St. Petersburg Web Design Blog

The short answer – Nothing, yet.

HTML 5 features just don't live up to the hype...

In the short term there is no reason at all for most small to medium web design clients to use the newest  features of the latest version of HTML.  I know this is going to probably rile up some web designers out there so let’s explore the issue a little further.  For some it can be very useful, we’ll get into the those few instances further down.

What is HTML?

HTML stands for “Hypertext Markup Language”  it’s the code that tells a web browser how and where to display what on a web page.  Other programming languages can do this too, but it most cases they are taking variables and logic and outputting HTML to the web browser.  HTML is usually combined with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for control the formatting of the HTML elements on a page.  Before CSS was invented HTML was used for the formatting, it still can format the  elements on a page and in some cases, still is.  To keep this conversation simple enough for clients to understand we will speak as little as possible about CSS and the formatting of HTML elements in this article.

Continue reading “HTML 5 – What does it do for the Client?” »

When the white House Callled, I answered, Even if it was on April 1st!

I got the call this morning…

I’ve been saying for a long time “they should just put me in charge…”  Last year when I met the President he was quite impressed with my credentials and ideas.  This morning I finally got the call.

Moving Fast

I’ll be leaving for Washing  D.C. tomorrow morning.  things are like a madhouse hear.  I’ve been trying to call everyone personally to say my goodbyes, but there;’s so many calls to make and I still have to pack all my things and my computers.

They’ve also already put me to work.  My first assignment is to decide what my first work should be so to speak.  I have a stack of reports about a mile high I’m supposed to read.  Most of them are written by very important people about very important things.  I’m not going to talk about any of the subjects right now though as I haven’t got a great handle on what I can discuss and what I can’t.  There’ll be a press conference tomorrow afternoon ( I still have to get a new suit ), so I better figure out something that I can speak about by then!

We also have a new quest in the house, at least until I get settled in Washington.  A Secret Service agent.  He’s here to guard this huge stack of papers, not me.   I’m not that valuable yet I suppose.  I feel for him, that’s got to be a boring job.

Well, I’m going to stop writing and  get moving because I’ve so much to do.  If I haven’t called you to say goodbye, it’s not because I don’t love you, it’s because I just ran out of time!

Here’s a video of Matt Cutt’s, who is Google developer’s spokeman. He addresses a question I’ve heard many times before. He’s not being totally honest though. In his normal fashion he’s giving an answer to a question in a way that addresses the question, but gives advice that most beneficial to Google, not the web site owner. Here’s the video, after the jump we’ll have the info he didn’t give and shine a little light on som things to better help web site owners instead of Google.

What’s missing from his answer? As usual with Matt, it’s a straightforward answer: Continue reading “Great Content or Lots of Links?” »

Try out Google Page Rank Checker by clicking the icon above

Well this is an easy question. Not only can I answer it easily and quickly but I can point you to a few tools that can help you measure the page rank of any web site you view in your browser.

Google’s Page Rank is a number form 0-9 that Google places on every page in it’s index (or database if you prefer). The higher the number the more important Google thinks your web site is. In addition to 1 – 9, there is the additional ranking of n/a that means the page is not in Google’s index, either because it has come across it yet, Google thinks it’s not important enough to include or it has been banned.  Here’s how Google explains it:

Continue reading “What is Google’s PageRank and Why is it Important?” »

E-Commerce web design for your small business!

Cyber Monday sales up 33% in the last 2 years

Cyber Monday is the busiest e-commerce shopping day of the year, or the day after “Black Friday” or the Monday after Thanksgiving.  More and more people are choosing to not stand in line at the mall and make their purchases online instead.  This is great news for small businesses!  The internet can be a great way to compete against larger chains with more resources.

Last year sales on Cyber Monday were up 12% over the previous year, combined with this years 20% increase, that’s 33% (rounded) more than two years ago.  What will it be next year?

Does your small business sell things online?  Why not?  If not you are missing out on the customers the growing number of customers who are sitting at their computer ready to buy.  They are there with credit card in hand and they will find what they are looking for.  Don’t you want your products to be presented to them as an option?

We can do things for small retailers to help them compete:

Get your products online

The very first step in successful e-commerce.  Not only can we present your products in an attractive internet showcase (website) where they can research them and purchase them, we can also do it in a secure manner that’s makes it easy for the business owner to track sales, add new products, and manage the products you have.

Get you ranked with the Search Engines

90% of visits to all web sites go through a search engine.  At least a basic search engine presence is required as part of any web site’s plan.  A strong search engine presence is the difference that will help you make more profit.  We have a proven track record of successfully placing small businesses on the first page of Google for scientifically selected profitable key phrases.  We certainly can do the same for you.

Free WordPress Theme screen shot image - Tropical Flowers and Sand.

Continuing on the laid back Florida type thinking we have another great free theme to give away!  This one comes in 4 variations.  A one column version and a two column version with both being available for WordPress or as a plain HTML version.

If you have an interest in a Joomla, DotNetNuke or Drupal version of the theme and if even one person asks for it (just enter a comment below), we’ll port this theme to the the CMS they ask for. In the last two years we’ve just seen the demand for Drupal, Joomla and especially DotNetNuke  (which there never was much for to begin with) services drop to nothing.  At the same time we’re seeing demand for our favorite, WordPress and even custom web application, services climb.

About this theme.  Like we said there are four versions total, a one and a two column theme for WordPress and plain HTML.  Refer back to this page for support if it’s needed.  But as with our other free themes, they are pretty straight forward and thoroughly tested.

Read the rest of this post  for download link,  copyright info, and support.

Continue reading “Free WordPress Theme – Tropical Flowers and Sand” »