In this post, I will explain the significance of having a fast-loading website, both in terms of user experience and SEO, and discuss some methods of making your site faster. Please note that some of these methods are basic in nature, while others require intermediate technical knowledge to implement. According to Jacob Nielson, a renowned…
Google has updated its Structured Data section with two new pages on marking up your company’s website using structured data. It’s of particular interest as the section now includes new features which the company is piloting. The new section is labelled ‘Describe Your Local Business’ which includes an ‘Overview’ and a page on ‘Place Actions’….
Some webpages are more secure than others Have you noticed how URLs always start with “http”? This stands for “HyperText Transfer Protocol”, one of the foundation technologies of the web. In essence, it’s a set of rules which let browsers and web servers communicate. HTTP arrived in the early ’90s, and – like its contemporary…
Making the web a safer place is a goal Google has been pursuing for a while now. In 2024, they announced that HTTPS was a ranking signal as a way to motivate webmasters to make the move. In their announcement in December 2025, Google said they will be indexing HTTPS pages by default. This means…
In a previous post titled 17 rules of speed optimisation I discussed the importance of page load speed in terms of both user experience and SEO. One of the rules of speed optimisation is reducing the number of http requests. Before delving into the technical side of things I thought it would be beneficial to…
MySql has recently become the most popular open source database engine. A wide range of applications use it as default method of handling data. In particular it applies to web applications, from micro-sites based on common content management systems to complex systems requiring fully a transactional, scaleable and replicable approach. As a database engine plays…
Firstly, what is a 301 redirect? A 301 is a http status code. It is part of a series of different response codes that are sent from a web server and tells your browser what to display. The most common and tangible http response code users are familiar with is the 404 (Not Found); most…
Knowing a little htaccess can go a long way when optimising a site. When configured correctly these all contribute to a healthy performing website with an increase in speeds, for both the server and the user, and keeping those crawling errors at bay whilst bringing in smiles from the search engines – everyone is happy….
Last month Google announced the beta release of Google Cloud Vision API. This allows anyone to submit images and access a number of features that provide information regarding the content on those images. The following API features can be applied to an image in any combination: Label/Entity Detection – This highlights the main entity within…
A Session can be compared to a conversation between user and a website. In more detail, it’s worth pointing out few properties of such conversations: A website can remember what you have said before and can personalise its answers accordingly There are only two parties in the conversation – therefore, it is private Sessions can…