Why Get Certified.... What Are The Benefits

Recently I was asked this exact question. Why would someone want to take the time to get certified? I did some searching and here an article
that addresses this exact topic. Here are the reasons: If a person wants to spend money for upgrading their skills,

Pursuing knowledge and credentials in a specialized area of technical study
Finding and signing up for classes
Studying for an exam
and passing an exam

..... then this person is

A self-starter
Follows through on planned activities
is professionally minded
and has knowledge in a defined area of study

These are they type of people I want to hire. If things are equal , the certified person would be the one that I would hire. If the odds are against the other person then certification would give them a positive contributing factor in the decision of who to hire. (Paraphrased from http://www.itworld.com/career/234739/value-it-certifications. December 20, 2011 -- Eric P. Bloom former CIO, President of Manager Mechanics LLC)

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10 SEO Tips

Search Engine Optimization

Here are ten tips that we found to help you get better page rankings on your website.

I. Limit Multimedia
What is old is proven and true. Web designers are constantly competing against each other to design a more hip website but is it actually a site that is functional. A lot of time I just click past the Flash screens. They take up to much time and time is money. So, get into the head of the visitor to your site. Use multimedia for training and for informative pieces. Keep away from Flash screens because Google ranking bots don't understand them.

II. Use text, not graphics
Graphics are cool but not functional. When search engine bots go to a site they are looking for content. Search engines bots cannot find the information if it is located in a graphic. If you are using graphical buttons for navigation, make sure you have textual links located somewhere on your page. The search engine will then be able to naviagate the site. if the search engine cannot navigate the site then it will not rank the page well within the searches. Keep the graphical links to a minimal. Make sure that the search engines can get to the text links. If you have a complicated page, then position the links at the top of the page.

III. Don't be too clever
Stay one step behind the current technology. The web was built for research and usability. Entertainment sites, Games etc are all great. We are in the business of selling products and services. Have you ever looked at Amazons website? Amazon is one of the leaders of selling information. They do not use fancy Flash presentations. They are using black on white text. Search engines like this type of text. It is simple to navigate and that
means more visitors will come to the site. The easier your site is to navigate and search the more visitors will come to your site and tell others about it.

IV. Be straight forward
One of the pitfalls of designing a website is being evasive or being too cute. If you can understand the information that is great but what about your audience. A major downfall is a large graphic with hotspots on it. Unless you move your mouse around the image you will not know that it is clickable. The search engine bot will not be able to do this and so you will end up failing on navigation. This will push your site lower in the rankings on the search engines which means less customers.

V. Avoid frames
Everyone wants to be cool and stylish. Red alert frames are outdated. They are from the 90's. Search engines do not like them. If search engines (momma) are not happy with it. Then avoid it. Remember not everyone is using the latest brower, so keep it simple.

VI. Make it easy to move around
When you are designing your site remember you are not the one using it. You need to design the website for navigation by the visitors. If the website is not easy to navigate then visitors will not come back. Ask yourself these questions:

Does the website make sense from a visitor's standpoint?

Is information easy to access?

Do you have unavailable links? - Search engines do not like broken links and you will be penalized.

VII. Provide visitors with different routes
When visitors go on your site you want to provide multiple routes to progress around the site. By doing this you will provide more information to the search engines. Some of the different ways:

• Sitemap - A sitemap will list the different links within your website providing more ways to navigate the website. Search engines will find this appealing.

• Table of Contents or Index Page - This is another technique that you can use. This will list your links in alphabetical order.

• Navigation bars - These are very handy for navigation. Caution!!! - If using JavaScript and other dynamic programming you need to make sure you have another way of accessing the links. Search engines have a hard time negotiating script to find the information. So, the links that you have will not be indexed correctly.

• Navigation text links - Links in text will help individuals find more information on your website. If individuals can easily navigate the site then the search engine bots will also. Some SEO professionals will recommend that you put these links towards the top then at the bottom.

VIII. Use long link text The more information that you provide with your links the more information you will give to the search engines. This also easier for the visitors to navigate your websites. Try to stay away from "Click Here". This does not tell the visitor why they should click on the link. When designing your website links make sure that you include your keywords. This will help in calculating your keyword density. This is the % of keywords on the page.

XI. Stop restructuring the website
Broken links are mostly caused by restructuring of the website. When visitors bookmark your site they will be presented by 404 page not found. You can prevent this by not changing the structure of your website. Plan in the beginning and keep that structure. Only make changes that will not cause broken links. You can also create custom 404 page not found. A custom 404 page can redirect an individual to a page within your website which can keep the visitor within your environment.

X. Spell Check
Nothing annoys visitors about a site more then misspelled words. This ensures that your keywords are utilized to their maximum value. So, before you publish your site have someone proof read the site. Make sure you use the spell checking services in your web design software.