Latest Web Site Related News and Developments...

Have you ever seen a map with in a web page and thought I would really like a map of my company or events location on my website?

Well in this article we will explain more about your options about how to get, or embed, a map of your company or companies to show in your web pages and the benefits they can bring to your website along with which mapping services are avaliable to you to accomplish this.

Most people are totally unaware that their static website, or even their content managed website for that, can have web applications (apps) placed in them to help expand their functionality and useability. These web apps can do everything to help keep your website up to date using a calender, entertaining your users by putting super Mario Brothers and other games in your web pages, to letting people read their horoscopes. All of these can be added by Specnet to your website for you.

What is Google's Panda update?

Google, like the other Search Engines have special, unique algorithms that they have created and which determine where your website will be placed in their search result pages. From time to time the search engines will release major updates to these algorithms that can either positively or negatively affect your websites results, and that is what Google has done with the latest update, Panda.

Over 10% of websites have been affected by the Panda update worldwide so far so it is something all website owners should be aware of and how to work with it and not unknowingly against it. The Panda update is also one of the first updates by Google to its algorithm to be a staggered update, due to the intensity of the changes that Google is putting in place, these are still going on and may do for some time to come as Google rolls out the changes gradually. The last update to Panda , Panda 2.5, was released on February 24^th, April 11^th, May 9^th, June 18^th, July 22^nd, September 28^th, October 9^th, October 15^th, October 19^th, November 18^th 2011 just to show you how recent the last Google Panda update was.

This is an appeal against website neglect.  All to often I hear businesses express - "Our company website doesn't work for me!"  - It's important that we put a stop to this to ensure that every website is a successful website.

View what are QR Codes as a Video Blog

QR Codes, or Quick Response codes, are funny little square 2D barcodes which look a bit like modern art, but in fact they contain information for your company such as your company, or companies contact addresses, like web address, phone number and key person to contact. QR Codes are free to produce and can be read by mobile phones via a free QR Code barcode reader application - and it's not JUST for IPhones.

QR Codes can then be printed off and attached to off line advertising or installed on your company website, this way your customers or potential customers can just scan the barcode into their mobile phone and have all of your company or companies contact information stored for later.

Yes I know this could be considered lazy, but it is a very convenient way to get your company information sent straight to busy clients who are always on the go, some restaurants are using it to provide you with their menu information, now I can certainly see the advantage of this.

An old scam is rearing its ugly head again, Protect Your Brand, another company is looking to trademark your company name, don’t dismiss this one as “it’ll never happen to me”, as it can come across as very legitimate and quite scary.

I have seen it in a number of different forms, as an email, a letter or a phone call, the latter is particularly underhanded, the caller, let’s call him Fred, gives a story that they have been contacted by an individual who wishes to buy virtually all the domain names that you don’t own, but which have your domain name in them, e.g. Specnet.com, Specnet.net, Specnet.me, Specnet.co etc, but Fred really doesn’t want to sell to this other guy as he was very rude, and when Fred asked him what he planned to do with these domain names he told him to “mind his own business”!

The .co domain names have now moved into general release phase so you may be able to get yours at a lower price, but what should you buy, why and what will you do with it? There are a host of domain name extensions available; .co.uk, .com, .net, .uk.com, .me etc., my advice is to source your domain names in this order.

• Buy the .co.uk or .com, these are the most popular so should always be your first choice.
• Avoid hyphens "-" if at all possible, just because a lot of people aren’t even sure which ones are hyphens.
• Keep your domain name short, don't forget you'll have to give out your email address and a long domain name means a REALLY long email address!
• Write a list of preferred domain names and order the list, then you can look to source them in that order
• Purchase a keyword rich domain name e.g. "mensclothes.co.uk" or "ladiesshoesonline.com"