Aug
05

Top 10 Firefox Extensions for Webmasters

We all know by now that Firefox is a great tool, what most people don’t know is that Firefox works with the so called Extensions (small pieces of software that add features or small tweaks to you Firefox). Using Extensions is a blessing and they make your life on the internet a whole lot easier.

Here is a great collection of Firefox Extensions for webmasters:

1. Web Developer 1.1.4

This Extension adds a toolbar with some great features for easily editing the CSS, work on the accessibility of your site and other cool features. Get it here!

2. Firefox Accessibility Extension 1.01

Firefox Accessibility Extension makes it easier for people with a disability to view and navigate webpages, but it also helps developers to check the accessibility of their pages. Get it here!

3. SeoQuake 2.0.4

SeoQuake is huge, i use it every single day and it saves me a lot of time. This Extension basically adds a toolbar in the corner of the websites and with the push of a button it expands giving you almost instant information about the way search engines view and index that website, along with statistics from Alexa and other great features for the webmaster that works with Search Engine Optimisation. Also every time you search for something in Google, Yahoo or Msn you’ll get the same statistics under every result. Get it here!

4.Total Validator 4.1

Provides true HTML validation (HTML 2.0 to XHTML 1.1) using the official DTDs, plus added attribute checking. So you no longer have to put up with the limitations of the W3C validator (no type checking) and tools like HTML Tidy which interpret the standards incorrectly (they don’t use the official DTDs).

Also performs accessibility validation (WCAG, US-508), broken link checking, spell checking (5 languages), and takes screenshots using 24 browsers on Windows, Linux, and OS/X. Get it here!

5. KGen 0.2.1

KGen retrieves every words of a page and lets you know how many time they appears on her and their weight in the page (a word in the title of a page has a stronger weight than a word in a paragraph).

So, you can easily know how to optimize your pages, know what’s the secret of your competitors or simply know what’s the main subject of a webpage.

You can also select some words and transfer them to your clipboard and paste them on tag fields on your favorite social network or fill meta-keywords of your web pages.

To open the KGen sidebar : View>Sidebar>KGen. Get it here!

6. IE Tab 1.3.3.20070528

We all know how frustrating and time consuming is to edit your page especially the CSS file to make your site display correctly in IE as well as in Firefox, this Extension gives you an embedded IE in a new tab!

This is a great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your web page displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox. Get it here!

7. Yet Another Window Resizer 1.1

This Extension helps you view your web page in several resolutions. Get it here!

8. MeasureIt 0.3.6

Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage. Get it here!

9. Clear Cache Button 0.5

Adds a clear cache toolbar button. After installing the extension, find the clear cache button in the toolbar customization panel. YES, this is an extension for the very lazy webmaster! Get it here!

10. Font Finder 0.5a

Simply highlight a single element (e.g. a paragraph or a strong tag ), right-click and select `Font Finder`, then marvel as the full CSS text styling of the selected element appears. Get it here!

May
08

Yahoo! Slurp – nocontent tag

Yahoo! Slurp – nocontent tag

Web pages often include headers, footers, navigational sections,
repeated boilerplate text, copyright notices, ad sections, or dynamic
content that is useful to users — but not to search engines. Webmasters
can apply the “robots-nocontent” attribute to indicate to search
engines any content that is extraneous to the main unique content of
the page. Yahoo! Search observes the class=”robots-nocontent” present
on XHTML elements, such as div, span, and all others.

When a “robots-nocontent” tag is used to mark a section of content
on a web page, Yahoo! will not use the terms contained in that section
as information for finding the page or for the abstract of that page in
search results. Note: Using a “robots-nocontent” tag to mark explicit
sections of content is not considered “cloaking” because all the
content on the page is available to us (unlike “cloaking” where we may
be served content that is different from what users see.)

The “robots-nocontent” tag is a useful tool for webmasters.

  • It can improve our focus on the main content of your pages.

  • It helps target your pages in search results by making sure
    the appropriate deep page in your site can surface for the right
    queries.
  • It helps improve the abstracts for your pages in results by
    identifying unrelated text on the page and thus omitting it from
    consideration for the search result summaries.

When you successfully target your page content, it can increase the
likelihood that the user will find your page, find it relevant, click
on your result, and convert.

Applying the “class=robots-nocontent” Attribute:

Listed below are several examples of how to apply this attribute for various uses and different syntax options:


    <div class="robots-nocontent">
    This is the
    navigational menu of the site and is common on all pages. It contains
    many terms and keywords not related to this site</div>

    <span class="robots-nocontent">This is the site header that is present on all pages of the site and is not related to any particular page</span>


    <p class="robots-nocontent">
    This is a boilerplate legal disclaimer required on each page of the site</p>


    <div class="robots-nocontent">
    This is a section where ads are displayed on the page. Words that show up in ads may be entirely unrelated to the page contents</div>

You can use the “class=robots-nocontent” attribute with all XHTML tags
and thus have great flexibility on applying this to your site pages.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

Apr
29

How to build a better website

How to build a better website

1.  First of all you must know your target audience

Before you start the design process you must think what is your site’s target audience and it’s browsing habits. It’s very important for the success of your website to follow in the design the taste of your audience, they are the one that dictate the design, not you!

2. The theme of your site

Your visitors must know what your site is about after a few second look at it or after reading the first paragraph of the main page (the index). If you are selling a product it must be crystal clear what kind of product that is, or if you have multiple products you must dedicate a page for each product instead of one page for all products.

3. The speed of browsing

We are in the speed age, everyone is in a hurry so waiting for a website to load is not what visitors want. Make sure your visitors actually see your site in 10-15 seconds if you expect them to spend their precious time on your website.

4. K.I.S.S.

This is what we like to call Keep It Simple Stupid. Your site’s navigation must be intuitive, allowing your viewers to find what they are looking for very easy and without having to cross their eyes. If the point of interest is hard to find on your website, the competition is 3 clicks away. Keep that in mind and Keep It Simple.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It’s been a while since you could get a good ranking without making any optimization for the search engines, according to a study by JUPITER MEDIA MATRIX about 55% of all web purchases start with a search engine, and 93% of those don’t go deeper than page 2, so you’ll need to target your keywords and make sure your ranking for those keyword searches are high enough to actually be found.

6. Accessibility

Making your site accessible you can reach all the market and all types of visitors, making your business prosper. You can find all the info you need about website accessibility on the W3C page!

7. Compatibility

Internet Explorer still holds a big share of the browsers market, but even so your website must look the same on any browser. The new mobile devices became more and more internet compatible and more and more used for browsing and it’s a good market to keep in mind and to keep close. Again, all the info you need can be found in W3C’s Standards validity check page.

8. Content

Content is King, everybody says so i know! If you want a high search engine ranking you must feed the SE spiders with unique content, you can design you site to look good with graphics but spiders are not people, they love text! Each page should have 2-3 keywords and enough content to keep the SE spiders happy!

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

top