Tag: mobile development

Web Design and Development with Mobile SEO in Mind

We’ve broken down the key features of responsive web design and discussed the benefits that make it the go-to choice of web designers today. But how do search engines feel about all of this?

SEO is at the forefront of every web publisher’s mind.

So whether you’re an internet business pining for maximum clicks, or a new blogger luring readers to your corner of the web, it’s a topic that deserves priority consideration when deciding how you’ll approach ‘going mobile.’

Let’s look briefly at the top search engines.  These are Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and Ask.com (source). These four are far more popular than other search engines out there so it makes sense to focus your SEO efforts on these major players as they’ll be driving most of your indirect traffic.

The search engines primarily use a three-pronged approach comprised of: a web crawler to follow links and ping millions of sites efficiently; an indexer that, well, indexes their findings in a database; and a query processor to interpret your search terms and provide the best matches from the database.

Mobile SEO

Beyond traditional mobile web development.

While the SEO world still focuses its efforts on desktop design, the world of mobile design and development has boomed – inevitable considering our smartphone-driven lives. Traditional web development often calls for duplication of web content for desktop and mobile sites. This dual-mode presence calls for time-consuming URL redirects, separation of content, and splitting site traffic, which isn’t good for user experience or that all-important mobile SEO.

Again, we find ourselves landing on responsive web design as the solution (SEO mobile web development is the key!). Keeping your site and content singular is inherent in this web development technique  – no URL redirects, no multiple web crawls needed from the search engines, no split traffic hurting your rankings. All this is possible just by choosing a better web design strategy!

There are numerous ways to make your site responsive, including using a responsive framework like Twitter Bootstrap or coding a responsive page template with @mediaqueries.  Learn more about responsive design.

For an expanded look at mobile SEO and mobile design/development, reference: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/11/seo-for-the-mobile-web/

*Photo courtesy of Fotopedia, used under Creative Commons License.

HTML5: The Language of the New Web

No longer a novelty, HTML5 has already changed the way web developers code and the way users interact with websites. Contributing to the decline of Flash, HTML5 is an undeniable force utilized by countless modern websites.

HTML5 Logo

The New Standard.

HTML5 is setting the bar for the ever changing web landscape. In addition to being integral to the single-site, multi-device experience, HTML5 serves as a standard for video, Flash-like interactivity, and is even creeping into the ad space. With HTML working hand in hand with CSS3 and JavaScript, HTML5 brings us to the next level of web development.

HTML5 is paving the path of the future for the Web:

It will be the go-to language for cross-platform development. According to Web Developer Juice, “Almost every platform – mobile or web – is now making the shift to HTML5 (this includes Blackberry OS, Palm WebOS, and Windows 8).” And Strategy Analytics predicted that HTML5 phones are a hyper-growth market, and global sales will increase 365% by 2016, from 2011. Developing for the desktop now includes developing for mobile. Which means faster and more cost-effective reach.

Ads will continue to shift from Flash. Apple adamantly denounced Flash, so, unsurprisingly, their iOS devices lack compatibility with those traditional Flash ads you otherwise see blinking at you across the web. With so much of mobile web traffic coming from iPhone and iPad users, advertisers can’t ignore that fact. Even on desktops, HTML5 aims for faster loading and better integration. Google Mobile Ads now offers a feature to easily convert Flash ads to HTML5 in Adwords and offers HTML5 banners. Pointroll goes as far as calling HTML5 “the future ‘Secret Sauce’ in online advertising.” HTML5 proves, once again, it is the solution for more effective and efficient reach.

It’s a robust and clean coding standard aimed at streamlining coding, publishing and browsing. HTML5 has been designed to do away with the need for add-on browser plugins. Many features are intended to improve site discovery and overall SEO, translating into more traffic. HTML5 includes the use of Canvas, which provides the potential for more graphic interactivity and an alternative to loading images the ‘old’ way – even on the fly! With better support for feedback forms, drag-and-drop tools, chat, and other popular interactive elements HTML5 aims to make developing and using the new Web much easier.
You can reference a useful infographic about HTML5 features and the benefits for future web development here.

To make the most of the new Web, the HTML5 experts at The Site Slinger code with the future in mind, utilizing the latest tools to provide robust user experiences, beautiful and clean websites. We’re happy to turn your vision into a pixel-perfect site via our best-in-the-world PSD to HTML coding, so contact us or submit your design and let’s get it done!

*Image courtesy of W3C, used under Creative Commons licensing.