WebM the future for online video?

Google have recently released a new video standard called WebM. Even though its only been out for a few months the web industry is already opening its arms and widely supporting it. With big companies such as Youtube, Encoding.com, Mozilla, Microsoft and many more all saying they will support the new standard does this mean that the HTML5 standards body now have a standard / codec they can commit to? WebM is a standard very similar to the Theora+Vorbis Ogg format, however, with much more support. Google quietly bought a company called On2 technologies...(More Soon)

Page Weight and Download Size

What is page weight?

The weight of a page is how 'heavy' it is, all content on a page will add to the page weight, some more than others. A high resolution image will add a lot more than just plain text, however, every little part of the site will add to the overall weight.

Page weight is reflected in the time it takes for the page to load, the time taken to load a page will vary depending on the connection speed of the user. If your page is fully laden with high resolution images and a user views your site using a slow connection the chances are that the user will give up waiting for the page to load and will move on to another site.

The weight of a page is important when a user is expecting a page to load fast, whether the page is a flash based animation, video or just a plain text and images. A key page that must load fast is your home page or landing page, the first page a new visitor to your site sees. If you are wanting a high bandwidth flash based home page, give the viewer some sign of life for example a loading bar or animation. Using a loading screen will show the user that the site isn't broken and that something is happening, this extends the time a user is prepared to wait for your content but not by much.

Is page weight really a problem these days?

This is a very interesting topic in discussion these days as the price of high speed internet comes down to affordable levels and most people are now using broadband and not using a slow dialup connection. As the speed of connection increases the page weight of a site becomes less of an issue however, sites should still load as fast as possible while keeping quality high. Your site should still load fast for someone using a dialup connection as there are still some people that view the web using one.

In my opinion the increase in bandwidth should only allow more types of media to be used on the web. On a dialup connection there was no hope of playing a video podcast. However, with the help of broadband and fast speed connections this has become a possibility. Adding new fancy types of media to your site such as video, flash, 3D etc. will all take time to load and add to the page weight and load time of your site.

Downloads and other files

Downloads are different to normal web pages, people have clicked on a link to download a file, this means that they have either clicked the link by mistake or are interested in the contents of the file. When someone is interested in something they are much happier to wait for something to download or open. However, to keep a viewer happy it is always best to optimise a file so that it downloads, loads and opens quickly. An example of a file which should be optimised for the web is a PDF (Portable Document Format - Adobe). Too many sites these days are putting well designed PDF's on the web expecting users to be happy waiting for them to load and open and when the PDF finally opens they find that there is only 5 lines of text and the rest is all high resolution images, this will often annoy a viewer and put them off wanting to view any more of your files.

What can be done to reduce page weight and the size of my files?

There are several things that can be done to reduce the page weight throughout your site. Start with your images, are they optimised for your website? If you have images that are far too big eg. 1024 x 768 and the actual size the image needs to be is only 200 x 200 re-size the image and put that on your site. Once your images are the right size you can optimise them by using a compressor. This can be a very complex task as you can start to lose quality very quickly if you are not careful. If your site has flash or another type of media on it, try and optimise it using compression. Flash is slightly harder to compress once the file has been made, ideally the flash object should be created to be as small a file as possible. Code can also play a part in page weight, can you optimise your code or re-use bits? The best way to code a page is to try and not repeat code throughout a page as this will take longer to process and display. Optimizing a file is important but can mostly be done when the file is being created, a PDF should have the images optimised before they are put into the PDF, reducing the number of key frames in a flash animation will ultimately reduce the end file size. Embedding characters and font-sets will also drastically increase the size.

In conclusion the best way to have a fast loading website with low page weight is to have low resolution optimised images, limited 'heavy' flash and video unless it really adds to the users experience. A common overlooked factor is that fallbacks for people without various plug-ins also have to be optimised. There is no point in having fancy high resolution images, video and animations if people never get to see it due to the fact they give up waiting.

Is Design Important?

The design of a site is as important as everything else, it is what can sell your product. If you have a site which is very unique, looks good and is simple to use then your site is almost guaranteed to succeed. The design of a site can and should vary depending on what the site is trying to do. An e-commerce site should look commercial and be driven by selling your products. A site providing information and advising people should instantly give you the impression of being trustworthy and the source of information. There are many different types of websites each with their own agenda, look and feel.

If you are looking for a site to resemble your personality then it is easier to break the mould of traditional sites. A good example of a different site is JK Rowlings site which draws viewers in. The site is built so you have to explore the site and work out what does what, there are hidden sections which lead to extra sections, this means that the user has fun trying to explore the site rather than just reading information about JK.

There are lots of things to consider when designing a site. Are there colours which make it hard to see text? (not all screens produce the same colour) Have I got my main content in the prime hot-spots on the page? Is my main content at the top of the site so people don't have to scroll to see it? What screen resolution should my site be designed for? Should my site be fixed of flex (stretch when the window is a different size / resized)

Does it matter how a website is coded?

The way a site is built is important in more than one way. Not only do you need a site which visually looks good and works well due to the coding, you need a site which works well across all browsers and on multiple platforms. Cross browser cross platform testing is as important as any other stage of a website's creation.

In addition to having the site work and look correct for everyone who views it, the code should conform to the latest web standard.

The way the site is built is also important when looking for a good placement on search engine results pages. When you have a column based layout where there is the main content in one block and perhaps news or a sub-menu to the left in a block.

It is best to code the site with the main content first even if the page layout doesn't reflect this ordering. Search engines usually read code top down and left to right. Therefore, if a site is coded normally, to get your main content prioritised by a search engine you must build the site coding the main content first, then force the other content to go into position. For example, Google looks at your site, you don't want it to see latest offers as your main site content, you want it to read the main content and prioritise your site according to that content as this is the main part of your business - it is what you are selling rather than related / interesting topics. As well as the coding structure of your site, it is also useful to think about how your titles come across. Titles should be in a heading tag with the most relevant title in the first level heading (h1) and then decreasing in importance working down from h1 as this is how a search engine ranks titles. I will talk about what search engines look for in more detail in a later entry.

It is always important to take several factors into account when building websites.

SEO - it is always important to think, how am I going to sell my product on my site? How am I going to get people to my site? How are search engines going to see my site?

Accessibility - Is my site accessible to all people? Am I conforming to accessibility guidelines set by the web consortium? Am I allowing viewers to have equal access to my site? For example, If the viewer doesn't have the flash plug-in installed are they missing out on any content?

Usability - How usable is my site? Is the navigation obvious enough and easy to use? Where do people look when they first load my site? Does my site confuse people when they first use it? On top of these basic factors you have to consider how well your site gets your message / product / services across? Is it obvious what your site is trying to do?

Why is Search Engine Marketing important?

About 90% of all on-line traffic is achieved by various search engines. You may have an amazing website which is pushing the boundaries on design or has the newest most compliant code, or has an amazing interactive flash interface, however, if your site can't be found, what is the point in having a site in the first place?

Search Engine Marketing is all about getting people to your site, driving traffic from as many places as possible to your site. There are several ways to drive people to your site:

• Natural optimisation - this involves targeting certain keywords and changing your site to push these select keywords while still allowing the content to make sense, thus increasing the position of your site in a search engine.
• Link Building - this is basically getting lots of good quality links to point to your site, this will increase your Google page rank as each link shows that a website feels your site is worth being shared. This is often achieved by using directories, linking sites etc. It is all very well getting a lot of sites pointing to you but if they all have low page rank and the search engine doesn't value them highly then the links to your site won't be as strong as other sites which are thought of as highly.
• Adverts - this is often archived by using PPC (pay per click) this is usually done on Google as it is currently the leading search engine provider. PPC adverts are located at the top of the results page and along the side. Google will charge a fee for each time your site is clicked on. It is also only posted when people are searching for related topics eg. If someone is searching for boats and you sell bespoke kitchens then there is little point showing your advert. There are also many other ways to increase your sites potential. Feel free to get in touch if you would like to talk about getting some Search Engine Optimisation done on your site.

SEO does take time and can be done in small stages. This can often be annoying as you may not see much change for the first few months after the first stage of SEO has occurred as it takes time for search engines to pick up on your site, then to pick up on links to your site and then also to increase your position in the results.

Can I perform SEO on my own site or should I use a company?

You could spend time learning the ins and outs of SEO and then go and spend the time trying to get your site moving up the results page. However, there is a lot to search engine optimisation and it is possible to cause damage to your sites position by not knowing what to do. If you want results then I would advise that you use an SEO professional, as they will know good places to post your site and also know how to get results fast. Often people make the mistake of wanting to make a perfect keyword driven site to begin with, this however is the wrong way to go about it. If you try and push keywords too hard what your content is trying to say could be easily lost in a pile of meaningless keywords. On top of this, search engines may see your site as spamming keywords, (this is where your site is deliberately putting in a long list of keywords just to gain a good position). It is all about getting the right balance of keywords to content. The method I use is to build the site with SEO in mind, and write the content as normal then, once the site is live or about to go live, I go through and edit the content to optimise the site. On top of that you can also build links and drive traffic through PPC.

If you would like to talk more about SEO feel free to get in touch with me.