Posts Tagged ‘browser’

The website optimization strategy in the SEO for 2012 Report tutorial released last month works, and this case study provides evidence. You must invest time to improve and promote your website to achieve online success.

A recent custom cms web design implementing the principles in that seo search engine optimization strategy blog post has performed beyond expectations in less than 2 months.

Launched on 4 December 2011, the new dog rescue custom cms website for Lifeline Dog Rescue, a division of Central Florida Weimaraner & Dog Rescue, Inc., demonstrates remarkable success.

In summary, the first strategy for attracting search engine traffic begins with providing a positive visitor experience by creating high quality original content often. You cannot launch a new website and then ignore adding fresh content if you want to motivate happy visitors to return.

Likewise, a dynamic site that changes often will attract search engines to return and index updates frequently.

The second strategy is creating off site content in social communities that directs visitors to your website. The seo report recommends becoming active on social network websites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Flickr. A key feature on this new custom cms web design is social network icons linking to those sites and social bookmarking sites.

Those icons and links make social interaction easy. Being active on social networks and interacting with your contacts provides real time off site quality content that enhances your positive reputation for visitors and search engines.

Consider the following milestones achieved with the custom cms web design and social network accounts for Lifeline Dog Rescue. Clues to the success may be found by viewing the social site icons and statistics at the bottom of their home page.

In less than 7 weeks as of 31 January 2012, the stats show 92 likes on Facebook, 146 tweets on Twitter, 2 Google plus one shares, and 16 links to social bookmarking sites. Keep in mind those numbers are just for their home page.

Next, consider Alexa traffic numbers for the Lifeline website. Lower ranking indicates higher traffic in comparison to competition between 100+ million other websites. Lifeline launched ranked at 16 million. As of the date of this post the rank is 797,404. Any number under 1 million puts your website in the top 1%.

Stats tracking likewise shows 1) a steady increase in traffic, 2) a very low bounce rate meaning visitors land on one page and continue to expore more pages, plus 3) the rate of return visitors continues to climb which indicates popularity.

Why does this seo search engine optimization strategy work so well? It depends on quality content and natural methods for attracting search engines. The strategy is forward looking and considers the importance of human interaction and not just mathematical algorithms of Google crawlers to determine website ranking.

Is it simple? Yes. Is it easy? Not really. You must still invest time on website content and social connections. Site owners who recognize and implement this simple strategy will reap the benefits of staying ahead of their competitors who do not.

View and download the 2012 SEO Design Strategy Tutorial (pdf, 13 pgs., 96kb) and then apply these principles of website success.

The ubiquitous Internet Explorer v6, or IE6, seems immune to going quietly away. While many of us in web design agonize over workarounds needed in our code in order to make pages display well in all browsers because of IE6, there’s still no silver bullet for IE6.

Let’s explore why after a review of overall visitor browser stats to my website, and then look at the impact on future web designs.

The latest traffic stats to my site show less than 4% of visitors still using Internet Explorer 6.

FireFox has taken over first place with 43% amongst browser brands followed by IE8 at 18%, Google Chrome at 14.6%, and then IE7 at 12%. Add that 4% of IE6 to Microsoft’s marketshare, and they’ve moved from #1 to 2nd overall at 34%.

Chrome at #3 is pretty incredible, and demonstrates the power of Google to dominate when it comes to knowing what users want. Safari by Apple continues to grow capturing 7.4%. Opera has fallen to 1% share.

Why has this IE6 older version of the Internet Explorer browser managed to survive? One reason is IE6 is used in many older corporate installations, and some large companies are reluctant to switch because of the cost to modify, test, or debug their infrastructure. In short, the old adage applies: if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Another factor is a large number of third world users are on older technology, so they continue to use IE6, as well. The older pc excuse is not completely valid, however. Comparing operating system to browser stats, many IE6 visitors have upgraded equipment, so some of those individual diehards cling to what they know, too.

Until the corporate and individual users abandon IE6 the fact remains there’s no silver bullet for IE6.

The final topic about offering web design, or in my case custom cms web design, is providing a backward compatible website that displays well in all browsers. For years I’ve provided html and css code workarounds, and since 2004 I’ve designed in newer xhtml, so web designs will display well on current technology as well as computer systems designed or yet to be invented in the future.

Finally, the “Best Viewed in IE6″ in the illustration (or as a disclaimer for a specific browser on ANY website) is a dead giveaway that the site was created by an inexperienced designer. Mine would read “Best Viewed in Any Browser”, so avoid web design services if they design for just one browser.

If you use IE6, my advice is upgrade to IE8. The download is free and the world will be one user closer to R.I.P. IE6.

Here’s a review of the latest Firefox release candidate browser. I took the leap and chose to test out and review the latest BETA version of the Firefox browser earlier today. See the download and release links below if you decide you want to help out and be a BETA tester, too.

I stumbled across the option when rebooting Firefox resulted in a message Want a sneak peek of the newest, fastest version of Firefox? which included a link to download and test Firefox v3.6rc1 BETA. The RC1 release candidate versions are language specific with over 70 choices and you may select from Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.

Download link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html
Release notes: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6/releasenotes/

A disclaimer on the splash page states: This is pre-release software: you may encounter compatibility problems with some websites and add-ons. If you find a problem please let us know or file a bug. For more details, read the release notes and known issues.

The installation was remarkably fast, and first tests of typical load problem files like videos in full screen and large audio mp3 files was very impressive. I did notice the overall look was different, so checked themes and discovered 1 out of the 3 themes which included the default was not compatible from v3.5 to v3.6, so that was a minor disappointment.

My second choice and even the default theme were fine, yet I decided to search an alternative and tried the recommended theme found here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7517 and entitled Sivermel. It’s simple yet not cramped, and an excellent choice considering my work in web design keeps me at the computer 12 plus hours a day.

Taking a closer look at add-ons, I discovered that ColorZilla, CoolPreviews, FoxTab, and ScreenGrab are not compatible in v3.6rc1, so ceased to function. The add-ons I use the most are web design related and all were compatible, so other than missing ColorZilla I’m very pleased.

As far as an indepth review, I don’t use many add-ons, so readers are cautioned that the warning about compatiblity of add-ons should be considered before becoming a BETA tester.

In conclusion, my recent experience with Firefox upgrades had been disappointing because browsing speed seemed to drop to a crawl. That explains why I was anxious for what they called “the fastest version” and decided to see if the difference was noticeable. From my initial experience which was subjective and not scientific, I am very pleased with the performance of the Firefox v3.6rc1 browser and glad I took the plunge.

The latest podcast episode entitled Web Design Visitors Analysis provided a review of stats by browser and Search Engine (SE) referrals. Visitor traffic to my website for custom cms web design reveals interesting data on user browser and search engine referrals. Tracking details of short term traffic may help web developers in making strategic decisions for future custom cms web design techniques. Consider the following visitor stats:

Comparison of Visitor Traffic and Web Design by Browser

55.4% IE6,7,8
30.2% FireFox
08.4% Safari
03.2% Chrome
00.4% Opera

Internet Explorer, or Microsoft IE, continues to dominate collectively while IE7 represents 33.8% in the IE total. Compared to my traffic stats in December 2008, Safari grew slightly, Chrome remained about the same, and Opera lost market share. If nothing else, this data supports cross browser compatibility testing of your website design to make sure it displays well for all visitors.

Web Design and Comparison of Search Engine Referrals

85.5% Google
10.1% Yahoo
04.4% Bing

Google sends more than 85% of the total search referral traffic to my website, so I periodically track my position for “custom cms web design” on page one. After paid ads, my site has remained at number 1 on Google page one for that phrase for more than two years. You may want to Google the phrase custom cms web design, and see if I’ve been bumped or listen to this podcast episode to learn more about stats by browser and SE referrals.

Here’s a link to a 2008 blog post on testing cross browser compatibility of your web design with links to the current version of 4 of the 5 major browsers including some advice and 2007 usage stats by browser for my site for all of 2007:

It’s good to know the setup of site visitors to know pages in your web design display well for the majority while 100% is the real goal. I can’t wait for IE6 to get below 10% as it continued to plunge in 2007 and 2008. This post is an update of IE6 based on visitor statistics for 2008. IE6 is at 22% of visitors now, and down from 42% a year earlier. You can download all 5 to test and remove desktop icons of ones you don’t use.

Forget Netscape. They’re defunct and no longer supported. However, be careful where you download. There are phishing sites (scams, virus trojans, spammers) that offer “downloads” that may be malicious and infect your pc. My advice is always going to the official sites as listed in the blog post linked above. They should be current.

A new browser from Google branded “Chrome” was introduced in September 2008. It has made gains yet not as well as I predicted at the time of the release. They made initial inroads for about a month then stalled. It had minor problems and resources to improve beyond the initial release though minimal have increased their share to 4% since last September. That is significant for a newly released browser brand.

My Sept 2008 review of Google Chrome includes a link to the Google Chrome download page.

For small business owners who contract to have their custom web design outsourced, my advice is requesting evidence of cross browser compatibility testing to the latest version of major browsers as a minimum.

Checking stats for custom cms web design related searches for my site at StatCounter.com I noticed a link to their blog with a post about the new browser Google Chrome stats on StatCounter for the first 8 days since its release.

Comparing my visitor browser stats to the relatively low number of 1.02% tracked by StatCounter as now using Chrome as their browser of choice, my count was over 5% on one day that I checked. The global numbers on StatCounter indicate growth in that 8 day period for Chrome and “numerous browsers including Konqueror, Opera, Playstation, Blackberry, Iphone, Seamonkey etc.” and a decline in IE, FireFox, and Safari.

These are very early numbers, yet as predicted in my review of the Google Chrome browser 10 days ago, “Trust Google to consider your input and then stand back and watch them conquer another internet niche with leading edge technology that responds to what users really want.”

For average internet users the Chrome choice may be an easy one. My personal favorite is still FireFox because of the add-on plug-ins and extensions for web developers, yet that attitude may change as more programmers step up and assist in enhancements for Chrome. People employed in web design and even site owners, need to add Chrome to their list of browsers to test for cross browser compatibility. A quality custom web design will display well in all browsers.

This review of the Google Chrome browser BETA features the latest Google venture from this dominant internet giant. The intitial release is for Windows users only and runs on Vista and XP SP2, so Mac and Linux web surfers must wait for future development.

Visit the Google Chrome browser download page to download your copy, or follow their links to learn more including a series of video presentations by Google staffers. Here is a screenshot of a sample startup window showing recent history thumbnails as displayed in the Google Chrome browser.

As a web developer working full time in custom web design, my interest is more about performance than aesthetics. The Google browser development strategy was start from scratch to create a browser with forward looking concepts rather than build on architecture that evolved over 12 years from text only pages through a series of more complex stages. Thinking outside the box meant considering current leading edge advanced web design multimedia features and aps, and then projecting future needs to include now in the Google Chrome browser software in preparation as the internet becomes more sophisticated.

Unique features include a dual purpose address bar that acts as a search bar, also. As you type a url or search phrase a dropdown list of prompts appear. View a screenshot of Google Chrome browser history here. View the first graphic in this post and the multiple thumbnails display recent history of websites visited. Selecting “Show all history” brings up a list of history in text, and I really liked the layout and level of detail which helped recall more about those websites from recent visits.

The Google Chrome BETA version browser is open source, and they welcome comments and feedback from users and programmers. This attitude is a welcome change from the pretense and arrogance of at least one browser software provider criticized for broken promises.

The Google Chrome browser is excellent, yet as expected there are likely minor defects in this preliminary BETA release. Trust Google to consider your input and then stand back and watch them conquer another internet niche with leading edge technology that responds to what users really want.

In testing some of my more advanced custom web designs a minor problem was encountered from as page featuring a wide screen flash video (6.5mb file size).

Attempting to follow the link resulted in a delay and then the following popup window with a statement that the page was unresponsive and then options to either “Kill pages” or “Wait”. Kill? There must be some dark humor on staff at Google because that option had me wondering if I should risk destroying a web page that I designed.

I tried the “Wait” option first, and that didn’t work and I somehow ended up back on the home page. Deciding to risk killing pages (why plural when I was accessing just one page?) the result was the following new window that filled the entire screen with a dark background with the message “Something went wrong while displaying this webpage. To continue, press Reload or go to another page”.

The page began loading on the second try, yet the audio track with music and narration began while the video screencast was stuck on the first slide, and it took 15-20 seconds for the audio to synchronize with the video. Once the entire video played through and was stored in cache, the third attempt worked perfectly. To my delight, and despite the ominous “kill pages” option, the page survived and was online the last time I checked. Phew!

Returning to the page of vacation rental tutorials I decided to try right clicking a different video tutorial and then selected “Open link in new tab” and the Google Chrome browser functioned flawlessly. Return visits to test those links a day later allowed left clicking with instant display of each video tutorial.

Note: After clearing cache and returning to the tutorial video listings page to try to duplicate the “unresponsive kill pages” and “something went wrong” error messages, navigation and performance of each video tutorial worked flawlessly with either left click or right click on the hyperlink.

All other video and audio tested from other custom web sites loaded and played without problems, so the anomaly may have been from external factors outside the Google Chrome browser BETA.

Pro (very positive):

• Rendering excellent with clear text and graphics
• Standards compliance met as tested in complex web designs
• Speed of accessing and displaying simple content exceptional
• Usability with basic essentials without being overly complicated
• History shown as thumbnails with superior text history listing
• Browser status bar at the bottom invisible until needed
• DOM inspector access built-in for web developer code and css

Con (very minor):

• Flash video (6.5mb) locked up on standards compliant page
• The “kill pages” popup and “went wrong” screen result on compliant page
• Favorites history drop down uniquely placed on right of screen

Overall Opinion: The Google Chrome browser BETA is excellent and provides a peek at the future of internet browsing. The initial release deserves high marks for quality, compliance, and usability, and I strongly urge users and web developers to download a copy and actively provide feedback to the Google team.

With the demise of support for the Netscape browser, Google Chrome joins Firefox, IE, Opera and Safari as the new top 5 list of browsers for web designers to utilize for testing cross browser compatibility.

Finally, check out the single sheet icon in the upper right that displays “Control the current page” on hover, and then left click to select from the drop down menu and follow “New incognito window” for further evidence the programmers at Google have a sense of humor. Google Chrome BETA can be practical and fun.

Since my January 2008 post of statistics comparing the percentage of users by browser, Internet Explorer IE7 and Safari have made significant gains. Based on visitors to this website, IE7 has surpassed IE6 and FireFox, and the number of Safari browser users went from 1.7% to nearly 8% of my site traffic.

You may view the Cross Browser Website Testing post to view stats from January, or read the Safari Browser Review here.

While my preference is still FireFox because of the FireFox web developer add-on extensions that suit my work in custom web design, IE7 or Safari are excellent choices for everyday users. Otherwise, IE7 seems to overload and slow down my system performance, and Safari has superior rendering but not much third party support for extensions.

The excitement building over the launch of Internet Explorer IE8 bears watching. Microsoft has softened their stance on browser backward compatibility with the aim of the new IE8 to more closely meet W3C worldwide code standards. For web developers, the Internet Explorer IE8 launch later this year is highly anticipated.

The latest website advice article for small business owners was published earlier today, and you may read the full review Internet Explorer IE8 Doom or Joy for details.

Last year Microsoft announced an updated browser scheduled for release by the summer of 2008 with Internet Explorer 8, IE8, and the news was met by most web developers with apprehension. After following the news releases from Microsoft and an announcement earlier this week on March 3rd, it was time for an article and preliminary review of IE8.

Backward compatibility and cross browser compatibility are important to site designers and owners. One of the resources mentioned in the review and article is a website for testing page display in current and older browsers from BrowserShots.org. Visit their site to see what your website looks like in more than 50 browsers including Mac and older revisions of major and lesser known brands.

To the joy of web developers worldwide, Microsoft reversed a previous decision from December 2007 and announced that IE8 will incorporate the most standards compliant interoperability possible. This should be good news for small business website owners, as well.

The Safari browser from Apple, Inc. is one of 5 browsers that I now use to test custom website designs for small business clients. The Safari browser received some attention in 2007 as the recommended browser for web developers to create and test website designs for the new iPhone when it was first released. I took another look at Safari after a recent inquiry to review the display of a small business owner’s website. I was impressed with the rendering of Safari.

The site mentioned for review had problems because when viewed in 2 out of 5 browsers the layout fell apart with graphics out of place and text overwriting text. The site was designed for IE which looked fine, yet any site with a disclaimer “Best viewed in (insert browser name)” usually points to an amateur designer. The goal should be “Best viewed in any browser you choose” so that no disclaimer is required.

The following graphic compares the rendering of FireFox (left) to Safari (right) using a screenshot from this blog as viewed in each.

The rendering in Safari has enhanced headlines and text that may not be apparent in the reduced size graphic here, but it was impressive and immediately noticeable. The Google search box button was rendered as an oval whereas it was the old standard grey rectangle in FireFox. The layout and default options of Safari take getting used to, yet the experience for casual users should be excellent. As a web developer, my first choice is still FireFox because of third party extensions and tools used for technical reasons.

Pro: Excellent rendering with Safari as tested on a few dozen websites from a desktop pc
Con: Minor – Power users may be disappointed with lack of add-on tools and extensions

My advice to small business owners is testing your website in all browsers as posted previously with links to download all 5 major browsers. You may want to follow this link to download or read about the Safari browser here if you want to try it immediately.

The new Internet Explorer 8 browser, IE8, is due for release in the summer of 2008, so it will be interesting to see the tradeoffs Microsoft makes in IE8 between code standards and backward compatibility which has caused grief in the past with most web developers.