I have seen on many occasions over my years of website development, clients who insist on purchasing multiple domain names in the hopes that their website will appear in search engines more often.

They purchase keyword targeted domains that describe their site and services and use them to try to direct more traffic to their main site. But what they do not realize is that this practice is actually damaging to one’s SEO presence. Below I will discuss the main problems of multiple domain use.

Multiple Domains and Masking

A serious mistake that people make when dealing with multiple domain names is the use of masking. Masking is an optional service that is offered by most domain registrars. What it does is allow a user to take their additional domain names and direct them to their existing website. In doing this…

An important step in creating a website is to make sure you are writing valid code. When you take the time to write valid code, you ensure your website will function properly for anyone who may visit. A great way to check if your website code is proper, is to validate.

Validating your website is a process that will ensure your pages conform to the web standards set by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). There are many website validators online that can be found from a quick Google search that will help out any designer. Below I will discuss the main reasons why validating your website is an essential process in website design.

Cross Browser Compatibility

Cross browser compatibility is the bane of a web designer’s existence, especially nowadays when new browsers are becoming more popular. Although a designer may be able to create a beautiful website that works wonderfully in their favorite web browser, the same results may not occur when viewing the site through another browser.

Flash does has its purposes in the web development world. It allows a whole level of interactivity for web viewers than basic html and css. When used correctly, it can spice up a website and make it more appealing. But when used incorrectly, it can cause more damage than you think. In this short article I will discuss the reasons why flash can hurt your website in ways you never thought about.

SEO Marketing

One of the big problems with creating a website in flash is SEO (search engine optimization). If you have an entire website built in flash, search engines like Google have to struggle to scan your site content. Although sometimes they can get into your flash site and they may be able to follow your links, they have no way of separating your content into relevant pages (targeted search results).

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are files that control the visual appearance of your website. These files are used to control the font size, font color, background color, background images, many other attributes. Although they do function as a way to layout a site, they also reduce the size, clutter, and load time of your pages. When someone excludes the CSS from a website, they in turn have to use HTML to adjust their layout. Eventually the excessive code may become hard to look through and it becomes tedious to make website changes. Below I will discuss the main points of using CSS.

Speed

Tables are another element that CSS can eliminate. Designers use tables to layout/arrange their text and graphics. Without CSS, a webpage can become teeming with tables nested inside other tables. A large webpage with many tables will load slower than the same page without them.