Delaware Custom Website Design Blog - Delaware.Net, Inc.

A good Search Engine Optimization or SEO strategy takes time, money and commitment.

I get asked for advice on making websites come up higher in search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN all the time. There is no one-size fits-all solution for this, if there were, everyone would be #1.

Simply put, Search Engine Optimization or SEO comes down to content (text) and structure (code).

When a client comes to Delaware.Net, Inc. for custom website design, we ask a lot of very pointed questions, we save the answers to those questions for later in our conversation and for the overall development of the website. Read more…

Providing email support at Delaware.Net, I’ve come across all kinds of different email errors, some with simple fixes some that are caused by other programs installed on the computer and some with more complex fixes. I decided to write down a couple of the errors and included the simple fixes with them. Read more…

In today’s world almost every company has IT (Information Technology) needs. There are many companies with IT needs that they may not even be aware of. From minor computer issues to full blown networks, the IT field is growing and every company should examine their needs. Misinterpreting those needs could end up costing your company thousands of dollars. There are three options companies have when it comes to dealing with IT: ignore your IT, outsource your IT, or hire an IT department. Read more…

I just launched a new real estate portal on Delaware.com. The new real estate search engine for Delaware includes all homes in both Delaware area MLS databases (Offutt is pending). This allows us to offer a local real estate search that covers ALL of the available homes in Delaware. Each morning, we syndicate over 60,000 homes into our databases. With newer XML-based MLS data being integrated, we will expand this database even further.

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Flash forms are becoming more common on websites everyday.  They are more than just a flashy form.  Regular HTML forms get a lot of spam; flash forms cut spam almost completely out. The reason for this is they register in the code as flash and not a form, which doesn’t allow spam bots to pick them up like regular HTML forms.  Flash forms also allows validation of form fields to be  a breeze.  They have built in validation and special validation for fields like email address and phone numbers.  Flash forms also look classy and add a little flare to your website.

There are a couple minor draw backs to flash forms.  A web developer has to work within the bounds of flash forms. A developer can still change background colors and fonts just like any other form; they just aren’t as easy to manipulate as HTML forms, but the extra steps are worth the benefit.  Also, when you pull up a page that has a flash form you do have to wait a couple of seconds for the form to load.  With really long forms this could be an issue but with most forms the wait isn’t an issue, and the user gets a little loading box to let them know the form is loading.  The benefits outweigh the minor wait and flash forms are a good addition to any website.

For passwords to keep their effectiveness, they should be changed on a continual basis. Changing passwords can be very simple.  Windows passwords are changed through computer management or the control panel and UNIX uses the command ‘passwd’ command. Changing the password from the source is also essential. For example, if it is an ISP account password, don’t telnet through 4 differerent machines. If it is an office computer, you should be on that computer and not a co-worker’s when changing it. Also don’t let anyone look over your shoulder when doing it.   When you’re changing a password, especially for linux/unix enviroment you should use a secure channel to change it…SSH for example is a good channel to use for changing passwords. You can get the program Putty off the web (opensource) or SecureCrt. Read more…

We have a new content management system called “Team-Logic CMS” that lets you manage your own web site without being a web designer. It is full-featured and allows you to manage lots of different kinds of content. These modules can be incorporated into ANY web site design and they allow you to control your own web site content. They even include search engine optimization automatically!

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When designing layouts for websites many times you are working in multiple applications and with multiple file types. This can be somewhat of a hassle at times. To deal with this, Adobe® created a program called Bridge®.

Bridge® was first introduced to Adobe®’s lineup of design applications when Creative Suite® 2 was released. Back then it was a basic image manager that many people overlooked, despite its more useful features: working with RAW images without opening Photoshop and organizing features such as keywords and searches. Read more…

Up until now, implementing video into a website has been a challenge. The problem was not actually getting the video onto a site, but making sure that the audience was able to view it. Web developers had to choose a compression format (an algorithm which converts a large file into a smaller file) and hope that the end-user had a media player that could decode the video or was willing to install one. They were also assuming that the audience had an Internet connection fast enough to view the video without timing out.

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We all know that setting up a password on a computer, or anything for that matter, is a real pain. The average person could have up to twenty passwords that they must remember. And what do most of us do to remember those passwords? That’s right we write them down!

Passwords protect personal information – information we don’t want anyone and everyone to know! In our personal lives, this means confidential information like financial information, private letters, and legal documents. In the corporate world this may encompass anything from personal computers to mainframe servers.

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