Each week, PCV Software offers a tip designed to help your understanding of the Internet technologies availble to your web site. http://www.pcvsoftware.net Copyright 2004, PCV Software webmaster@pcvsoftware.net (Paul C. Vollmar) Is your web site accessible to those with disabilities? Have you heard of the government's Section 508 standard for web accessibility? If not, and some of your customers might be unable to use your site. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip1.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip1.html Does the coding of your web site conform to Internet standards? The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the generally-accepted standards body for defining how the web should work. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip2.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip2.html Why would a business want to use Linux and GPL software? Mainly because it satisfies two very important business objectives, reduced cost and increased security. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip3.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip3.html Getting your site not only catalogued by the search engine, but also rated high enough so that someone searching for a keyword relevent to your business will see your site on the first page of the search results has become something of a black art. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip4.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip4.html Is (or will) your web site be optimized for performance, or will your users be waiting and waiting for your home page to load, and, perhaps, give up and move on to someone else's web site? http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip5.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip5.html Where you host your web site can be as important as the content you provide. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip6.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip6.html The only way to keep your website useful and effective in growing your business or satisfying your customers is to have the ability to analyze the server statistics regularly. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip7.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip7.html Do you (or will you) have a page on your site that needs to be updated daily or weekly? Here's an example of content updated by the site owner (requires the user name and password of "demo" to access). http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip8.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip8.html Most businesses want to keep in touch with their customers, and, with the proliferation of the Internet, email is the way to do it. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip9.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip9.html Amazon.com may have started out as just an online bookstore, but it has grown into a full-fledged Internet mall, and you can take advantage of that growth. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip10.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip10.html However, over time, some of the pages to which your web site links refer may disappear. Here's how to identify and fix them. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip11.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip11.html How to incorporate an RSS feed into your web site, and how to generate your own feed to bring customers to your site. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip12.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip12.html Link your web site to UPS to automatically calculate shipping charges for your online customers. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip13.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip13.html Include a web service on your site to add functionality or usability. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip14.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip14.html Use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt sensitive information flowing across the Internet. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip15.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip15.html Accept credit card payments for your Internet sales without the hassle of a merchant account by using PayPal. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip16.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip16.html Don't inadvertently give out your email address to the SPAMmers. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip17.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip17.html Web applications will need a database, and MySQL is the best candidate. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip18.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip18.html Exercise more control over your web server configuration with Apache and htaccess. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip19.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip19.html Preserve document format by using Adobe PDF for spec sheets and marketing brochures. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip20.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip20.html If losing your web site would be a disaster, you'd better plan for its recovery. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip21.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip21.html Weblogs are not just for teenagers anymore - boost your search engine ranking with your own blog. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip22.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip22.html Be a specialized Google(tm) for your customers. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip23.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip23.html Not everyone uses Microsoft Internet Explorer, so you'd better see how your site looks on other browsers. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip24.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip24.html Handheld devices have a limited screen size, but you can use CSS to modify your site dynamically to fit their screens. http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip25.html http://www.pcvsoftware.net/tips/tip25.html