Tag: Website

Software Development Programs

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Computer software, also known as a software program, is a set of instructions and associated documentation that tells a computer what to do or how to perform a task. Everything a computer does is done by using a computer program, from its basic operating system to any one of a myriad number of applications designed to accomplish a specific undertaking.

For example, this article was created using a word processing software program called Microsoft Word that was loaded onto a personal computer running the operating software program, Microsoft Vista. It was originally stored on a program called Trello, which is a collaboration program that organizes projects, and then it was uploaded to WordPress, which is an online, website creation tool. The finished article can then be accessed by a reader using a web browsing program such as Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari that is used to view web pages on the internet.

Software development is the process of writing and maintaining the source code that underlies all operating systems and applications. It includes all that is involved between the conception of the desired software through to the final manifestation of the program and may include research, new development, prototyping, modification, reuse, re-engineering, maintenance, or any other activities that result in software products.

A software development program is a tool that software developers use to create, debug, maintain, or otherwise support other programs and applications. They include scripting languages such as .NET, C/C++, Java, COBOL, Ajax, HTML, Ruby, PHP, Basic, CSS, SQL, Python, GitHub, jQuery, and many, many more. A software development kit (SDK or “devkit”) is typically a set of software development tools that allows the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar development platform.

Many schools, colleges, and online universities offer programs and courses in software and application development. Software developers are in high demand; they’re employed in a range of industries, including computer systems design, electronic product manufacturing, and finance. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 19-percent employment growth for software developers between 2014 and 2024, which is much faster than average for all occupations. In that period, an estimated 135,300 jobs will open up, with a median salary of $98,000 per year.

The Power of Online Marketing

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Online, or digital marketing, is an umbrella term for the marketing of products or services using digital technologies. It includes any effort to spread the word about a company that uses the internet as an advertising medium.

Over the last two decades, online marketing has become an absolute necessity for every business that wants to reach its target consumers. No longer can a company put an ad in the Sunday newspaper and assume that everyone will read it and then go out and buy its product. In fact, these days, if your business does not have an online presence, it might as well be invisible.

Indeed, online marketing has become so pervasive that is has resulted in a paradigm shift in the customer/advertiser relationship – people are now in control of their marketing experience and businesses must use various internet platforms in order to adapt to the changing expectations of consumers who are wanting ever-more sophisticated offerings throughout the purchasing journey.

But even though the balance of power has shifted in favor of the consumer, businesses should not be unmindful of the many advantages that online marketing offers. For example, the use of digital marketing allows brands to market their products and services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year. It also allows them to offer customer support all the time, and not just during “normal” business hours. In addition, the use of social media platforms allows brands to receive both positive and negative feedback from their customers, which helps them decide quickly which products are popular and which may need to be put out to pasture.

Another advantage is that digital marketing is easy to be measured, allowing businesses to know the reach that their marketing is making, whether it is working or not, and the amount of activity and conversation that is involved. The results of traditional broadcast marketing simply cannot be measured nearly as accurately.

In addition, there are many powerful arrows in the online marketing quiver – any of which may prove to be the one that hits a potential consumer where he or she lives. They include:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – a methodology of strategies, techniques, and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – a paid version of SEO where marketers pay for display ads in order to drive traffic to a company’s web pages
• Content Marketing – the creation of valuable media and content made available to potential customers who are searching for information about a particular product or service. It may include articles, blogs, videos, etc.
• Social Media Marketing – using one or several social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., to engage with customers and build relationships
• Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) – paid ads on search engines and social media sites
• Affiliate Marketing – a type of referral marketing where companies promote each other’s products
• E-mail Marketing – contacting customers who have given permission to reach them via their email accounts

Most businesses, these days, engage in omni-channel marketing, which employs a mixture of these strategies in a synergistic way, in order to maximize their effectiveness. And it’s a wise advertiser who learns to harness and master the power of online marketing.

Google vs. Bing

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Search engines have replaced encyclopedias, dictionaries, reference books and trips to the library, having become, over the last two decades, everyone’s resource for finding answers and information. By far, the most used search engine in the world is Google. It’s been around since 1997 and is constantly improving with new features and algorithms. In fact, Google’s search engine is so dominant, with approximately 65 percent of the country’s search market share, that the word, itself, has become a verb: to Google something is to search for it online; much like the brand name Xerox once became the active word for photocopying something.

Never to be outdone, computer behemoth Microsoft has had several search engines over the years, including Windows Live Search and MSN Search. Today, it has Bing, which in addition to powering its own searches also powers Yahoo search. Thus, Bing serves the other third of U.S. internet searchers.

Why is Google twice as popular as Bing? It may simply be a matter of habit, since it’s been around longer, because, in reality, both search engines are very similar. They both search the Web and deliver images, news, and product information in easy-to-read formats. But since both sites also serve as hubs for the other web properties that their respective parent companies own, both Microsoft and Google stand to gain monetarily by keeping web surfers using their engines. So there has been a brisk competition between them, and when comparing the two search engines (although Bing refers to itself as a “decision engine”) some differences do appear.

The first noticeable difference is the two search engine’s home pages. Google’s is pretty much a blank canvas, while Bing’s sports a colorful home page, with downloadable images that change daily. Along the top of Bing’s home page are links to more images, videos, maps, news, etc. and along the bottom are dozens more links that can immediately take a user to current news stories and other interesting sites. According to Microsoft, all of this was designed to simplify search tasks and make it easier for users either find what they’re looking for, or to encourage serendipitous searches. And when clicking on one of the images at the bottom of the screen, Bing takes its users to pages filled with a lot more information, a lot more images, and a lot more videos than Google.

In addition, the general consensus is that Bing’s video search is significantly better than Google’s. Bing gives the searcher a grid of large thumbnails that can be clicked on to play without leaving Bing, itself. For some videos, it even gives a preview when a mouse hovers over it.

Conversely, most PC experts believe that for informational searches Google comes out slightly ahead. As time goes on, though, it remains to be seen whether Bing’s more elaborate bells and whistles will allow it to whittle away significantly at Google’s market share. It’s the cyber battle of Coke versus Pepsi and as of now, Google is still the one that most users reach for.

Steps to a Google-friendly Site

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There is no point in having a website unless people visit it. And people won’t visit it often enough, if it first doesn’t please Google, who, like it or not, is the most important arbiter of how your website will be ranked. So, while you are indulging in your creative fancies, trying to make you site the most beautiful and technologically sophisticated in the land, you also need to pay attention to grabbing the attention of Google – your new, best friend.

Number one on the list of creating a Google-friendly website is realizing that content is still king – not clever meta tags or sneakily inserted and endlessly repeated keywords. You have to provide unique content that is worth reading, viewing, or listening to, and that is updated regularly. And make sure that your content is original. Google is particularly annoyed when you lift content from another site and try to fool it into thinking that it is truly your own.

The good news is that if you provide unique and useful content, other sites will link to yours. Google likes that and attaches a lot of importance to inbound links. Again, don’t try to fool the Google algorithm; inbound links that are the result of schemes or link farms are a no-no. Google’s algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural ones.

Also, don’t try to out-maneuver Google by creating multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with duplicate content, or stuff pages with key words that don’t actually relate to the content therein. If your site contains pages, links, or text that you don’t intend visitors to see, Google considers those links and pages deceptive and may ignore your site, altogether.

Now, for the more technically minded, here are some other hints to making your site more Google-friendly:

• Ensure that your URL is optimized for organic search because its structure is important to its crawlability. Eschew unnecessary parameters and irrelevant characters.

• Test your page speed using Google’s own tool.

• Make sure that you’re not linking to non-essential pages in order to maximize your PageRank filtration

• If you’re using JavaScript, ensure that you’re coding it correctly so that it can be accessed by search engine spiders.

• Don’t use images to display important names, content, or links. Google’s crawler doesn’t recognize text contained in graphics.

• Use ALT attributes if the main content and keywords on your page can’t be formatted in regular HTML.

• Remember to create a Google Webmaster Tools account for your website so that Google can communicate with you directly.

A final word about the basics: Create your website for people, not search engines. The more usable your website is to humans, the more appealing it will be to search engines, anyway.

How Much Should I Spend on My Business’ Online Presence?

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The easy answer to this question is: “As much as necessary and as little as possible.” But, of course that’s the easy answer and in business, there are no easy answers. Some experts suggest that you allocate 15 to 20 percent of your company’s annual income for the best results, but that answer is also a little too facile.

You know that you’re going to spend something for your business’ online presence and you know that it’s probably going to more affordable than print ads, radio or TV commercials, or sending out actual mail. But what you really need to do before you spend a dime, is decide what you want to achieve, where you will find most of your customers, and what aspects of online advertising and communication will give you the biggest bang for the buck by generating leads and sales and directing people towards your company.

Generally, you will have several main choices for your online spending: a website, which requires building it, hosting it and maintaining it; search marketing, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), digital ads such as Google AdWords, pay per click (PPC) campaigns, etc.; a social media presence, such as Facebook, Twitter, and all the other various platforms; review site advertising such as Yelp and Foursquare; and email communication.

The most important of these is probably your website. There you have some choices. You can build it yourself using any number of off-the-shelf templates, such as WordPress, or you can pay to have one constructed for you. Your other basic costs will include a web domain, web hosting, a web developer (if your platform needs specific functionalities that are not available as plugins or extensions), and perhaps a social media manager (if you don’t have the time or the knowledge of how to manage the different channels). And remember: as the world becomes increasingly mobile-centered, it’s best to have a website that will display properly on smart phones and tablets.

Paying for SEO is another essential cost for many businesses. There are several models in play. You can pay a monthly retainer, which is a set fee each month in exchange for an agreed-upon array of services; or you can contract for services at fixed prices. Two other options are project-based pricing and hourly consulting.

Of course, you need to be on Facebook. It costs nothing, unless you wish to pay for boosting your content. The main expense is in labor. Facebook pages need to be updated constantly. In many companies, it’s a full-time job.

Sites like Yelp and Foursquare that offer customer reviews are also helpful tools for directing customers to your business through their advertising options. Most (non-PPC) advertising is priced on a CPM basis – essentially the cost per thousand impressions. You will have to do a lot of number-crunching to determine if this option will net you a decent return on your investment.

Finally, email marketing can be the centerpiece of any effort to stay in touch with existing customers, while reaching out and finding new ones. You can use it to promote new items and offer special discounts to loyal customers or to simply keep your customers informed. Blast email programs are relatively inexpensive, but you will need to pay a staff member to keep on top of everything.

Now, once you’ve done a lot of thinking, planning, and budgeting, you can re-ask yourself the question at the top of this post: “How Much Should I Spend on My Business’ Online Presence?” With all of your newly acquired knowledge, however, you will still likely wind up with the same answer: “As much as necessary and as little as possible.” Like we said, in business, there are no easy answers.

The New SEO Rules of Google

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SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of making a website rank as high as possible on a search engine, such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing. SEO is considered to be one of the most important elements of any digital marketing strategy because most contemporary consumers use a search engine in order to find goods and services over the web, and the higher a website ranks, i.e., the closer it is to the top of the first page that a person sees, the greater its chances are of attracting traffic.

And Google, in particular, has been the 800 pound gorilla in the room that has set the rules that companies must follow, in order for their websites to rank as high as they can.

But over the years, Google’s rules keep changing, so business owners need to keep abreast of the constantly shifting SEO landscape in order to know how to drive as much traffic as possible from search engines. This year, new rules give businesses an opportunity to fine-tune and re-evaluate their SEO efforts, or risk losing organic traffic, or even having their websites removed from search engine results, altogether, for not abiding by Google’s new guidelines.

Google’s biggest adjustment this year is its announcement that it will rank a site differently if it isn’t “mobile-friendly.” The rate of use of mobile devices has grown tremendously over the past few years. More and more people are now browsing websites on mobile devices, which means they need to have an experience that can be loaded clearly on them. This means that a business must either create a whole new mobile site with a separate domain for mobile users; or utilize “dynamic serving,” which is a technique that detects what device a site visitor is using and then redirects them at the server level; or employ “responsive design,” which determines the resolution of the screen on which a page is being viewed using media queries, then adjusts the size and layout of the page appropriately.

Long-form content will continue to matter strongly in 2015. The length of a post really does help when it comes to how well a website ranks. Most important, however, is that content be helpful, educational and/or entertaining, and provide verifiable value to users.

This year, content will need to be shared as much as possible on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, in order to increase the odds of getting natural links due to more exposure. A balanced, back-link profile will still be essential, as well; relevant, fresh, and authoritative links always help move a business up in search engine rankings. Also, according to Google, site speed will play a larger role, this year, in mobile and desktop rankings.

It’s not always easy to keep up with the changes in SEO best practices, but if a business wants to strengthen its brand in 2015, it would be wise to understand and adhere to Google’s newest rules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zati-En69TY

The Importance of Online Marketing in Today’s World

In order for a business to survive, it must have customers. In order to have customers it must sell a product or service that people want or need. Then it must find ways to reach out to those potential customers in order to convince them that their wants and needs can be satisfied by that particular business. In a competitive marketplace, where every business is reaching out to a finite universe of consumers, getting enough customers “in the door” not only requires excellence in the product or service being offered, but most certainly in the ways in which the business promotes itself and markets it product or service to the public.

In the advertising world, there are two broad categories of marketing, sometimes known as the shotgun approach and the rifle approach. The shotgun approach just puts the word out there to be seen or not be seen by a broad swath of potential buyers. Examples are billboards, newspapers, radio and TV. In contrast, the rifle approach concentrates a business’ marketing efforts on a more narrowly defined audience. Direct mail marketing and ads in niche publications are two examples.

In today’s advertising environment, online marketing – marketing that uses websites, emails, and social media platforms to communicate – manages to marry the best of both strategies. With a robust and compelling website, a business can literally advertise itself to the entire planet at minimal cost. Anyone searching for a product or service can see anyone else’s electronic billboard at any time of the day or night through the medium of the World Wide Web.

But online marketing also lends itself to a laser-like personalization of customer relationships. Businesses can track its website use in order to cultivate those who have visited it, and then use sophisticated email campaigns, as well as all the various social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, etc. – to reach out to specific individuals who are most likely to become, and stay, customers.

In today’s world, having an online presence and utilizing the internet to its fullest capacity, is crucial if a business is going to be able to reach people where they are and how they now shop. Businesses cannot survive without customers, and for the foreseeable future, those customers will be knocking on their doors via a home computer, a laptop, a tablet, and/or a mobile phone.

Don’t Drop the Ball on Your New Year’s Resolution for Your Website!

nyetceblogThe New Year is upon us. It’s a time for fresh starts and to make new decisions. Chances are you have made some resolutions along these lines. If you are a business owner, one of those resolutions may be to finally get your company that website it needs, or to finally get your existing website into optimal shape. Businesses without an adequate and professional online presence are increasingly being pushed out of the market in today’s business client, and the path to business success these days often leads straight through the Web.

If you have ever considered getting a website for your business, you know that it is a complicated prospect. There are lots of choices when it comes to domains and hosting, and myriad choices for the platform on which to run the site. On top of that, designing and building a website is a complicated process that is time-consuming. Some companies offer “free” websites and “all-in-one” services, but when you read the fine print, you find that the monthly fees are much higher with these companies and “free” becomes anything but. What’s worse, you don’t own the finished site. If you ever want to switch hosting, you cannot bring the website with you, and are forced to start from square one.

Having The Click Experts design and build a professional website for your business is the solution. Savvy business owners know that letting professionals do their jobs is the best way to succeed. Don’t waste your own valuable time muddling through the design process. We take the time to get to know your business and its needs, then take the guesswork out of the design process by recommending the right CMS and E-commerce platform for your business. We design and build the site for you the way you want, and you own the finished product. Let us make the process of designing and building a website for your business simple and easy for you, and avoid the long term nickel-and-dime tactics of so-called “free” website builders.

If you already have a website for your business but are looking to upgrade, redesign, or add custom or advanced functionality, we can help! We offer custom coding and software solutions for any situation. Don’t settle for a website that is less than exactly what you want. Let The Click Experts design a solution for your business and give your site the custom functionality that will optimize performance and set you apart Don’t wait for the website of your dreams any longer. Set your business apart from the crowd. We offer solutions to fit a wide array of budgets and applications. Contact The Click Experts today and let us provide you with a free quote.

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