Amongst the lot, wherein the competition is getting stiff day by day and everyone in the web development field seeking out for solutions that can make them stand above the rest. And there is no doubt that a lot of scripting languages available in the market for quick and safe web development.
There is one called PHP web development that is the most widely used in this kind of development application. Looking at it generally, PHP is a general purpose, server-side scripting language run on a web server that was designed for creating dynamic web pages and applications. A secure, fast and a reliable option to use PHP as a web development offers a lot more advantages that makes it accessible to a lot of people-
1. PHP offers support to databases like MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, etc.
2. It is by far the most compatible with servers kike Apache, IIS, etc.
3. PHP runs on different platforms, such as, Windows, Linux, etc.
4. PHP is successfully been used to develop solutions like e-shopping carts like CMS, CRM, web calenders, etc.
5. Using PHP to be able to create a website is very simple because of the easy functions, methods, and syntax of this language
6. PHP also supports relational database management system and open source databases that helps in reducing the web development cost.
7. PHP is responsible in improving the performance of the website and decreasing the loading time because it does not compile the source code each and every time.
8. Not only this, PHP has also been used for open source software integration, such as, Drupal, Joomla, Typo3, osCommerce, etc.
Since the outbreak of web development, PHP has flared its dominance and has come up as a highly interactive allowing the creation of applications and websites that are on a high demand these days. And, if you are pretty serious in developing a business website then, opting for a good PHP based web designing and development company is not at all bad. Moreover, looking at the advantages this PHP language offers and its fast growing rate, the deal would be actually quite profitable if we put it this way. Custom Website Development is easiar with PHP, than other programming languages like java,.net. PHP is available with number of open sources and support ecommerce web development.
Off-shore business is grabbing grounds gradually and companies are in fact saving on the bottom line by cutting costs. However there are few issues that are most often faced while getting services accomplished from a service provider or agency which is across shores. Here are some handy tips the areas which can be improved upon to overcome such difficulties.
Communication Barriers
Lack of communication can be said to be the major factor in bringing failure to some outsourcing projects. No doubt communication has become easy and can cost nearly nothing to interact seamlessly. However at the end of the day one is still dependent on the individuals on the other end their communication capabilities.
While dealing with the service provider, the clients should make sure that the requirements provided to them are detailed and well understood. If not, the work might not go as planned and at the time of the website, you might have a long list of things to do even beyond the timeline which was planned.
A good way to overcome this difficulty is to have as many voice interactions with the account manager who is servicing your account. Communicating only over email can bring out communication gaps.
Moreover, the language might also be an issue while communicating. Let us consider that you are sitting in the United States and your web solutions company is situated in India; there might be problem with understanding due to the difference in accent. In that case, it is advisable to go on a Live Chat which is always helpful. Even then if there is difficulties in making them understand, do a little research and send them samples of how you want your website to be. Make little efforts today and you can get great results tomorrow!
Ill defined acceptance criteria
Although there are various expectations that you might have from the Web Solutions Company you are hiring , but you might still be have doubts about the conditions in the contract provided. Thus there are some factors that you might ignore at the first place but create problems when questioned. Certain things need to be clearly mentioned in the contract before you signup.
The objective for the payments and the acceptance norms of the payments should be plainly displayed so that you do not have any problems while filling up the payment amount in the cheques. The process for managing work regarding defects or Change Requests should be clarified. This should be done so that the service providers do not throw tantrums if there arises some issues with the execution of the project. In case any target is missed by the service providers, the party that will decide on the payment withholding needs to be defined frankly. This will assure that the service providers will never make frequent errors and will be extra careful. Involvement of the customers is important
It is often seen that once the client explains the requirements to the service provider, they develop the misconception that the work will be done. Ideally one should not really pull out of the progress tracking of the project and be updated with what is happening atleast on a weekly basis. This way, there will be less errors and would have less hassles at the time of project delivery. So it is prudent enough if you involve yourself in the project and keep yourself abreast with the ongoing development.
You might want to also list periodic updates in your service agreement at the outset with the service provider.
Issues with cultural differences
Cultural differences are sure to arise in case of off-shore business. Thus it needs to be made certain that the contact points between you and the service provider is cleared out for smooth execution of any project. It is preferable that you interact with the agency representatives well at the outset over the phone and emails to satisfy yourself that the difference is not too wide. For e.g. handing over a Search Engine Optimization project to a Chinese company may not be a good idea. There is such a big language gap that the only way that might help interacting is through Sign Language! That unfortunately is not an option if you are sitting a few thousand miles away..
Time differences and work ethics
Time differences between countries can be another factor in creating problems at work. For instance, if you are in Europe and your service provider is in India, there is a time difference of 3-5 hours. To tackle such problems, one has to adjust the timings accordingly and turn the problem into a void one. For this, you need to tell them your availability time during which they would easily be able to get in touch with you for sorting out problems or answering queries. If the time difference is more than 10 hours then ensure you have some kind of an overlap of atleast a few hours during the day so that you can atleast interact.
Also, try and get a grasp of the work ethics of the company you intend working with beforehand. It is important to see if they are forthcoming and pro-active. Companies or groups which are not are a big NO.
Working with an Organization or an individual?
Since outsourcing has become a lucrative opportunity in the developing countries, a lot of freelancers and fly-by-night operators have mushroomed. A lot of untrained and under qualified people could actually pose to be an organization. While you are outsourcing, it most recommended to go ahead with a company which has some proven credentials and verified references. If you are not sure about the credentials of an individual or a group of individuals, do not associate with them. You might end up throwing your money away and trying to press charges against the person but all in vain. Working with an organization on the other hand will be safer bet as a lot of your due-diligence is automatically done. You are already going to save money by working with an offshore provider, why get more greedy! Ask for some globally authenticated quality certifications – An ISO 9001 -2000 is an example.
If you think you have tackled all these points diligently, some of the Advantages of Outsourcing your project can be seen by clicking the link.
Today, internet has become a very important media in business world. According to a statistics, almost 70% of the the total business in the world is running over internet. A natural question arises that how does people running their millionaire business over internet? The answer lies with web site design and web site development, designing and search engine optimization. I’ll discuss Search engine Optimization in my next article. Lets discuss about Website Design and Development.
Web Site Development
Most of you must be familiar with web site design and web site development and must be thinking that is their any issue discussing about it. Yes. All of us who works on internet has now or later must have developed one site or at least seen one. There are many website development company who develops site for others. What do you notice when you look at a website. Its beauty, images, flashes etc. Most of us go well impressed by such sites when we look at it. But that is not enough for a site to be just marvelous. There are some thing we must keep in mind before we develop and design a web site.
Do not use too much images and flashes.
Images and Flashes are no doubt make your site more visible and attractive but those are not good for search engines. Hence avoid using images and flashes as much as you think its okay for your site unless you are going to have a strong outer promotion for your site, in absence of which your site traffic basically depends on search engines.
Good Content
Use good content in your site and relative to what you are selling. Users and spiders like those sites which provide useful contents for visitors. It will be an added advantage if you’ll keep updating your site’s content on some regular basis. But keep in mind that you don’t provide irrelevant content, i.e. something your are not dealing with. It can irritate your visitors.
Make a user friendly site
Users like a easy navigation on site. They don’t want to keep moving and moving all through the site and not getting for which they have visited your site. So, keep your site template simple and easy for novice users. Connect your pages through simple links. Don’t let user play hide and seek on your site.
Use ALT tags for images
Use alt tags for the images your are keeping on your site. It helps with the search engines. Since the spiders can’t see those image they read those ALT tags, so you may use your keywords in your ALT tags. But don’t over do it because some search engines may consider it as spam.
Title, and Meta Tags
Use descriptive titles but make it limited to 50-60 characters. Write a description of about two to three lines specifying details about the particular page. Do not stuff it with keywords. In keyword meta tag, write as much keywords as much you want. Generally most of the search engines do not read keyword meta tags including Google, but still some do go through them like Yahoo. Keep you keywords up to 250 characters. Make different title and meta tags for each page rather than copying the same for each page.
