Lytron, Author at Lytron Fort Lauderdale Web Design & SEO Agency

New High Tech Tools Help Target Terrorists

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, an entire discipline has been developed by the defense and intelligence communities around situational awareness and visualization.

These include the construction of Geospatial Intelligence, or GEOINT, which exploits and analyzes geospatial data to enhance real-time situational awareness and decision-making. This data includes such things as enhanced satellite imagery, terrain data collected by unmanned drones, and real-time data sources such as surveillance cameras and microphones.

New High Tech Tools Help Target Terrorists – New Government Oversight

There’s even a new government agency charged with managing all this data called the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Never heard of it? You’re not alone. It’s not an agency that seeks out a lot of headlines. Its slogan is “Know the Earth … Show the Way … Understand the World.”

The mission of the NGA is wide-ranging and includes such things as collecting intelligence about warfighting from within the battle, humanitarian and disaster relief in crisis points around the globe, counterterrorism, counter-narcotics trafficking and border security, and transportation of domestic security efforts.

Spy RVs

Part of the NGA’s mission is achieved through the use of two Domestic Mobile Integrated Intelligence System vehicles – or DMIGS – which essentially are self-contained, highly-specialized vehicles that look like RVs but are used for domestic crises, natural disasters, and special events requiring intense security.

The NGA’s role also is to “defend the nation against cyber threats by supporting other intelligence agencies with in-depth analysis of cyber networks.” The NGA provides support for the DoD, CIA, NSA and other agencies within the defense and intelligence communities.

New High-Tech Tools

This little-known government agency provides real-time, on-the-fly data gathering and analysis using big data tools and techniques such as using GEOINT to track and analyze the actions of persons of interest, our own forces, and our allies and neutrals, as well as up-to-the-moment information on weather and other environmental factors.

This data can be accessed by analysts and decision makers who need it to respond to situations as they develop, many of which are new or have never been encountered before. Not all data gathering is visual. Some data collection involved analyzing vast quantities of text-based information or even audio clues. This new type of data collection system makes traditional intelligence gathering techniques obsolete.

Through the use of big data strategies, national defense, and intelligence agencies, as well as military forces, are better prepared to respond to imminent threats, as well as to use predictive analysis to anticipate how those threats are likely to occur. The value of instantaneous, high-quality intelligence gathering cannot be overstated in terms of protecting citizens and maintaining our national security.

How Your Website Can Increase Profits

Most businesses today have websites out of necessity. Customers today have an expectation of being able to interact with a company online to learn more about the organization, ask questions or leave comments, or to buy products or orders services directly.

In the past few years, a sea change has happened in global business: Most customers today use their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices to search for the products and services they want. So if your business doesn’t have a website, you probably are missing out on most of your new business.

Websites and Profits

But it’s not enough to simply have a website. It has to meet the expectations of your online customers. And people also need to be able to find it.

An outdated, confusing, or cluttered website may turn more customers away than it attracts. If you haven’t updated your business’s website in a while — or if you can’t remember the last time you gave it a facelift — it’s probably time to review it.

How Your Website Can Increase Profits – Search Engine Rankings

To capture the largest share of the pool of customers for your specific type of products and services, it has to be simple for people to find your website on Google, Bing, Yahoo and the other popular search engines.

Here’s how most retail scenarios work today: Somebody needs a particular product. Let’s say for example’s sake it’s a frisbee cannon.

They take out their smartphone, type “frisbee cannon” into their Google app, along with perhaps their hometown:

“Frisbee cannon Detroit”

Up will pop a list of businesses that offer this product. Here’s the important part: 7 times out of 10, the customer will click on the first business listed. And that’s the business that most likely will get the sale (if they are mobile-friendly, right then and there from the customer’s smartphone!).

Choosing the Right Format

Designers A lot of web designers choose to build their websites using the format they use most often, Flash, without even considering other options such as HTML, CSS or JavaScript.

Flash is one of the most popular formats among web designers because they think it has fewer browser compatibility problems and more user interface options than other formats. But does it really?

Benefits of Flash

Flash is a very powerful tool that allows web designers to create colorful, impressive looking sites that push the boundaries of multimedia. It also has a huge base, so it tends to be more compatible with a broader range of browsers than sites created using CSS.

And let’s face it: Flash lets web designers show off their stuff, impressing clients with the “wow factor” that keeps them on board with your web design.

Choosing the Right Format – Drawbacks of Flash

Yet Flash also has its downside. For example, sites created using Flash tend to rank lower on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines compared to sites built using HTML. Google’s algorithm still struggles when crawling through Flash sites.

Some web designers believe Flash sites also are less user-friendly than HTML or CSS sites. For example, Flash doesn’t let you highlight text for copy and pasting. You also can’t click the Back button to go back a page.

It’s also harder to increase font size and open links in new windows. So there’s often a price to pay in terms of navigation for the intuitive interface.

Mobility Is an Issue

But perhaps the biggest problem with Flash sites is that they are nearly unviewable on mobile devices such as smartphones. Unfortunately, this is the type of device most users today are using to access the content they want online.

So before you automatically choose Flash for your next web design, consider its drawbacks and benefits.

Are Backlinks Still Relevant to Your Website?

Just a few years ago, Google based much of its decision on where to rank a website on how many backlinks it had. The idea was that if a website had a lot of backlinks, it must be important and therefore of value to Google’s users.

But unscrupulous web page designers figured this out and started to artificially create fake backlinks using automated software programs. The result was that Google was leading its users to web pages that actually had very little content and value.

So Google changed its search engine algorithm to give weight to other things such as social approval signals, such as Facebook “Likes”, how many times a website’s link was Tweeted, and others.

So do backlinks still matter to getting your web pages ranked high on Google and other search engines? The answer is, “Yes, as long as the links come from authoritative places”.

Are Backlinks Still Relevant to Your Website? Authoritative Websites

Google considers websites to be authoritative if they are places people generally would go to get answers to questions they might have. That means sites like Wikipedia, Ask.com and About.com are considered by Google and other search engines to be authoritative sites.

So getting links to your page from these sites and other authoritative sites like them — including sites run by education institutions (in other words, sites with the suffix “.edu”) and governmental bodies (sites with the suffix “.gov”) can still improve your page rankings.

How to Get Backlinks from Authoritative Sites

The best way to get these high-value backlinks is for your site itself to be authoritative. In other words, make your website a place web users would go to find answers. Then it’s simply a self-fulfilling prophecy and your page will soar to the top of the Google rankings.

Another way is to plant these backlinks yourself. Go to places authoritative sites and interact with the content, leaving content, posting helpful information, and always remembering to include backlinks to your web pages.

How to Keep People On Your Web Pages Longer

When visitors arrive at your web page, one of your primary goals should be to keep them there as long as possible.

The longer people stay on your web page, the more likely they are to buy your products, subscribe to your content, or share your pages with other people.

Here are a few things you can do right now to keep visitors on your web pages longer:

Logos Build Trust

People trust web pages they think are maintained by professional, competent organizations. If you don’t already have a professionally produced logo, hire a graphic artist to create one for you and feature it prominently on your web page.

A great-looking logo will make people more likely to trust your content and stay on your web page longer.

Make Navigation Intuitive

Most people today visit dozens — if not hundreds — of web pages every day. So if your web page is difficult to navigate, visitors are more likely to click off more quickly.

Navigation on your web page should be intuitive. People don’t want to have to figure out which button they need to click to get where they want to go. Everything should be obvious. If it’s not, it’s probably time to redesign your page.

Make It Clutter-Free

Most people don’t like clutter — whether it’s in their homes or on the web pages they visit.

If your page is packed with unnecessary images or other non-essential content, it’s time to clean house. To keep people on your pages longer, strive to keep them as sleek and clutter-free as possible.

Use High-Quality Images

Given that practically every smartphone, tablet or other device today has a high-quality HD camera built into it, there’s no reason to include blurry, unappealing images on your web pages.

Make sure any image you include is professionally produced and appealing to your visitors.

‘Do I Need to Learn Photoshop to Master Web Design?’

How Virtual Reality Could Help Your Business

Photoshop is one of the tools that everybody says you need to learn in order to master web design. But is it really necessary given the advanced software and other tools available today?

The short answer is: Yes and No.

Benefits of Photoshop

The best thing about Photoshop is that once you master it, you can do pretty much anything with any image. You can crop, create and add filters, cut and paste elements into and out of images, and many other options.

When you are skilled at Photoshop, you can absolutely use these talents to improve the quality of the images on your pages as well as the overall look of your website.

Drawbacks of Photoshop

There are two major downsides to Photoshop: It’s cost and how complicated it is.

Photoshop isn’t cheap. If you are just starting out in web design and don’t have a big budget, there are other things that probably are going to be more important that you will need first.

Plus, it’s complicated to use. So learning Photoshop to the point where you are proficient with it can take a long time. If you have the time to devote to learning it, the long-term value is immense. But if you already are scrambling to handle all the other demands of your online business, having to learn Photoshop may be one of your lowest priorities.

Alternatives to Photographic Image

Photographic image has been around for a long time. But today there are many other tools that perform many of the same functions automatically.

For example, most newer model smartphones include cameras that have software you can use to add filters, crop photos, even manipulate the image all right from your phone.,

Another alternative is buying your images from a stock photo company or hiring a freelancer to develop better photos and other images for your website on a per job basis.

10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Rankings

Blogs Provide Continuous Contact with Customers

If you want your web pages to appear at the top of the Google Search Engine Results Page for your keywords, you have to use the most effective SEO techniques.

Here are 10 fast and easy SEO-related things you can do to instantly improve your page rankings:

Don’t include characters like “&” and “?” in your permalinks. Google doesn’t like them and they can slow things down.

To make your content more readable, separate ideas and phrases with hyphens whenever possible.

But don’t use underscores (__) instead of hyphens because these can confuse the search engines.

Any time you include an image or photo, always create alt tags and descriptions that include your keywords.

Anytime you can — if appropriate — use internal linking. This is when you link to somewhere else within your page or website, rather than to an external page or document. Search engines like to see internal links and will rank your pages higher if you have them.

Use sticky posts when possible. These are posts that include a lot of links that keep you on the page, rather than being sent off to another site.

Include a category description paragraph on your page.

Encourage page visitors to subscribe to your website, blog or other content using a category specific RSS feed.

Make sure you understand the target audience you are addressing. If necessary, do some research by looking at other pages that are aimed at the same audience you want. Then update your content appropriately.

Speaking of updating content, make sure you are continually providing high-quality content that your page visitors can actually use in their everyday lives. This will make it more likely that they will return to your pages again and again.

Use these 10 fast and easy SEO tips to improve the SERP rankings of your web pages so you can attract more visitors.

5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Boost Traffic

Getting the attention of the Google search engine is getting harder and harder. With more 10,000 new websites launching every day, there’s more reason than ever to use SEO to attract more page visitors.

Here are five on-page SEO techniques you can use starting today to drive more traffic to your web page:

Stick to a Single Keyword or Topic

Many web page creators try to do too much with their content. Pick the one keyword phrase or topic that is the most likely for people searching for pages like yours to enter into Google and stick with it.

It’s often helpful if you tie your keyword to your geographic location. For example, instead of focusing on “dry cleaners”, use “New York City dry cleaners” to promote your small dry cleaning business in Manhattan.

Don’t Be Strict about Keywords

Google recently changed its algorithm so that it looks for variations of the same keyword, rather than the exact same keyword every time.

If you are using the same verbatim keyword throughout your content to boost your SEO, it can make your content seem stiff and unnatural. Instead, don’t be afraid to use variations that help with the flow.

Page Titles Are Critical

Google will use the title tag to display your page in its search results. So you want to make sure your title tag explicitly states what your page is all about. It may be your one and only chance to get people to click on it.

5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Boost Traffic – Include Natural Links

Google prefers pages that have natural, high-quality inbound links that lead into them from authoritative sources. pay attention the inbound links leading to your page to make sure they are continually growing and that they come from reputable, high-quality websites.

Implement these five SEO techniques on your pages starting right now and you should see more traffic by the end of the day.

4 Tips to Make Your Web Pages More Popular

When it comes to web design, everything you do should contribute to the popularity of your web pages.

It’s important that your web pages look great, but they also need to have great Search Engine Optimization so that people using Google, Bing and other major search engines can easily find them.

Tips for Improving Your Page Rankings

With that in mind, here are four quick and easy things you can do to make your web pages rank higher:

Content Is King

No matter how many backlinks, keywords or other SEO techniques you include on your web pages, if the content isn’t interesting and compelling to visitors, they are going to click off right away.

Try to include great content that visitors will find useful, entertaining or enlightening. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer and ask yourself, “What would I like to see on this web page?”

Join the Online Community

The Internet is a participatory sport. And the more people you can get involved with your web pages, the higher they will be ranked by Google.

Reach out to bloggers who write about your field and ask if they would be willing to review your products. A few positive reviews can not only get the word out about your business, but also drive more visitors to your web pages.

4 Tips to Make Your Web Pages More Popular – Network, Network, Network

Similarly, you want to be involved with the online community that is devoted to your niche. Link building and getting good social signals is all about building relationships with people.

Today’s search engines look for ways to understand how people connect with one another. So the more connections you can create between your web pages and actual Internet users, the more value search engines will assign to your web pages.

4 Tips to Make Your Web Pages More Popular – Track Your Business

It’s also important to understand what people are saying about your business. Something as simple as setting a Google Alert to track mentions of your company can keep you informed.

Choosing the Perfect Pictures

Despite all the technological developments in smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, when it comes to getting attention for your website a great picture truly is worth a thousand words.

Image really is everything. So having great-looking pictures on your web pages will make your business the ones people are more likely to choose. Visitors will see your site as being more approachable, friendly and interactive if they like the pictures you choose.

Choosing the Perfect Pictures – Look Sharp

When uploading images onto your web pages, clarity and sharpness is critical. This is especially true now that most newer mobile devices have retina displays that can show images even sharper than the human eye can process them.

Consider your website’s images to be just as important as its textual content … or even more important! You wouldn’t publish anything on your pages without running SpellCheck or a grammar program, would you? So why would you post pictures that are washed out, gray or grainy?

Choosing the Perfect Pictures – The Perfect Picture

If you are using photos you shot yourself, make sure they have at least been put through the Auto Correct function of your photo editing program. If possible, use an expert who can improve the look of your photos through cropping, color balancing, and other tools before posting them.

Another option is to use photos that already have been expertly prepared for display on web pages. There are many websites where you can find high-quality stock images you can use on your web pages for a small fee.

If you’re on a budget, consider using royalty-free images that can be found on such places as Wikimedia Commons. In these type of open source websites, you are generally free to use the photos as you want as long as you follow rules regarding attribution and other factors.

Once you include the right photo on your web pages, you will see the result in the number of visitors your page receives, how much longer they spend there, and how likely they are to convert to your call to action.