Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Validation is simply ensuring that your
blog site has HTML that is error free. In this HTML validation of your Blog
Site : How to guide, we shall look into the various aspects of validation and
why it is such an important issue.
W3C and Validation
The World Wide Web Consortium (w3.org) formulates rules that govern HTML coding. The
site also provides all the tools you will need to validate your blog site.
Apart from the W3C, there are other applications and sites that can check
your code either online or on your computer. The parameters used,
however, are those defined by the W3C.
What Validation Does not Guarantee
Making your blog site code error free does not guarantee that it will be
rendered perfectly on all browsers. That requires a cross-browser check: a
trial and error method to determine what format of code is rendered in the
desired manner by all or most browsers.
Why Validate?
Modern browsers are equipped with the capacity to 'guess' the best possible
solution to a missing piece of markup. Most of the time you can get away with
invalid code. This raises questions regarding the necessity of validation. It
is fine for coders to make their work flawless, but for the average webmaster
with a blog site, how does it matter? Visitors can see the web page just fine!
Actually, browsers mostly do not agree with each other while taking their 'best guesses'. An invalid markup can be rendered in any number of ways depending upon what browser your visitors are using. An error in an HTML form, for example, could cause your blog's squeeze page to stretch horizontally so that the form is not visible without scrolling. Less extreme possibilities include unexpected line breaks and text decorations.
Apart from this, when a blog site has too many errors, the browser's 'guessing time' translates to extra loading time for the site, and nothing drives away visitors more than a web page that takes forever to load. Even the server is burdened with repeated queries as the browser tries to figure out a way to render the page.
Another disastrous effect is that search engines, who are less forgiving than browsers, might give up on the guessing game and stop indexing your pages altogether. Invalid markup does not create a good impression upon anyone, be it a search-bot or those among your visitors checking out your source code.
Actually, browsers mostly do not agree with each other while taking their 'best guesses'. An invalid markup can be rendered in any number of ways depending upon what browser your visitors are using. An error in an HTML form, for example, could cause your blog's squeeze page to stretch horizontally so that the form is not visible without scrolling. Less extreme possibilities include unexpected line breaks and text decorations.
Apart from this, when a blog site has too many errors, the browser's 'guessing time' translates to extra loading time for the site, and nothing drives away visitors more than a web page that takes forever to load. Even the server is burdened with repeated queries as the browser tries to figure out a way to render the page.
Another disastrous effect is that search engines, who are less forgiving than browsers, might give up on the guessing game and stop indexing your pages altogether. Invalid markup does not create a good impression upon anyone, be it a search-bot or those among your visitors checking out your source code.
Case Study: HTML Validation of Your Blog Site on Wordpress
Wordpress uses PHP to render web pages on the fly. In other words, what you see
by viewing the source code in browser is not really there in that exact form.
You will need to access the theme editor through the dashboard if
you want to validate anything. There will be a number of files available in
that area, and you will need to copy the code from each and paste it into the
W3C validation tool. The tool also supports upload of files (web pages) and url
detection.Errors, if any, will be highlighted in the report that you receive. Problem is, when you see a certain number of errors mentioned, 13, for example, there may be only 3 or 4. This happens because 'nested' code is also included in the error count. This problem goes away once you correct the codes. Frequently, however, you will find an error indicated in a line which is perfectly coded. The trick is to 'look before and after' - the previous line could have a closing tag missing. Understanding the validating tool's behavior makes correcting errors a less daunting task.
You could resort to other sites for an alternate perspective on the problems. The WDG HTML Validator, for example, refers to its own pool of resources so that explanations regarding errors are a little different from the W3C's. You could also use an add-on or an extension in case you are using Firefox or Chrome, respectively, to check your site's pages as you are visiting them. This is a little more user friendly, and should provide you with further insights when you deal with the theme editor.
All reputed themes have expert coding and should contain very little error. If you take the time to study basic HTML and use more than one validation tool, HTML validation of your blog site should not be too different from proofreading your own posts.
In
order for a website to be an effective asset, there needs to be clarity about the
purpose of a website and after it is up and running, the site's traffic needs
to be monitored.
So, this article offers you advice on how to get your website working for you. There are different reasons for building a website, the main one being to make money, usually by selling goods or services. There are international companies looking for a global market and there are shops and trades people looking for customers within a small radius.
To help attract customers
A
website might be developed to spread information. A newspaper or television
company keeps their readers informed of the daily news, while they are also
trying to attract viewers from their competitors. A website might be a meeting
place for people with similar interests. This can be as varied as a site acting
to introduce people looking for potential partners, to a site where people can
swap recipes and discuss the best variety of potatoes to grow.
How to measure the success of the website
You
will need to measure the amount of traffic your website is attracting in order
to have a clear understanding to whether or not the site is operating well. If
the purpose of the website is to sell items and people are buying the goods on
the site, then that obviously means there is some degree of success, although
there may be more that can be done to increase the volume of sales.
It is
useful to be able to see how many people click onto the site and then off
again. More intriguing, how many people browse, fill their shopping baskets and
then leave, without going to the checkout? This information can be found and
used to monitor traffic to the site.
If the site has a forum for discussing topics, then it is easy to see how busy the forum is. Again, are there people who register and read, but never participate?
There is a variety of software available to measure activity around a website including load testing, which will look at how a site functions under heavy demand.
It is possible to find out what device people are using for browsing. Will this
have any impact on how long they stay on your site? What about people who click
on and then off in a couple of seconds. Did they decide in that brief moment
that the site didn't have the information that they required. Is the sites
search engine ranking high enough? A good site on page ten won't get many
visitors.
Monitoring
the use of a website is as important as its initial development and there is
plenty of help available.
Many people who start a
website won’t have anything to do with it. Right from the moment they sign a
hosting contract and register a domain, they will allow a designer and content
writer to take care of their needs, before handing over to a webmaster to
manage the site on their behalf on an on-going basis.
Others,
whether through misplaced faith in their ability or a desire to save money,
will instead opt to do everything themselves, helped by the growing number of
companies that offer generic templates that ‘get your business online within an
hour,’ for example.
We
looked at the latter scenario, and explored a number of reasons or indicators
that it may be time to hire a webmaster.
Time Demands
It
may be the case that you are actually decent in terms of designing a site and
maintaining the content, but is it stating to take up too much of your time
when you need to be selling products or building customer relationships?
Even
if you outsource things such as content creation, liaising with a writer can
take up a considerable amount of time. By placing this in the hands of a
webmaster, you will be immediately free to take care of the other areas that
are going to generate your revenues. You then have the option of seeking out a
webmaster who is skilled at creating original, quality content, or allow them
to manage a small budget to outsource this task.
Poor Performance
The
reality for many website owners is that having a quality web offer is nothing
like as easy as adverts from certain companies portray it to be. Sometimes, the
honest site owners need to look at themselves and admit that what they have
done isn’t very good, and that the cutting corners in terms of cost is actually
having a detrimental impact.
Hiring
a webmaster is a logical solution if you are looking to drive better
performance from your site, but beware of expecting an overnight fix. When
sourcing your webmaster, agree on particular targets for improvement; experienced
professionals in this area will be able to give you an honest breakdown of what
you can expect to see, and when.
Search Supremacy
Contrary
to popular belief, it is possible to have a great site that performs well
without ranking highly in search engines. That said, there is no question that
appearing on page one of the results pages is going to have a monumental impact
on your visitors and revenues.
If
search is something you find yourself not quite able to crack, a webmaster is
often a good alternative to a dedicated SEO company, especially if you want
other elements of your site maintained at the same time. They can then ensure
that content and design elements are optimised accordingly, leaving you ready
to cash in when the volume of traffic goes up.
The
need to hire a webmaster doesn’t indicate that you have failed in your role.
Look at it with a positive slant, whatever the reason for doing it, and view
the move as a natural progression, a consequence of your business growing.
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