Draw In Visitors To Your Offerings:
We all know that captivating slideshow presentations help business websites to attract the attention of visitors to their offerings. Once attention has been drawn, the visitor will most likely look around the website to check out its products and/or services that might be of interest to him/her. So, one of the main purposes of slideshows is to grab the attention of those who have interest in the type of things you offer before they move away from your website. This attraction allows visitors to focus on your products, as well as eliminate the circumstances that might cause wavering of concentration.

Communicate Visually:
Slideshows enable site owners to communicate their messages to visitors more effectively than static images and texts. It has been proven by many renowned experts that visual communication facilitates better understanding of products and services. So, why not use it to enhance visitors’ understanding of your products and/or services?

Proven Studies:
Several authoritative studies have proven that slideshows communicate messages about three times faster than regular, static images and texts. As an average Internet user has a short attention span and spends just a few seconds on a new website, having a slideshow in place is one the best ways to quickly get your messages across and prevent the visitor from leaving.

Enhance Understanding:
An old axiom says that a single picture has the capability to communicate a thousand words! This is especially true with slideshows, as long as they’re relevant to visitors’ needs, professionally-designed and creatively-presented on web pages. It’s recommended for business websites to use slideshows to quickly get messages across to their target audiences.

Which slideshow designer to hire?
Well, the Internet is filled with many highly-talented web designers who fully understand how the human mind communicates with images and texts.  My advice is to go for one that put your ideas dynamically into images and texts, to enhance communication. As a rule, make sure all the key information of your product(s) and/or service(s) is represented in your slideshow.

Generally, both HTML and CMS are good web technologies – each has its advantages and disadvantages, but at the end, it boils down to what you want to use the website for. What tasks do you want your website to perform? What do you want the users to be able to do? What do you want to achieve with the functionality? Knowing these will help you to choose either CMS or HTML-based site. Whatever, the type you should be able to serve all your needs. Now, let’s look at the two:

A CMS, an abbreviation of content management system, is an engine used for powering dynamic websites. These dynamic websites are programmed with server-side scripting languages, such as PHP, ASP, Python, ColdFusion, JSP, etc. They also allow users to interact with websites in numerous ways: your visitors can quickly send messages to you directly from your website; they allow site owners to automate processing of business transactions, including payment, without any human interference. Moreover, with CMS, your website will typically behave more properly in response to user behavior.

The advantages of CMS over static HTML web pages:

•   It is easier to maintain by someone who doesn’t have HTML skills.
• CMS is more interactive than pure HTML-based website.
• It engages your users and generally includes more capabilities to turn potential consumers into buying customers.
• You can include contact forms to allow the site’s users to contact you directly from your website. This circumvents the rigmarole of having to achieve that only through logging in to their email accounts.
• You can add email subscription forms on web pages to enable your visitors to opt in to receiving updates about your site’s content that interests them. Through this means alone, you can build a large mailing list!

The disadvantages of content management system:

• A CMS is generally more resource-intensive than a HTML-based website of the same size and content. We pages load on the browser by making script calls to the hosting server, and these can turn your website into a resource hog, if it’s badly coded.
•  Computer hackers tend to target content management systems. If any security hole exists, hackers will exploit the vulnerability and attack your website. So, if you choose CMS over HTML, make sure it is well-coded by a security-minded web developer.
• Dynamically-generated URLs pose issues for web crawlers when they try to crawl and index them. So, you have to put in extra effort to rewrite the URLs. Gladly, Apache Web Server has a function called Mod_Rewrite that enables web developers to achieve an illusion of static URL.

On the other hand, HTML is an acronym for HyperText Markup Language. It’s a client-side scripting language used for designing static web pages. This means processing of content requests is done by the visitor’s web browser, and this eases the load of web servers. On a pure HTML website, visitors can only view the content and read it, but cannot interact with the site, as opposed to what they’ll do with a content management system.

The advantages of HTML-based websites:

• Unlike content management systems, HTML-based websites don’t consume a lot of server bandwidth. We generally recommend this option, if your web hosting budget is low and you expect to be getting large number of visitors everyday. This will help your hosting account not to get banned, when the site starts getting to too many visitors.
• HTML-based websites have static URLs, which are search engine-friendly. So, you don’t need to rewrite any URL – static URL is a given!
• You don’t have to worry about any security hole in your code.

The disadvantages of HTML-based websites:

• HTML lacks the engaging capability of CMS.
• It is not interactive.

The bottom-line is to choose the technology that best serves your needs today and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.

ASP.NET is a web programming framework developed by Microsoft to enable developers to create dynamic web sites, web services and applications. On the other hand, Hypertext Preprocessor, popularly known as PHP, is a general-purpose scripting language created for web development to generate dynamic web pages. So, one can rightly say ASP.NET is a framework, while PHP is a scripting language.

Both ASP.NET and PHP are equally good at their levels, but it all depends on one’s needs and the type of desired web application. If you look at both objectively, there is evidently more crowd behind PHP, hence, more forum support, code samples and tutorials. But .NET has a company that is fully supporting and advancing it.

Here we will examine their strengths and weaknesses. I interviewed several seasoned programmers who have vast experience in both the framework and the scripting language, and here is what they said:

ASP.NET Strengths:

• ASP.NET is faster than PHP.
• It provides interoperability features, which enable programmers to write their codes in C++ and C platforms, and use them in ASP.Net platform.
• Some developers argue that .NET is more secure than PHP. However, I would say it depends on the competence and knowledge of the developer(s) involved.
• .NET has a better IDE and is more robust, in the sense that one can use it to build web services, desktop applications, web applications, etc.
• The framework is excellent for developing enterprise applications, as it has a great IDE and Model View Controller (MVC) feature. Programmers who develop web applications that demand a huge amount of logic tend to prefer .NET over PHP.
• ASP.NET enjoys the dedicated support of one of the most powerful companies in the world, Microsoft. Generally support tends to swing things for individuals who are trying to adopt a new technology.

.NET Weaknesses:

• ASP.NET runs only on Windows platform, and licensing of Windows OS is costly.
• It is costlier to use and maintain. Its hosting is more expensive than that of PHP, which can as well be hosted on less costly Unix-based systems.
• Critics say that the framework is generally known for exploits.

The Strengths Of PHP:

• Web developers believe that PHP is more secure than ASP.NET.  This notion is however a hotly-contested one. Like I said before, it all depends on how a programmer addresses security issues on the application being built.
• There are thousands of developers worldwide who selflessly assist in the development and enhancement of PHP.
• PHP is a cross-platform language.  I can run on Windows, Linux and many other operating systems (OS).
• There are numerous online resources, like the official PHP website (www.php.net), forums, code snippets and tutorials that help aspiring developers to freely learn the language.
• It is an open source language, which means licensing is snappy.
• It is free and easier to use. The Internet gave birth to the free stuff trend, which helps free products and services to attract a large following. And this has tremendously helped PHP to grow rapidly.

The Weaknesses Of PHP:

• Several web developers complain that PHP is slower than ASP.NET.
• Releasing new versions take a longer time than necessary.

PHP is older than .Net and different programmers hold different views. Viewing them objectively, their latest versions perform about the same tasks in web development. So, a better choice depends on your experience in them and the application you want to develop.

A scripting language is a programming language that enables a developer to control software applications. Web-based scripts differ from the core code of the software applications, since they’re written in different languages. Dynamic language wave is sweeping the web development world like a tsunami, because websites developed using them are easy to manage by everyone, interactive and engaging to site visitors. PHP, Perl, and Python are the leading dynamic programming languages, because of their capabilities, focus and breadth. However, PHP remains the server-side scripting language of choice for several web developers, and there are good reasons for that.

Advantages of PHP:

• PHP has a very strong functionality and several loyal communities.
• The documentation is available in several languages of the world. This has helped and continues to popularize the language.
• It is free and open source. Since the Internet trend has got people intoxicated with free stuff, this contributes to a large following.
• PHP has stable versions that are very secure.
• It has an easily-understandable syntax. PHP syntax is not as complicated as those of some other languages, making it newbie-friendly.
• PHP tutorials are freely available on millions of websites. No matter what one wants to accomplish with PHP, from a few snippets of code to fully-functional applications, there are tons of free tutorials out there on the web to learn from.
• It is a loosely-typed language, which helps to reduce data collision.
• Generally, PHP programmers and scripts are less expensive than those of Asp.NET.
• There are several books published everyday that teach the language.
• It can run on every major operating system (OS) without needing any special configuration. This cross-platform compatibility has helped immensely to make every web developer want to have a full grasp of it. PHP is fully compatible with Mac, Windows and Linux.
• PHP is flexible, in the sense that a coder can apply object-oriented programming (OOP) or not, without any issue.
• Almost every web hosting provider offers support for PHP.
• A developer who is new to the language can still code a fully-functioning script, without having a full grasp of the programming concepts, compilation and principals.
• Apache web server and MySQL database, which are both open source software, integrate effortlessly with PHP.

Disadvantages of PHP:

• Due to the fact that PHP is loosely typed, it allows room for certain unwanted behaviors caused by programming errors.
• PHP executes slower than some other popular dynamic scripting languages.
• Even though it is secure, hackers still exploit security holes left by badly-coded scripts, installers and wrong permissions set for configuration files.

Actually, PHP is far from being perfect, but it stands out among other dynamic web development languages. It has its strengths and weaknesses, as it does certain tasks better than any other language and lags behind in some others. PHP has gained a lot of fame among web developers, which contributes to its wide usage. This has encouraged the PHP Development Team at http://www.php.net to strive relentlessly to improve its stability and security, while still maintaining backward compatibility.

Search engine optimization of any site should start during the time it’s being designed. But unfortunately, many website designers do not follow the guidelines set forth by major search engines. And this has led many sites to crumble in organic search.

During web crawling, search bots or spiders look for emphasis placed on some words, as it helps them to identify the theme of each web page. Though you cannot expect search engines to rank your web page for every word in it, but you can help them to discover the keywords that matter most to you. That said, so you have to give more importance to some words over others, to help search bots to prioritize them.

How to make sure your design is search engine-optimized
Every web page should contain all the necessary tags (Title tag, Meta Keywords, Meta Description and Heading tags, which include H1, H2, H3, etc). Although implementing these alone will not command search engines to rank your site high on their SERPs, they help to guide search bots to the most important keywords on the site’s web pages.

• Title tag (<title> </title>) – Page titles normally define the content of a web page. This piece of information is displayed by search engines as the subject of the web page when it appears on search results. It enables Internet searchers to understand the content, without even visiting the web page. The words found in the title carry more weight than other words in the page’s content. So, you will not want to leave your page’s title empty or use something meaningless, like “Untitled”. It is recommended that you use the most important key phrase the page targets as the Title. The maximum length of Title tag is 65 characters, including spaces.
• Meta Keywords (<meta name=”keywords” content=“” />) – This Meta tag is increasingly been disregarded by search engines, due to keyword stuffing by unscrupulous webmasters who intend to manipulate their ranking algorithms. Google, for example stopped noticing keywords over a year ago, but having it in place doesn’t attract any penalty. Bing still regards it a bit, and so, it’s still worth the hassle to use Meta keywords. However, do not allow the length of your page’s Meta keywords to exceed 250 characters, including spaces.
• Meta Description (<meta name=”description” content=“” />) – This tag is the summation of a web page’s content, and it should be filled. Search engines use it to describe a web page that appears on their SERPs. A catchy sentence or two is normally fine for Meta description tag. The maximum length is 160 characters, including spaces, lest, the remaining words will be cut off, making your description meaningless.
• Heading tags (<h1> </h1>, <h2> </h2>, <h3> </h3>, <h4> </h4>, etc) – Heading tags are used by professional website designers and developers to emphasize the greater weight of certain words over others in the passages of web pages. And search engine bots prioritize these words accordingly. So, use them wisely in the body (<body> </body>) area of every web page to emphasize your targeted keywords.
• Internal linking structure – Where possible, make sure all the web pages that matter to you are linked to site-wide, to aid search bots and human beings discover them.

Avoid cloaking – This is the practice of showing a version of content to search engine spiders, while another version is shown to humans. Its intent is to deceive search engines to rank a web page for some keywords it is not worthy of being ranked for. But the search engines we have today are smart enough to detect and penalize any site that implements cloaking technique.

Sitemaps – A sitemap is a page that contains links to all the important web pages of a website. There are three (3) types of sitemaps, namely, XML sitemap, HTML sitemap and URL list. An XML sitemap is an Xtensible Markup Language file a webmaster submits to search engines through their Webmaster Tools, to aid search bots to discover a site’s web pages. Make sure you create and submit it to all the major search engines. An HTML sitemap is an ordinary Hypertext Markup Language file that contains links to all the important web pages of a site, to assist humans and bots locate a site’s web pages in one place. URL list is just a text file that lists all the important URLs of a website. The latter is supported by Yahoo Search.

So, place your keywords where they matter most to humans and search bots alike, in order to create the best desired impact. However, don’t pack all the keywords your site targets on one (1) web page, but split them up and share them among the homepage and internal pages, according to their content.