There are specific tests that must be performed during the development stage including:

• HTML validation
• CSS validation
• Correct color contrast
• Font size
• Text alignment
• Uncommon font usage
• Heading hierarchy
• Customer error page creation
• Search engine friendly design
• Website navigation

HTML code validation involves confirming the code against an HTML standard to ensure consistency. Luckily this can be performed in an offline environment. Blogs and dynamic websites can also use this testing method. As a result coding errors will be removed making it easier for search engine bots to access the page. Similarly CSS code validation is also checked to ensure no errors exist. Like HTML code validation, this testing method can be completed offline.

Testing for text alignment helps correct any formatting issues when different browsers are used to display the page. Correct color contrast is an important test as it checks the contrast differences between the font and the web page background. This can actually be the difference between a visitor staying or leaving the site due to reading difficulty.

Equally important is the size of the font. If too small the user can’t read it, if too large it can irritate the eyes. An average sized font is the best solution. Furthermore uncommon fonts may not be compatible with every operating system. Fonts in Windows are different than fonts found on a Mac.

The heading hierarchy ensures that visitors know the topic of the page, improves search engine optimization and increases accessibility. Since it serves such an important function, it definitely needs to be tested. When custom error pages are not inputted, the web hosting provider adds their stock page which can confuse customers. Therefore checking this is vital to visitor retention.

In order to be optimized, ensuring search engine friendly design can greatly improve traffic to your site. Finally website navigation testing will provide feedback on the usability and search engine optimization of the website. This is also important for driving traffic to the site.

There are many tests that must be completed during the development phase of website creation. If one area needs to be tweaked it can be completed immediately. In the end, these guidelines will help make your site more user-friendly and accessible to visitors.

What is WordPress?

Although WordPress is actually a blogging platform, it is commonly used to create static web pages and complete websites. WordPress is basically a website administrative interface that lets you control every aspect of the site using tools that even the most novice users can utilize. These tools let you post text, images and any other kind of media quickly and easily without having any programming knowledge whatsoever. WordPress is updated on a regular basis you don’t have to worry about it becoming obsolete at all. WordPress can be installed by a complete novice using tools provided by your web host such as Fantastico or Simple Script.

WordPress Plugins

One of the most appealing aspects of WordPress is it’s expandability. By using a vast array of plugins, users can do just about anything they desire with ease. New plugins are being created everyday, and they can be installed in less than one minute by even the most inexperienced webmaster. Once installed the plugin resides in the left side of the WordPress interface in the navigational bar, where you can easily adjust the plugin settings and control every aspect of your site’s functionality. Using plugins like the All-in-One SEO pack, you can even automatically optimize your site’s pages for the search engines.

Creating Static Web Pages with WordPress

Since WordPress was originally a blogging platform, creating a regular website can present some challenges to the novice user. The main problem is that the latest post will always be displayed at the top of the main page, which makes it hard to design a website as you would like it. Every time you add a new post, the order of your content will be disrupted since the latest post will be displayed at the top of the front page. This obviously is not desired if you want to have your content arranged a certain way. So how do you fix it? Well the answer is actually quite simple – use a plugin! There is a plugin called StickyOrderer that will let you organize your posts in the fashion want them, and you can do this on every page of your site! Using this plugin alone you can create well organized websites, instead of scattered blogs.

Keyword Density and Design Incorporation

The term keyword density describes the amount of times a keyword is used on a website’s content. Each niche has many keywords or phrases that are popularly searched for in search engines. Your job is to find the best keywords, and then sprinkle these keywords throughout your site to receive more results from search engines.  It is also important that you incorporate these keywords into your domain’s design by using anchor text, title tags, meta tags and other techniques. Try not to overuse the keywords however, as too high of a keyword density will reflect badly on your search engine ranking.

Using Basic HTML Scripting For Quick and Easy Indexing

Search engines use programs known as crawlers to read through a website’s content and then index it in their search engine.  The crawlers categorize and index your web pages based on the layout of the site. However, these web crawlers do not do a good job of indexing graphical content that is made in the  JavaScript or Flash format.  This is why it is best to include plenty of simple HTML text on your website to make it easier for the crawler to index the content of your website.

Visitor Satisfaction

One of the most common mistakes made in search engine optimization is that webmasters tend to try to impress search engines more than they are trying to impress their visitors. Did you know that search engines also refer to a factor called “sticky content” when ranking your website. The search engines track how long each visitor remains at your website. The longer your visitors remain, the more useful your website is, and ultimately the higher ranking you will receive. Therefore it is important that you have some interesting content or “sticky” content to keep your visitors “stuck” on your web site.

Quality Content is King

Enhancing your website’s search engine ranking will come easily and automatically if you focus primarily on providing quality content. I am sure you have heard the saying “content is king.” However not all content could be compared with a “King,” in fact some content is more comparable to a “Joker!”   All search engines have one purpose, and that is to make sure they are sending visitors to useful websites. If your website is full of “Joker” content, then your users will leave your site quickly, thereby giving you a lower search engine ranking based on the “sticky” content factor described above. If you cannot produce quality content, there are plenty of writers online that will get the job done for a relatively low price. Just remember that you will always get what you pay for.

Build Quality Backlinks

One of the best ways to get a higher page ranking in search engines is by gaining backlinks. Backlinks are links on other websites that lead to your website. The more sites you have linking to your domain, the more useful your domain appears to be. Search engines crawl each website and index the links that are present. When they see your websites URL, that is considered one backlink. Having thousands of backlinks across the web is a guaranteed way to increase your websites page rank. A good way to get more backlinks is through link exchanging. Basically, you agree to place another websites URL on your domain somewhere as long as they will do the same for you. Since this is beneficial for both parties, it is generally easy to accomplish. Try contacting the owner of the domain through the “contact us” version of their site and tell them you would like to do a link exchange with them.

What is Joomla?

Joomla is an award-winning CMS that gives you the ability to create and run powerful websites.

The software has many qualities but some of its major draws are ease of use and an extensibility that allows you to greatly enhance the functionality of your site.  This platform is ideal for creating all types of sites, be it a personal homepage, corporate intranet or extranet, online newspaper or community portal.  Joomla is relied on by manywell known entities including CitiBank, MTV Networks and the IHOP restaurant chain.

How Easy is It?

The Joomla CMS was designed with simplicity in mind, making it easy to install and maintain even if you have no idea of what content management is all about.  In fact, most web hosting providers enable you to incorporate the software in a few easy clicks through application installers such as Fantastico.  A back-end interface makes Joomla simple to use for experienced web designers and developers as well as those who have never managed a website in their life.  The software doesn’t call for you to have any programming knowledge though you can take customization to the next level by having a familiarity of technologies such as HTML, PHP and CSS.

How Advanced Does it Get?

Joomla may be incredibly easy to use but that does not take away from its sophistication.  This software package extends benefits to those with needs beyond the norm, acting as a dynamic framework that allows developers to create advanced modules and dramatically enhance its capabilities.  These enhancements are all made possible because of its nature as an open-source CMS.  Thus, not only can you incorporate third-party extensions, but also grab a hold of the source code and create your own.  For the experienced user, the functionality of Joomla is virtually unlimited.

What About Support?

Just like most open-source software applications, the biggest downside to Joomla is the lack of technical support.  On the bright side, this CMS is so popular that support for it can be found all over the web.  There are official Joomla forums as well as resources provided by unofficial sites simply looking to lend a hand to the community.  The Joomla community is well over 200,000 strong and counting, almost ensuring that you can find someone to aid in your content management needs.

Joomla

Joomla is the most highly sought after content management system in both the open-source and commercial market.  This application has a reputation for being extremely easy to use as you can get by with absolutely no programming experience.  The major draw to Joomla is that the system is very powerful and highly extendable.  With the backing of a large community of developers, it can be greatly enhanced through a number of add-on modules such as themes, SEO tools and various other plugins.  As an awarding program, the Joomla CMS is relied on for everything from simple websites to corporate business applications.

Drupal

Regarded as a viable alternative to Joomla, Drupal is a robust CMS best suited for medium to larger sized websites.  Thought not as intuitive, Drupal is more of a complete system and has many capabilities the Joomla CMS lacks.  The software is in constant development as new versions are released quite frequently.  Despite the fact that it is a bit more complex, enhancing the look and feel of a Drupal site is made easy through a plethora of available templates and plugins.

Mambo

At one time, Mambo was the most widely used CMS platform on the open-source market.  However, internal conflict among the community resulted in many of the developers leaving the project.  In fact, most of the original developers left, taking the code and utilizing it to create the Joomla CMS.  Though not as popular as in past times, Mambo is a mature CMS and proven to be very stable and secure.  And all though Joomla is better supported, there are still a number of themes and plugins available to extend the system.  If you want a CMS that has been tried and tested, Mambo could be the solution.

Know the Community

When trying to choose between open-source content management systems, the main factor you want to keep in mind is the community, as this will be your primary source of support.  Unlike proprietary solutions like the Microsoft Content Server, there is no paid support staff you can dial or email.  Support for these platforms is scattered about the web in community-run forums and blogs.  You should keep in mind that while finding these resources is relatively easy, getting the level of support you need is not guaranteed.  In a worst case scenario, you could find yourself waiting days for quality assistance.