Microsoft released IE7 in 2006, and the subsequent version, IE8, in March 2009. IE8 offers a number of improvements in RSS, CSS and Ajax-based designs. The latest version offers support for various Web standards. IE8 supports Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) specification for enhanced accessibility in Ajax-based RIAs. All these factors make IE8 more flexible and easy to work with.

IE6 faces a number of compatibility issues in today’s Web design environment. It does not provide the transparency required in PNG imaging. There are different CSS styles applied for IE6, adding the woes to Web site designers. Also, IE6 does not support some of the latest CSS and HTML features. As a result, the Web site design does not produce the desired impact.

We could use JavaScript fixes for the transparency issues in IE6, as well as a number of fixes available for other issues. The question is: how long? Why not look for a whole new option instead of fixing the old ones? I think, it’s time to rethink our strategy and make a step forward in favor of higher versions.

With the popularity of Firefox, Mozilla and Google Chrome, there are more arguments in favor of upgrading the browser. Several leading developers have stopped supporting IE6. Google’s decision to stop supporting IE6 in 2010 has in a way encouraged developers to look for the new browser. With this announcement from the Internet major, developers are a bit relieved from the difficult task of fixing IE6 bugs in CSS. Popular Word press platforms like Woo Themes have already dropped their support for IE6. Many are likely to follow their footsteps to bring the wonderful results of today’s Web design applications to users’ Web sites. IE6 is also not the option for mobile applications developers like Apple’s Mobile Me.

The only good news for IE6 supporters is that the old browser still remains the favorite choice for several users. This leads to another question: Can IE6 still be the browser option for you? Well, it can be, if your Web site does not demand high levels of interaction with customers. You may wait till most users upgrade their browser. In this case, you will have to find out how much you lose and calculate the loss against the additional development time required to upgrade to IE7 or higher.

Many developers are reluctant to say ‘good bye’ to their favorite browser they have been quite familiar with. They admit there are developmental issues and compatibility concerns, yet they are willing to cope with it by applying fixes.

In light of so many challenges with IE6 and also with growing popularity of later version of IE, IE6 market share is dwindling with time. I would say now is the time that we start looking beyond IE6.

XHTML serves the basic objective of visual consistency across all the browsers and platforms. The coding for XHTML is done in a unique fashion so that the search engines optimize the websites. Some people who use HTML for their websites but want to update their codes to XHTML can follow these tips.

• Lowercase must be used for all the tags

All <P> tags must be replaced with <p>. For convenience, turn off the caps lock function, match the case and find-replace the tags with the lowercase.

• All tags must be closed

Once the tags are written, they must be closed either in case of paragraphs or any other tag like <p> and following it with </p>. Any tag without a closing element like <img> or <br> can be closed with as slash “/” before “>” (/>). You even need to close the header tags: <meta name = “keywords content = “keywords, go, here”/>. This habit needs to be inculcated to avoid errors in coding.

• Tags must be nested properly

The tags are closed just in the same manner as they are closed.

WRONG – <p><strong>Hi!</p></strong>

CORRECT – <p><strong>Hi! </strong></p>

So, don’t do it the wrong way.

• Double speech marks must be used

Double speech marks are important to use inside the tags.

For eg : in an image tag: WRONG – height = 50, CORRECT – height = “50”

• Alt tags must be added

Alt tag is an important feature while using the image as it provides consistency in the images. The alt tags provide a description to the pictures which forms the visual structure. If you have spacer images, use alt = “” rather than using alt = “spacer”. Avoid the use of word space in the speech marks.

• Avoid <font> tags

Use the basic CSS layout functions for font tags. To style and size your text, using paragraph or span tag is undoubtedly a better proposition.

• Character entity codes must be used

Using simple codes of character entity helps in upgradation of HTML to XHTML.

• CSS coding for your sites

CSS coding makes the size of the website shrink and the control over the site increases exceptionally. This certainly helps to optimise the site for major search engines.

Following these steps would give a full control over your newly coded XHTML website. You can join the competition in the rest of the web world and feel superior.

Over 80% of consumers use search engines to find products and services.
These days, no website owner can afford not to have a search engine friendly website. There are a lot of things which one should do to achieve high ranking like search engine friendly code, Link building, submit website to various directories, Sitemap, Meta tags etc.
Writing quality code is the first step in making website search engine friendly. In this article we are covering the points which should be taken care of while coding the website:

1. Use HTML for the content as much as possible. Avoid Flash, images, or other non-text formats.
Simple and cleanly coded website always rank higher than the flash based website. The non-text formats must be avoided in order to yield greater website accessibility. Not only the website becomes accessible to larger audience (Visually impaired or cognitive impaired users) but also can be accessed by a range of devices. The search spiders quickly spot the HTML coded and search engine friendly pages. Other advantages of using HTML are: faster loading, Cascading Style Sheet removing access load from server, browser compatibility, easy updating and maintenance.

2. Avoid login functionality to access the page unless it’s required. Search engine cannot index the page that requires login.

3. Do not use frames.
Using frames are considered to be a blunder by webmasters. Frames generally are not indexed by various search engines. Indexing leads to display of the embedded web addresses in frames, as the users are unable to navigate through the search results. Frames also create problem while printing, refreshing or bookmarking the webpage. Frames are becoming obsolete with the advent of AJAX and DIV layers.

4. Navigation should be in plain html. Avoid using flash.
Easy, simple coding in text like HTML facilitates the website to be ranked higher by the search engines.

5. Keep URL as short as possible. .
URL or the domain name is the essence of your website. Going by the KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) rule, the URL ought to be short as it would reduce the chances of misspelling and confusion by the visitors.

6. Static URL is always preferred over dynamic URL.
The search engines are able to index the static URLs in a comfortable manner than the dynamic URLs. Search engines can not access the dynamic and thus the websites lose on their market positioning.

7. Do not use numbers in URL.
Use of numbers in URL must be avoided to circumvent any confusion.

8. If possible, use keywords in URL.
Use of keywords communicates the basic crux of the website to the visitor and also invokes interest in the website, forcing the visitor to go through the website.

9. Separate words using Hyphens in URL.
Use of hyphens should be made clear in the URL else it may puzzle the visitor. Two words should be separated with the use of a hyphen as the search engine reads it as two words.

10. Always use lowercase in URL.
To maintain consistency and avoid any confusion, always use lowercase in URL.

11. Always add alt attribute for images, flash, audio & video file.
Alt attribute are a must while using images, flash, audio and video files as they are alternative names of the images and describe the files. The alt attribute basically lend a caption for such files and helps in search engine ranking.

12. Use Anchor text in links
The anchor text links are powerful tools for site optimization. Anchor text links provide a theme for the entire website.

13. Limit the length of title tag to 65 characters (including spaces) or less.
Different search engines accept different standards. Hence, to be on the safer side, it is important to limit the length of the title tag between 50-65 characters.

14. Incorporate keyword phrases in title tags.
Including 2-3 important keyword phrases of the website in the title tag facilitates good rankings by the search engines. However, the title tags must not be over burdened with keyword phrases as the chances are that the website would be blacklisted as spam. Each page with its own keyword phrase lends higher readership.

15. Add Meta tags in the code.
Search engines use meta-tags to identify the objective of the website; therefore, meta-tags help in optimizing the website. The search crawlers determine the relevance of the meta-tags with respect to the content of the webpage.

16. Add Header Tags i.e, h1, h2, h3 etc.
Header tags as the name itself suggest are used to incorporate the headings in the text. The h1 header can be used to determine the main keyword and the h2 header tag can identify the next relevant keyword and so on.

17. Offload JavaScript and other non-text code (style sheets, etc.) to external files

18. Optimize images for fast loading
Larger images must be broken into smaller size images which enable uploading smaller images simultaneously and faster. Cropping unnecessary portions and reducing the image depth also help in loading the image faster.

19. Try to keep page size as low as possible
Lower the page size, lesser time will it take to load and thus would not distract the visitor from the website. Sometimes pages with larger size take ages to load and divert the potential user or client.

20. Validate your markup & CSS against w3c standards
Validating markup helps to identify the flaws or wrong coding on the webpage. The W3C standards are laid down to determine the errors and make the code neat & tidy.