good impression with your customers, and it will be this impression that will keep them coming back to you repeatedly. If you do not want to spend time working on web design, or if you do not possess a whole lot of web design experience, then it is essential that you hire professionals to do the work. If you are starting an online business and are in need of top-of-the-line web design services and you reside in the Melbourne area, web design Melbourne companies will be able to provide you with what you need to succeed on the net.

A quality web design Melbourne company will make sure your site is designed to your specifications. However you want the web design company to construct your site let them know. They will make your dreams come to life on the web. The staff at a top notch web design Melbourne company are well trained in all web design and development languages, thus nothing will be too difficult for them to accomplish.

Another benefit to having your site built by a Web design Melbourne company is that your website will also be SEO friendly. Part of a good SEO campaign is to have your site designed in such a way that the search engines will be able to easily read it. This means that your site will have a properly designed sitemap, pages that are written in clean HTML, metatags, keywords in anchor text and headings, keywords in bolded text and keywords in the URL as well as the links. When your site is designed in this fashion, the rest of the SEO campaign will be a cinch. All you will need to do in order to obtain outstanding SEO results is focus on building your backlinks and come up with a strong off site SEO strategy. Then, you will be able to expect your profits to soar.

When you have a professional web design Melbourne company build your website for you, you will have the peace of mind knowing that your site is done right. You can also count on your site being search engine friendly, enabling it to be properly optimized for SEO campaigns. Your well-done, professionally designed, attractive website will be transformed into a thriving cash cow, as customers will come and want to remain your customer for life. They will refer others to you also, allowing your business to grow substantially.

Web Design Optimization

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Is it possible to have an attractive website and still be optimized for search engines? The answer is absolutely yes! Of course we tend to be mis-guided about what will dazzle the visitor. It is not necessary to overwhelm your website with graphics, which will cause the page to download slower. Our intention is to provide you with tips that will still be attractive, while focusing on Easy Spider. Easy Spider is a term we use at our firm that will optimize the HTML code, but not the aesthetics of the website.

There is no question that most webmasters are developing websites that are complex and full of graphic design elements. Even though, we have faster connection speeds today compared to 10 years ago, we can go overboard and the page wills till download slowly. Of course the user will never wait that long for a website to load, and will move on to the next website in their search results.

One does have to ask the question why webmasters are still developing slow loading websites. Primarily due to a lack of knowledge. The knowledge of simple graphic optimization techniques that will allow them to maintain an attractive website while keeping the page size smaller.

Did you know that a box with rounded corners can be achieved using CSS code only, without the need for any graphic image? It is possible and although not prevalent with all web browsers, we are heading in the direction where the browsers will accept more CSS alternatives. However the point we are trying to make here is not about CSS vs. graphic images, but that we tend to be stagnant in our knowledge and do not keep up with the fast changing trends in web development.

For instance, Flash only websites, while attractive, fund an interactive are not appropriate for search engine optimization. Consider keeping you web page 90% regular text HTML and insert Flash elements to provide the interactive attractiveness.

Granted one does believe that we should not limit the web designer by placing any restrictions that impact the final outcome. However, do consider implanting code wherever possible over graphic elements. Equally, consider the complexity of the graphics as the web sites structure, layout and functionality are being planned.

Another example is when the design is finished and you are ready to slice it into small images to be used in the html code. Everything you do at this stage will affect the total page size. If your design contains rounded shapes that overlap each other or areas with color gradients, then you must slice it carefully so the outcome is a small file size.

Let’s look at what efficient slicing means:

1. Do not make large slices that contain lots of different colors. Use a small number of slices where each slice contains a limited number of colors.

2. Do not make a large slice that contains the same graphic structure. Slice a small portion of it and duplicate it in your code. This is a very common mistake that webmasters/programmers make when dealing with gradient color background.

3. Do not use JPEG file format all the time. In some cases a GIF format will be much smaller in size. A rule of thumb – a slice with high number of colors will be smaller in size using the JPEG format rather than the GIF format, and the opposite is also true. Check each option separately. Every 1KB that you reduce from the image file size will eventually add up to a significant reduction in page size.

4. Consider using PNG graphic file formats that will provide you the balance between transparent backgrounds and larger color possibilities.

5. If you have text on a solid color background, do not slice it at all. Use code to create the background instead. Remember that you can define both the font style and background color of the area using CSS.

Advanced Techniques

Graphically optimizing a website is more than just knowing how to do image optimizations. There are some advanced techniques that require a high level of programming. CSS2 has much more to offer then CSS does. Although not all browsers have adopted this standard yet you should be ready for when they do.

PHP scripts have become more prevalent during 2005 and actually feed the information that Search Engine spiders can use. PHP is preferable over JavaScript.

JavaScripts are still good possibilities to consider. JavaScript also gives you a set of options to create some cool effects without needing to overload the page with Flash. Using limited tools like JavaScript compared to an advanced application like Flash to create the desired effects can be difficult. However think about the outcome. For a onetime effort you can differentiate your website from others. You will have an attractive professional looking website that loads quickly.

Get used to writing well optimized web pages because search engines are still the number one method of finding information on the web. Search Engine spiders have to be considered in this cat and mouse game that will never end.

Online Universities That Offer Web Designing Certificate Courses

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Web designing is a very interesting subject that involves the look and feel of the website, the technology that can be used, display of content on the web page, the navigation on the website, the pictures, and the multimedia shown on the website. There are several online web designing certificate courses and here we have listed ten of them and described in short their uniqueness.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas – The Graphic Design Certificate course will help the student understand the intricacies of web page designing, how to make or break the rules of design to suit the look of the website, and is a generic online web design course. This web design course is a step towards becoming a good web designer and requires you to do your project work using software of your choice.

University of Phoenix – In the Visual Communication Certificate course they start with the introduction of computers, you are taught about image editing, publishing, e-learning course design, and multimedia. Hence you are able to make proficient web pages after doing this course. The web design course includes graphic design and technology tools to create amazing visual communication. Hence the skills learnt in the online web design course can be used in web sites, corporate reports, advertising, business presentation, instructional materials, electronic publications, and animated movies.

Kaplan University – The Internet and Website Development Certificate is a complete course if you want to learn the making of website for online businesses. The web designing course covers everything e.g. data concepts, design, tools required to make website, and multimedia. The cost of this web designing course is $353 for a credit hour and you require to complete 36 credit hours for getting certificate.

The Art Institute of Pittsburgh – The Web Design (Certificate) will tutor you to the basics of web site design, graphics, and animation development specifically for the web. You will be coached during this web design course in various web site design models used in commercial, personal, and government web sites.

The Art Institute of Charlotte – The Web Design – Certificate offers a dynamic mix of technology and art. The students are given enough exposure to scripting and programming skills required for content display on the websites. This online web design course prepares you for entry level jobs in the web design industry.

Strayer University – The Web Page Development course requires you to cover 4.5 credit hours. The course requires you to have completed the Computer Programming Design before starting this course. This web designing course is an interesting course where you are taught how the web pages can be made lighter so that they load quickly, about links, HTML, and XML to create the web pages.

University of California, Irvine – Web Development with HTML will cost $650. You will be taught about how HTML works. Three scheduled WebEx discussions along with the online teaching make the course very innovative.

University of Massachusetts – Certificate in Website Design and Development lets you gain 12 credits for Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology. The web design course gives you good fundamentals to make dynamic websites.

Westwood College – The Web Design & Multimedia (Bachelor’s) course believes that the internet is here to stay. You will learn to develop web sites and become comfortable in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, PHP, HTTP, and Actionscript. Search engine optimization, web marketing, design, composition, and layout are some topics covered in this web designing course.

Full Sail University – The Web Design and Development (Bachelor’s) course highlights include Web Standards design, flash design and animation. The focus of the online web design course is mainly on front-end and techniques to make the websites.

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