Mobile applications: Browser based or Native or Hybrid?

In late 90s and initial few years during the last decade, developers (and the users too) used to  have a confusion. If they need a software solution, for an example, invoice management system, how do they need it? An installable PC based software or a Web application? (Why don’t we ever call it as Web software?). Due to Bandwidth limitations, many of our customers preferred to get their software in PC. Some of our clients felt unsecured of using web applications.

But when years passed by, the requirements too changed. When we started working collaboratively, (which was made easy with the internet and the bandwidth growth) people slowly started moving into web based application. Web based Emails are possibly the first web applications people used. People started developing cross-browser compatible web applications. We stopped application development with VB and started focusing only on ASP and then ASP.NET. Now Web 2.o has changed the perspective of ’software’ completely. Also Hybrid applications became possible with APIs etc.

Likewise, in Mobile, there are two ways to develop Mobile applications. Mobile browser based applications – which are websites optimized for Mobile browsers and Installable or Native Mobile applications. They both has advantages and disadvantages.

Why Mobile Browser based applications and why not?

Mobile Brower based applications are slow due to the bandwidth limitations and will eat up your download limits in your plan. Also, the user need to remember the URLs, Type it which is really hard. Advantage is that the development cost is low since the developer pays additional attention only to make it compatible with most possible mobile browsers. Also now the many Mobile browsers supports HTML and the smart phones comes with bigger screens to see the full sized websites, if not by zooming it. We have keyboards too to manage this. But, if you want to browse sites, you can do that in your tiny Netbook, which you carry with you always, right?

So, In short: The advantage is the low development cost and the disadvantage is the bandwidth limitations and the limitations of Mobile websites which does not access your Phone’s components like Address book, Camera etc.

Why Native mobile applications and why not?

Native (installable) application resides in your Mobile, if you launch it, the search with parameters which are within your mobile (Eg. The 50 state names in USA, Your favorite locations to see daily weather etc). Except free text search, the rest of the search parameters can be stored in the mobile – OR they can be updated just one time.  The communication between the Data/Web server and the mobile could be drastically reduced. An application like share portfolio can be created within your Phone and stored. Every day you just need to update the stock prices. You need not download the entire portfolio each day. Also, the application resides within the phone can access phone’s capability such as camera, phone book /contacts etc to and make the applications ‘Native’.

I also absorbed another  hidden advantage of native application is brand loyalty. If the customer installs a mobile application which you supply, he will rely on your application. For Eg. I use Viigo for regular information updates (News, weather etc) But a site called Justdial.com or Google local for local address research. If Justdial comes with a Blackberry solution, they captured me as their user

The disadvantage is obviously the development cost. No two mobile platforms share a mobile application, and there are too many Mobile operating systems (or platforms) exist in the market. If you develop a mobile application to market it widely, you need to develop that in J2ME (for phones that support only Java with no loaded OS), Symbian, Mac iPhone, Android, RIM, WebOS( for Palm pre), LinMo and Windows mobile. Though J2ME (or Java ME) is widely used, it has the Graphic limitations and I am sure it won’t look nice in my Blackberry Bold!. If the developer do not have expertise in more than one technology, then you need to run behind various mobile developers, finding them under one roof would be difficult.

So, In short: The advantage is quick access, less data transaction  and the disadvantage is the cost of development.

Hybrid mobile applications?

No, Hybrid application is not ‘going Green’ or developing applications ‘environment friendly!’

They are Applications that uses browser interfaces and native mobile components. With HTML5 and JavaScripts now the browsers are becoming capable of accessing phone’s built in features like contacts, camera etc. We started developing applications using PhoneGap and I believe solutions like PhoneGap should fill-in this gap.  Platform free mobile solutions are what we need now and the gap between the browser based applications and native mobile applications is getting closure.

Finally what could be the disadvantages in hybrid mobile applications? Two things comes to my mind. Application security and learning curve for the developers. Mobile developers need to know HTML and Web developers need to know mobile phone APIs. Right? Let us see how we overcome these.

Today God Is First (TGIF)

Added the hosted service of Today God is First, http://blog.macronimous.com/today-god-is-first/, to support the readers of our Blog. You may want to pay a visit to TGIF’s site too, from Os Hillman of MarketPlace Leaders. I read this daily, and I recommend business owners, developers and people in IT too for a new Day by reviewing yourself and refresh in God. You won’d regret spending 5 minutes reading this, I am sure you will subscribe to get it in your mail box.

God Bless for a Wonderful NewYear!

PHP IDEs we use: 1.Netbeans, and why?

Netbeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is an open source integrated development for software developers. You can run the Netbeans IDE on various platforms which include Linux, Windows, Solaris and MacOs. It is aimed at providing a comfortable environment for the developer during each stage of development. This is accomplished by integrating precise features required for PHP development into the Netbeans IDE.

As most PHP projects characteristically connect to MySQL databases, Netbeans has made a concentrated effort to offer to this configuration. By means of the Netbeans IDE 6.5 Beta, web developers can now benefit from the standard features like the syntax highlighting, refactoring, code templates, pop-up documentation, easy code navigation, debugger and lots more.

I have been currently using Netbeans IDE and I have penned down few features and positives that I came across in writing PHP based web application.

• It comes free.
• Netbeans will go along with PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, Java and lots more.
• Indentation format is out of the top draw in Netbeans. You select a block of code which contains css, html or php code, Netbeans will make sure it formats the code evidently and placed indentation adequately.
• Common functions of PHP are shown automatically or you can use ctrl + space.
• While writing HTML, Netbeans ensures it checks the div id properly and it indicates if there is any hitch so that you can easily fix the bug.

I can stiff my neck out and say it’s the most popular IDE and also the most popular. So I would give an overall score of 8 out of 10 for Netbeans IDE.

Frameworks we like: 3. Symfony, and Why?

Symfony a web application written in PHP as per the Model-View-Controller (MVC) standards launched by Sensio Labs during 2005. It is aimed to give developers full authority over the configuration. Symfony also looks to up the tempo of creation and maintenance of web applications and to reinstate the recurring coding tasks. More or less a whole lot from the directory structure to foreign libraries could be customized.

The symfony templating component is a flexible layer on top of PHP which provides you simple yet influential features that covers most familiar templating needs. One of the objectives of symfony templating component is to be as fast as possible. It comes as a tool which is very easy to use with just a single archive to download and that’s it, you are ready to be on the go.

You might ask me the next question, what is the exact need for any framework in PHP? PHP was supposed to be meant as a fast web based programming language. The ever escalating popularity of Open Source Technology today has given away to the position of PHP in web community.

Given this condition why do you need a Symfony? Why a framework in the first place? Let us see how the Symfony framework is going to benefit the customer and as well as the developer.

Benefits of Symfony Framework for Customers

• Released under MIT open source license, the Symfony framework comes as free software and you can use it for any commercial purposes.
• Symfony Framework is independent of database due to the ORM layer “Propel” or “Doctrine”.
• Use of tested code and also less lines of code which always results in less chance of bugs and also it will minimize your cost.
• Web applications are very easy to modify later on because of the clear Model View Controller (MVC) structure that separates application into separated layers.
• Swift developments of a custom-made website build on proven methods and principles.

Benefits of Symfony Framework for Developers

• All codes are object oriented and entirely in PHP5.
• You will gain plenty of time in the overall development process and get improved maintainable and testable code.
• Very appropriate for development methodologies like XP.
• Advanced cache system which includes file cache, apc cache, mem cache and few others.
• Offers tools to make use of every useful best-practice accessible on the web today.

Initially when I came across this Symfony software, found it really overwhelming and appeared a big step. But the structure of the framework and also because of the consistency of Application Programming Interface (API), the documentation provided was really wonderful.

I must admit that ever since we started using Symfony, we haven’t looked back.

3. Frameworks we like: 2. CakePHP and why?

2. PHP Frameworks we like 1. Zend and why?

1. PHP Frameworks we like

Web application testing – 12 simple strategies for developers

We learn from the projects we do and time teaches us too. The following simple 12 rules for the developers are we learnt from the customers over a period of time. I hope they will help us to be better to the customers who teaches us, and improve the deliverables that justifies our experience.

1. Test, Test and Test your applications before you send it to QA team

2. Fix all the bugs which you find

3. Remember this: If you forget to include QA in the project schedule and swallow QA time by extending your development time, you are doing injustice to the client, your employer and the worst is to yourself.

3. Fix all the bugs which QA team finds

4. Assure yourself that you leave no faults in your application before sending it to the client

5. Do NOT expect the customer to test your application for yourself. The customer need not be a Testing professional.

6. Make the list of changes and bugs reported by the customer.

7. Schedule them – and Let the customer know the turnaround time to fix them all.

8. Fix them and let the QA check them.

9. Make sure that you make the customer happy, and let him prefer him as your favorite developer.

10. Learn from the bugs; By not repeating them you can become a super developer.

11. If a project has strict deadlines, it needs strict QA.

12. Avoid reporting the known bugs to the client – instead fix them!

As I said learning never ends. So, I welcome if your valuable rules or strategies or comments could extend this list are welcome. Shoot them them as your comments.

Frameworks we like: 2. CakePHP and why?

Another set of developers liked CakePHP and they prefer to stay with this solid web app. CakePHP is one of the most well known frameworks for PHP development. CakePHP considerably decreases development costs and also helps you as developers write very less code. This blog will walk you through the Cake framework and its hot features which caught my eye at the first sight of it.

As you know, CakePHP is an open source development framework for developing, maintaining and deploying web applications.  It is designed using Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural paradigm. This renowned design pattern provides you with an organized framework that enables to develop a complete web application at all the levels. CakePHP is released under MIT license.

There are few basic features:

• Cool Application Scaffolding – a way to staging the development
• Compatible with PHP 4 and PHP 5
• Easy and simple to understand
• Comfortable for both seasoned programmer as well as a beginner
• Aids HTML, Forms, JavaScript, XML, RSS and more
• Simple yet widespread validation of model data
• Code Generation through Bake for automatic code generation

There are more specific features which will make you take a look at:

1. Flexible caching to speed up your application
2. HTTP Authentication through Security Component
3. Powerful flexible data validation features
4. Use of Ajax will be a cakewalk
5. Full console environment supporting multi tasks
6. Router for mapping URL’s (friendly URLs)

Well, it’s not that often you get something which is so easier for the user to interface with the database. The above mentioned features are only a part of the wonderful framework. You can actually know about CakePHP and enjoy its features once you get going.

Next: Frame works we like 3. Symfony, and why?

PHP Frameworks we like 1. Zend and why?

Our developers first choice was Zend, reasons?  Zend Framework is an uncomplicated, straight forward, open source software framework for PHP 5. Its flexible design allows you to build interactive web applications and services with ease. One of the major highlight is the Model-View-Controller (MVC), which makes the code reusable and trouble-free to maintain.

MVC is nothing but an architectural blueprint used by software engineering. As a developer you would wish to separate data and user interface. This enables you as a developer to make changes to user interface without disturbing data handling and rearrange data without making any changes to the UI.

There were few positives which I came across and would like to share it with you:

• Easy to deploy and simple maintenance.
• You don’t have to make use of the entire package, instead pick and choose bits, and plug it together to get a complete product to suit your requirements.
• It supports your higher yet simple solutions in developing PHP 5 web applications for an international audience.
• Zend Framework is completely object oriented and very easy to enlarge and improve.
• Configuration files are not essential for up and running.

All in all, if you’re looking for a “face-lift” to PHP, Zend Framework provides you with powerful solutions for building a safe and robust website.

Next: Frameworks we like: 2. CakePHP>>

PHP Frameworks we like

Developers need to complete the project in time. The client quickly need a stable site or web application which is easy to maintain. This two reasons drive the concept of web application development framework. When the third reason, “the cost”  intrudes, there comes Opensource and PHP frameworks to meet everyones desire.

While many PHP developers reuse and code smartly, some developers code the same smarter with PHP frameworks. Frameworks help those smarter guys to complete a web project effectively and help them to manage the same easily.  Macronimous encourages programmers to work smarter and thats the reason why we use PHP Frameworks.

In these series of blogs, we will let you know the four solid Frameworks in PHP that helps our programmers and the site owners to ‘develop-own solutions effectively’.

I recommend you to make  quick visits to these previous blogs: Know more about PHP frameworks, Use frameworks – Cut down your web Development cost! before you read these series.

Next: PHP Frameworks we like 1. Zend>>

My Love Vault – Our new iPhone app. launched

We have our iPhone application successfully approved by apple and available in iTunes.  The application’s purpose is to bring different love tools under one roof. With our first version, we have included four different modules and we are planning to bring more features in our future releases.

Our first tool is “Love Chart” where you can check the relationship you might have with your partner(s). Our Next tool is “Compatibility Chart” which helps a person to find their compatible, incompatible and neutral partners, using their moon sign. We believe this might help you in zeroing in on your mate. The next tool is “My Partners” using which you can preserve memories with whom you have spent time together. Our final tool is “Gender prediction” which helps a couple to predict gender of their baby they are going to have, using mothers age and month of conceive. The couple can also decide the month the mother has to conceive, to have baby of their own preference.

We developed the application using XCode 3.1 IDE tool to program our logic and interface Builder to design our interface. Since this was our first application, we went through almost all the video tutorials available from Apple’s Developer Site which taught us what is iPhone application development all about. We then started with learning Objective C programming. Finally we went through the Human Interface Guidelines, which is essential when you develop any iPhone application. With this base knowledge, we dived directly into our first application and successfully got it approved by apple without any problem.

We are working on our next application in the same Lifestyle category and it will be available soon in iTunes store and you can check this site for more information. You can expect more from this before this year end. We will keep them posted.

You can buy My Love Vault from:

Four Frameworks to perform unit testing in PHP

Doing Unit testing is helps a team to produce quality application with in time by allowing the developer to test the code as soon as they write it. By developing a test document, developers are forced to do rigorous testing before it reaches to QA team. This way the span of life cycle is reduced by avoiding it going back and forth between the developer and the tester. The following few Frameworks help teams to do unit testing efficiently. This way unit testing could become a fun to your developers too.

Four Frameworks to perform unit testing in PHP are

1. SimpleTest

2. PHPUnit

3. phpt

4. SnapTest

SimpleTest:

It’s a Open souce unit test framework created by Marcus Baker for PHP. The test structure in SimpleTest is similar to the Junit and PHPUnit.  It contains all of the typical functions in Junit and PHPunit and also includes Mock objects. Simplte Test helps to automate the web application’s regression testing. Regression testing on web applications can be done by parsing the HTML page by using scrpitable HTTP client for simulations like Form submission and clicking on Hyperlinks. Some of the JWebUnit functionalities like web page navigation, cookie testing and form submission are also incorporated in this.

Download and test your version of Simple test.

PHPUnit:

PHP Unit is a part of xUnit family, which has testing frameworks in it. It provides a framework that helps in creating the test scripts easily and also the functionality to execute the tests and then analyze the results. The tests are arranged into cases in PHPUnit, which is very similar to Simple Test. A case is essentially a class in which public methods are singular independent tests.  A test name starts with “test” if the test is a public method. Any test, which is not, a public method will not be taken into account unless interpreted as a test under PHPUnit.  Helper methods are very useful for recurring tasks. If used Helper methods to set up a test, the test will be considered as a separate test by the framework. Refrence to assert methods are present inside each and every test. An assertion is mainly taking an expected value and then comparing it with an actual value. If the expected value does not match the actual value, then the test fails. Mock Objects are hugely important component in maintaining a unit test’s segregation from all other classes and resources except the one under test.

The following link will assist you to get more idea on PHPUnit.

PHPT:

A phpt test is a small script, which used by the php internal and quality assurance teams for testing PHP’s functionalities. Writing phpt tests helps to make PHP more stable. For writing up a phpt test, we need a basic knowledge on PHP language, a text editor and a method to get the results of the code.  Phpt test is used in following scenario: The run-tests.php scripts call the test and it takes different parts of phpt file to name and to create a .php file. The newly created .php file is executed and the output of the same is compared with different sections of a phpt file. The Test pass only when the output of the script “matches” with the output provided in the phpt script.  Phpt test will do the following: It tries and breaks the PHP functions. PHPT test check the functions normal parameters as well as edge cases.

More on Phpt

SnapTest:

The most powerful unit-testing framework for PHP 5+ is SnapTest.  PHP’s runtime language is the only one of its kind that can be used to make the unit test process simpler without sacrificing the agility tests. The philosophy on which the Snap Test was build: Unit testing should be transparent in Snap Test. Complexity of test harness and coding out stub files should be avoided in Snap Test. The obstacle in writing tests should be very less so that it becomes easier to write the tests than writing the code.

Features of the SnapTest are:

• JUnit Compliant Test Harness

• TAP Compliant Test Output

• Runnable from Command Line via .sh or .php scripts

• Full support for mock objects at runtime (minimum parallel structures) as actors and critics

• Extensible add-on system for adapting SnapTest to just about any developer environment

Here you go for:  SnapTest

Let me know if you are familiar with other frameworks.

4 SEO Tools you would have missed

Day-to-Day we see lot of SEO tools in web and many people would have missed useful SEO tools that are not marketed well. Here are four SEO tools that you would have missed and you would be interested to use.

Keyword frequency analysis (single words, two and three words)

The tool helps to pick top 10 keywords in-group of single, double and three word keyword phrases from title, Meta description, Meta keyword and ALT-attributes. This tool can be used to find competitors on-page optimization work related to keyword phrases tags.

http://oyoy.eu/page/keywords/

Search engine SPAM detector

The tool analysis and finds whether a webpage has followed keyword stuffing, doorway farms, hidden text through JavaScript or by CSS. This tool can be used to find web page aspects that search engines could consider as spam.

http://tool.motoricerca.info/spam-detector/

Backlinks Checker Tool – Backlinks Watch

The tool helps for the best to find everything related to inbound links and covers anchor text, backlinks quality plus limitations with nofollow tag and inbound links Page rank.

http://www.backlinkwatch.com/

Keyword mapping tool

The Keyword Map tool shows the relation between search terms / keywords in graphic with good interface for easier understanding on choosing the right combination of keywords.

http://www.kwmap.com/

Why you shouldn’t duplicate website content?

What exactly do we mean by duplicate content? Websites with identical pages and websites identical to another website on the net is considered as content duplication. Writing a content for a website is entirely a different thing to normal writing. It involves plenty of creative ideas and more importantly it should contain related keywords which is most used by the visitor.

Now let us see why you should avoid duplicating the content?

First of all, copying the content brings down the understanding of the concept. If you start understanding, that is only how you grow. The scriptwriter should understand why something is and how it works. If you copy, you are missing out on that. You are just resurfacing the upper layer and not getting into layers underneath when you do that.

If you are not willing to write on your own, you will not know the exact intention and get stuck at one place. You will not know how to take it forward. The originality of the content will be missing.

While it is easier to just copy from someone else, why do you have to create a new one? If you don’t do that, you will not know why it looks like, you cannot feel the way it feels like and you will not be able to read the way it should be read. The final outcome will be an artificial one.

Content Duplication and its impacts on SEO

1. Duplication of content will be considered a spam by all the search engines. There are so many websites with similar products, so the copywriter must be very careful in creating content. Search Engines likes fresh and unique content. It ranks websites depending primarily on the content used in web pages. 

2. Changing the phrase of an existing content and rewriting is also considered as content duplication. Search Engines have ways to find out and it is supposed to be spam. This will certainly affect the ranking of a website.

3. When a website is reported to have duplicate content issues, the total number of pages ranked by the search engine will automatically come down. Fewer pages to rank will lessen the rankings and might lead to lower traffic.

4. It is important to make your content unique; otherwise there is absolutely no point in doing all these. The search engines will not bother to feature your website in its result pages.

5. There is a difference between content duplication “penalties” and “filtering”. When we refer to penalty in search engine rankings, we actually talk of points being reduced from your overall score, but the truth is, the pages are just filtered like you filter unwanted particles from a can of liquid. Accidently, this filtering can sometimes filter out your good particles.

Tips to avoid Content Duplication

1. While preparing content, make sure you don’t copy it from somewhere and try to replace the words with exact meanings. The search engines have already come up with a solution to deal with this issue.

2. Before you sit down to write, ask yourself what exactly will create value for your users.

3. Try to get various perspectives, take the good points from them and fill the rest with your own thoughts and creativity. After all, you have to make it happen and move forward.

4. You can be influenced by many, but make sure you don’t copy anything.

So while preparing content, watch out for duplication from search engine’s point of view and as well as loyal customer’s point of view. At the end of the day, it is the search engine and ultimately the customer who are going to “look” at your content, so make sure it is liked by both, otherwise all the efforts you put in for your business to grow will go wasted.

Apple iPhone developer program registration

After a month’s time today we have completed our Apple iPhone developer program registration. We have three applications and a game to be tested for our clients and it’s a milestone to do the testing and certification for the application in house.

The process goes this way:

1. Register and get an Apple ID
2. Apply for the iPhone developer program and wait for them. It took 15 days for them to contact us back.
3. Send your company incorporation to Apple with the registration ID by Fax. They provided 3 Fax numbers.
4. After Faxing, I also sent them an Email. Received an acknowledgement the next day from Apple.
5. Again, a waiting period, 8 days.
6. I wrote them again.
7. Got a call from Apple Hong Kong within an hour and then the agreement form by Email within another hour
8. Sent the agreement to them (Just a click to agree). It took me to a print form to send the credit card details. Printed it, filled it up and sent by Fax.
9. Next day, payment was processed, and we are allowed to access the iphone developer portal.

Everyone says that it’s not easy to join in the developer program. Actually its right partially, But Apple wants to allow only serious developers in. Their verification system is but time consuming, and they really want to see if the developer is providing complete details. I like this verification system, which filters non-serious developers.

Ok, now why take all these steps?

Here is the list of iPhone development program benefits.

1. Develop and test it on the actual device (iPhone or iPod Touch) – You can only test the application in the simulator, until you become a member.
2. You can distribute your application or game through iTune store for free or for a price.
3. Share your application with other iPhones (up to 50) for internal testing – called ad-hoc distribution
4. Coupon code for your application reviewers

Overall, your application is reaching millions of iTunes store users, and you get a chance to reach them easily.

I believe now RIM is also working on a store like this (http://mobileapps.blackberry.com/devicesoftware/entry.do?code=appworld) to support Blackberry developers.

Why Google Webmaster tools?

Google as a search giant knows how to help site owners and webmasters on search index. Time to Time Google team has been updating Google Webmaster Tools list and now its has come to a good form. All over, these tools provide reports on your site visibility, diagnose problems, and as well helps to share information about your site to Google.

To start, here is the list

1. Google Webmaster Tools are free and easy to set up through site owner verification process by adding a Google code Meta tag to the page or by creating and uploading a file with Google code. Once you are verified you can access the tools dashboard.
2. Sitemap tool allows you to submit XML Sitemap with details on pages to index and priority to crawl pages. If you don’t have a site map create one and submit to site configuration sitemap section.
3. Crawler access tool helps to generate and test robots.txt to specify how search engines should crawl and index site content.
4. When you Google for information you can see Sitelinks. Sitelinks displays inner links generated by Google algorithm depends on how related and useful for users queries. You have no control to add but you can block / remove the link from displaying the site links if you don’t want to list.
5. Change of address is a special tool to tell Google about your new domain and helps to move your old site users to you new domain easily. This process has 4 simple steps to follow like content link verification, 301 redirect from old to new domain, adding and verifying new site to Google webmaster tool and submitting the change of address
6. Geographic target tool helps to target users in specific location. You can select the country based on the users you target and it would help for .com, .org and other top-level domains. Country specific domains like .in, co.uk and so are already associated with Country based listing.
7. Preferred domain allows you to select the domain format you like to display. You have options to select http://www.yourdomain.com and http://yourdomain.com. If you have selected http://www.yourdomain.com and the site inner page links with http://yourdomain.com then search results display URL’s takes as http://www.yourdomain.com
8. Crawl rate can be changed depending on the site root level depth and default crawl rate is recommended to avoid increase server’s bandwidth. This Crawl rate has no connection with how often Googlebot crawls your site.
9. Top search queries tool has information on your site search keywords impressions and clickthrogh ratio along with keywords position.
10. Links to your site tool provides information on inbound links with anchor text for your site pages.
11. Keywords and internal links tool shows the common keywords Googlebot sees when it crawl’s the site and internal links shows the total number of pages linked by other pages in your site.
12. Crawl errors is another special tool that lists issues Google encountered when crawling your site. The list includes HTTP, error in sitemaps, not followed pages, not found pages, pages restricted by robots.txt, timed out / unreachable pages for Web, Mobile CHTML and Mobile WML / XHTML?
13. Crawl stats tool shows statistics on Googlebot activity on pages crawled per day, kilobytes downloaded per day, time spent downloading a page and PageRank distribution.
14. HTML suggestions are provided when Googlebot crawls your site and find issues with your site content. Working on these issues will help your site in better listing and users experience. Here you can find details on Meta description, Title tag and Non-indexable content in your site.

Now ask a question yourself why don’t I use Google Webmaster tools, if I have as many tools and information from Google for free. Sign in to Google Webmaster Tools with your Google account today!

To Linkbait or Not to Linkbait

Before starting with the topic let me give you a brief note about link bait and practices so that you would have an idea how it works for you

Linkbait is one of the task in link building that takes both quantity and quality inlinks, relevant and irrelevant to your website through various types of tricks and practices.

The tricks and practices are vast enough and it can’t be covered as a theory since all these tricks would differ from person to person ideas and their needs. Few may try running a SEO competition, quiz or awards that represent their business website or blog and few may try writing negative contents on a branded company or about a high profile person around the web so that many would come forward to have the content link in their website or blog in which they may think such collections that would again get them linked from different website or a blog. This works as a chain.

Now one of the most adopted link bait technique is by providing free tools with a code embedded link back to your site or blog and this has been more successful. In fact many SEO companies do linkbating as a service in different forms

To linkbait or Not to Linkbait?

Many people goes with a logic Linkbait by default is something bad, is it so?

Before writing this post I just surfed web to find what bloggers and industry leaders have experienced about link bait. Few were moderate and few feels it has both bad and good

I would say it is how we use, see and perform to the web. We have lot of debate on this topic, still some say it as a spam technique and some say it as a quality information or link distribution. Techniques that are open and user favorable with a link falls under ethical and they are good portion of link bait and techniques that are off as said attacking a brand for their website publicity, hidden stuff and spamming through various means falls under unethical that results bad linkbait. As I have already told it is up to us whether link bait is good or bad. Besides I would like to get your opinion about linkbaiting techniques that you have come across or used