JQuery is a type of scripting library used by web developers for what we call "client side" operations, such as logging into a website with a username and password. JQuery is used to build those types of functions, as well as online forms and contact points within a website.

AJAX, which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a combination of technologies that assist with the transfer of data on a website, such as the communication that happens between a website and a server when a user performs a search function within your website.

What do I need to know about jQuery and AJAX?

• The bottom line is that they are often used together. JQuery allows the use of a robust set of methods for the AJAX coding environment, and helps reduce development and debugging time when testing a website's functionality.
• AJAX is a technique for creating better and more interactive web applications. Let's say they "keep each other in check."
• When a lot of AJAX functions are being used in a website, that site is actually making multiple connections to the server, which means a slower loading or connection time for the website.

What is minification?

Minification is the removal of unnecessary characters from code to reduce its size, such as space, new line, and tab. By compressing the CSS code to the relevant elements, the code files are smaller and load times for the developed website are improved. A savvy web developer will keep a code-minifying tool ready to use at all times.

What does this mean for my website?
• Faster load times - When your website isn't bogged down by excessive coding, it loads faster when users type in your website's domain name, and the user's interactions with your website are seamless. Any area the user visits is accessible very quickly, and there is no perceived "lag time" with the website's operation. 

• Lower Bandwith - A website that operates quickly also helps to save the bandwidth needed from a server. 

Simply put, when minify tools for CSS or JavaScript are used for a website, the result is happy website users. 

And we all want happy website users, right?

This “here right now, gone in 5 minutes” approach to making an impression on the marketplace is fine, but you must have a plan beyond the 5-minute splash.

Start by asking these questions:

After I’ve reached a lot of people, how do I keep their attention? – Before any type of viral experience occurs, it’s important to be proactive and plan your response to what will happen afterward. Will you direct people to subscribe to your electronic newsletter? Will you ask them to opt-in and take a brief survey? Will you ask them to buy your product/service?

How do I position my product or service to be relevant to this audience? – Your website or marketing materials need to clearly communicate their value to your audience. When the crowd reaches your company’s doorstep, be ready to open the door to show them what you can offer and how you operate.

How will I incorporate feedback from the audience? – If potential customers take the time to seek out your brand, product, or service, and then share it with others, please expect to receive their feedback. Plan on building a forum for posting comments or an electronic collection method (fill-in form, customer service email, etc.) that acknowledges their feedback. Make sure you respond to everyone who reaches out to your company.

If you are searching for viral ad ideas, I found some of the top ads here: http://www.visiblemeasures.com/adage. These are pretty entertaining.

Flash has been in use longer, and is the most widely accepted way to incorporate graphic design elements and enhanced audio features on a website. Adobe Flash is the element that provides interactivity and “movement” on a website.

More than 99% of all websites support the use of Flash. What happens when you visit a website that uses Flash? You’ll see action in the form of moving or flashing graphics, changing images, or embedded audio players that can be controlled by the user. When these elements are accessed on a device that doesn’t support Flash, the link to the website may present an error message to the user, or the graphics and images just aren’t visible.

While HTML5 is an updated combination of a handful of technologies (HTML, CSS, Javascript, and sever-based technologies) one really isn’t better than the other. Flash and HTML5 actually complement each other, working hand-in-hand to improve the overall look and feel of a website while making sure the site is accessible on different types of devices.

Here’s what I tell clients when they say:

• “I want embedded video on my website.” – Flash is the most widely accepted format for playing video, and the Flash player is most likely already on the end user’s desktop computer, laptop, mobile device, or smart phone. The files will look the same when played on a PC or a Mac, and that’s extremely important. Converting the video to HTML5 might be a challenge because it isn’t as widely used or as well-known as Flash, so there is a question out there about how many browsers are really able to support HTML5-based video. Support for Flash video is a no-brainer. The advantage of using HTML5 for video is that users of Apple products (iPhone, iPad, iPod, iPod Touch) will be able to view your video.

• “I want animated elements like a slide show or a photo gallery on my website.” – Flash animation files are smaller, and they have better sound and quality, which means a lot when you want users to get the full impact of the animated elements you want them to see. HTML5’s <video> tag allows video to be easily embedded into a website, which is a good thing if you want a fully accessible website that is mobile-friendly and works on different browsers. Discussing what you want the end-result to be and look like is the most important part of developing customized animation for your website.

• “I want users to interact with my website.” – Maybe you want users to chat with you through your website, access social media platforms like your Facebook Fan page or your Twitter page, or provide direct feedback. Flash offers many options for flexibility here, and again, being a popular and familiar tool with most users helps. While HTML5 can be used without the need for additional software, the browser-support issue can’t be ignored. Having an understanding of how users are most likely to interact with your site (smart phone vs. laptop) will help with how the web design needs to work.

As more people are using them to access the Internet, use their preferred social media outlets, entertain themselves, and do business with others, it is more crucial to have a web presence that incorporates responsive web design.

What is responsive web design? In short, it is creating an adaptable design for your website that will adjust to the screen size, platform or orientation of any device to deliver a more engaging experience. The finished design of your website will be a flexible layout that will automatically adjust for desktop, iPad, mobile tablet, and smartphone browsers. This new approach will eliminate the need to develop separate mobile versions of your website for each new device on the market.

Here are a couple of pointers if you are considering responsive web design for your site:

- New mindset & ethos of design – this is a new way of designing and takes a different mindset than designing static websites. You need to plan more thoroughly on the front end to account for all devices (Top 6: desktop computers, iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle/Nook, other  types of tablets).

- Websites should continually evolve, and not be created and left sitting for two years. On average, we redesign our websites every two years. Designing websites to be responsive will allow you greater flexibility to evolve with the market than your basic static websites.

These are key elements to keep in mind. Responsive web design is exciting and requires thinking that is the opposite of our usual process. I’m looking forward to writing more about this topic in the future… when I get more free time (LOL). 

download the infographic as a resource

"I hear what you're saying about writing quality content. But I need immediate results. What's a quick SEO copywriting fix I can try?"

I understand this mindset. I really do. Now that the recession is easing its iron grip on marketing budgets, companies are trying to make up for lost time. Now, more than ever, forward-thinking businesses have the opportunity to make a huge impact on their search engine rankings. And they're doing what they can, where they can—as fast as they can.

But here's the thing. There is no "quick SEO copywriting fix." There's no "easy way to get to the top of the search engines" like the spam e-mails promise. You can't wave a magic algorithmic wand and transform your copy into search engine goodness.

You just have to roll your sleeves, do the hard work and get it done.

Unfortunately, many companies fall prey to this quick fix mentality and do stupid things that mess up their SEO campaigns, branding or both. For instance:

* Building out stand-alone "SEO pages" geared to pull rankings

* Hiring $10/post bloggers to write keyphrase-stuffed posts

* Tweeting incessantly about their products or services without becoming a part of the Twitter community

Although these folks feel like progress is quickly being made ("Woo-hoo, now we have 50, poorly-written posts about legal services"), what they don't realize is the unforeseen consequences. Poorly written content doesn't convert. "Stand-alone" pages typically are over-optimized messes that search engines ignore. Splattering your sales message all over Twitter makes your firm look like a spammer.

So, what can you do to start seeing the search results (and conversions) you crave? I am so glad you asked …

1. Evaluate your existing content. Every marketer can leverage its own low-hanging fruit and focus on what specifically matters for its site. For some sites, penning new page titles can drive amazing results. For others, keyphrase editing (adding keyphrases to existing content) may be appropriate. Consider bringing in a consultant for this part of the process. The reason? The consultant doesn't "own" the copy and can see it with fresh eyes. Because he's not close to it, he can notice opportunities your marketing department may not.

2. Check your keyphrase research. It's easy to let your keyphrase research stagnate when you don't have the time (or funds) to spend on your site. Now that you're planning a content overhaul, it's crucial to examine what other keyphrases opportunities you can leverage - especially keyphrases that represent the research phase of the buy cycle. Research tools like WordStream, Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker can help you see what phrases people type into the search box to find products and services like yours.

3. Develop a (workable) content schedule and budget. Rome wasn't built in a day, and your site won't be rewritten overnight. Work on your most important pages first, and set up a schedule where you'll work on a certain number of pages a month. Or, if you know that writing content in-house isn't your style, hire an experienced SEO copywriter and have him help. Creating content in baby steps is completely OK - and gives you the satisfaction of seeing continued improvement.

It's tempting to fall prey to the SEO copywriting quick fix. But when you take strategic baby steps and focus on what's really important to your site's success, you'll finally realize the search ranking (and conversions) you crave.

Courtesy of http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/why-you-should-beware-quick-seo-copywriting-fix

This content was a originally a guest post on HubSpot's blog by Pattie Simone.

So, does this mean that as screen resolutions become bigger and as we understand that the large majority of users use this higher resolution size, that we should optimize our landing page layouts for this size? In order to answer this question you have to understand a few other things.

1.)    What types of monitors and resolutions do the majority your target audiences utilize? Of course, the general guideline is to accommodate to the most common users on your site but if you don’t know that information then you can confirm with Google Analytics.

1. Google Analytics is probably the most common tool used to check out these metrics. You can see exactly how many visits, conversions, transactions, revenue, or the bounce rates from users who have these specific settings. Also, incorporating some of the other metrics, such as browser and operating systems, can help give you an eye into the typical demographics and users that actually purchase on your website.

What is Page Rank?

 google-pagerank, PageRank is essentially Google and other search engine’s algorithm that determines the overall value of your site,  subsequently determining your placement in the SERPS., Page Rank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence,  Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote,  by page A,  for page B. But,  Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes,  or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.” Important,  high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank,  which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course,  important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So,  Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.,

Things Have Changed,

While many people and web businesses still feel that PageRank is indeed the end-all- be-all,  many ‘experts’ (outside of Google) disagree. While PageRank may have held this value of importance at the beginning of Google; the fact is—PageRank is no longer such a central and important part your site–the overall quality,  however,  is. Not to mention,  optimized web pages with authoritative content intrinsically rank higher in the SERPS. Your main concern should be much more about your sites authoritativeness,  healthiness and overall quality. Here’s why:,

• Back Links,  which are key in boosting your ranks in the SERPS,

• Authoritativeness in market niche,

• Ability to list in directories,

• Value for clients visiting your site,

In Sum, Though Page Rank is still a factor to watch – it’s just simply isn’t the Holy Grail. By continually growing your site and developing it over time—you’ll automatically rank higher in the SERPS. So,  the main point is just simply to have the most authoritative site on your particular market niche. After all,  the Google PageRank algorithm ranks web pages based on authority and relevance. So,  just give them what they want—and you’ll automatically have an authoritative website that’ll jump up the organic listings and gain the top PageRank listings over time.

Source: Rocket Clicks