Web Search Engines
Search engines designed for searching web pages, documents and images are designed to allow searching through these largely unstructured units of content. They are built to follow a multi-stage process: crawling the pages or documents to discover their contents, indexing their content in a structured form (database or other), and finally resolving user queries to return results and links to the documents or pages from the index.
Crawl
In the case of full-text search for the web search, the first step in preparing web pages for search is to find and index them. In the past, search engines started with a small list of URLs as seed list, fetched the content, parsed for the links on those pages, fetched the web pages pointed to by those links which provided new links and the cycle continued until enough pages were found.[citation needed] Most modern search engines now utilize a continuous crawl method rather than discovery based on a seed list.[citation needed] The continuous crawl method is just an extension of discovery method but there is no seed list because the crawl never stops.[citation needed] The current list of pages is visited on regular intervals and new pages are found when links are added or deleted from those pages.[citation needed] Many search engines use sophisticated scheduling algorithms to decide when to revisit a particular page. These algorithms range from constant visit-interval with higher priority for more frequently changing pages to adaptive visit-interval based on several criteria such as frequency of change, popularity and overall quality of site, speed of web server serving the page and resource constraints like amount of hardware and bandwidth of Internet connection. Search engines crawl many more pages than they make available for searching because crawler find lots duplicate content pages on the web and many pages don't have useful content. Duplicate and useless content often represents more than half the pages available for indexing.
Link Map
Pages discovered by crawlers are fed into (often distributed) service that creates a link map of the pages. Link map is a graph structure in which pages are represented as nodes connected by the links among those pages. This data is stored in data structures that allow fast access to the data by certain algorithms which compute the popularity score of pages on the web, essentially based on how many links point to a web page and the quality of those links. One such algorithm, PageRank, proposed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, is well known and has attracted a lot of attention. The idea of doing link analysis to compute a popularity rank is older than PageRank and many variants of the same idea are currently in use. These ideas can be categorized in three main categories: rank of individual pages, rank of web sites, and nature of web site content (Jon Kleinberg's HITS algorithm). Search engines often differentiate between internal links and external links, with the assumption that links on a page pointing other pages on the same site are less valuable because they are often created by web site owners to artificially increase the rank of their web sites and pages. Link map data structures typically also store the anchor text embedded in the links because anchor text often provides a very good quality short-summary of a web page's content.
Index
Indexing is the process of extracting text from web pages, tokenizing it and then creating an index structure (inverted index) that can be used to quickly find which pages contain a particular word. Search engines differ quite a lot in tokenization process. The issues involved in tokenization are: detecting the encoding used for the page, determining the language of the content (some pages use multiple languages), finding word, sentence and paragraph boundaries, combining multiple adjacent-words into one phrase and changing the case of text and stemming the words into their roots (lower-casing and stemming is applicable only to some languages). This phase also decides which sections of page to index and how much text from very large pages (such as technical manuals) to index. Search engines also differ in the document formats they interpret and extract the text from.
Some search engines go through the indexing process every few weeks and refresh the complete index used for web search requests while others keep updating small fragments of the index continuously.[citation needed] Before web pages can be indexed, an algorithm decides which node (a server in a distributed service) will index any given page and makes the information available as metadata for other components in the search engine. The index structure is complex and typically employs some compression algorithm.[citation needed] The choice of compression algorithm involves a trade-off between on-disk storage space and speed of decompression when needed to satisfy search requests. The largest search engines use thousands of computers to index pages in parallel.[citation needed]
Database Search Engines
Searching for text-based content in databases presents some special challenges and opportunities which a number of specialized search engines resolve. Databases are slow when solving complex queries (with multiple logical or string matching arguments. Databases allow logical queries which full-text search doesn't (use of multi-field boolean logic for instance). There is no crawling necessary for a database since the data is already structured but it is often necessary to index the data in a more compact form designed to allow for faster search.
Database search systems relational databases are indexed by compounding multiple tables into a single table containing only the fields that need to be queried (or displayed in search results). The actual data matching engines can include any functions from basic string matching, normalization, transformation, Database search technology is heavily used by government database services, e-commerce companies, web advertising platforms, telecommunications service providers, etc.
Mixed Search Engines
In cases where the data searched contains both database content and webpages or documents, search engine technology has been developed to respond to both sets of requirements. Most mixed search engines are large Web search engines (example: Google) or enterprise search software products (example: Autonomy). They search both through structured and unstructured data sources. Pages and documents are crawled and indexed in a separate index. Databases are indexed also from various sources. Search results are then generated for users by querying these multiple indices in parallel and compounding the results according to rules.
Much of the incremental value of these search systems comes from their ability to connect to multiple sources of content and data and their ability to interpret their multiple formats.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Search_engine_technology&oldid=500092867"
Friday, November 30, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The Fiscal Cliff - Part 2
What are the components of the fiscal cliff?
The following set of revenue and spending measures are set to expire or take effect at year's end, representing an acute fiscal consolidation that could be further intensified by a potential showdown over the debt ceiling:
Revenue Increases
2001/2003/2010 Tax Cuts & AMT Patch. This series of legislation, often referred to collectively as the "Bush tax cuts," will expire on December 31, 2012, raising all income tax rates (top will go from 35 to 39.6 percent), as well as rates on estate and capital gains taxes. The alternative minimum tax (AMT) will also automatically apply to millions more citizens.
Payroll Tax Cut. The Social Security payroll tax holiday will expire December 31, raising the rate from 4.2 to 6.2 percent.
Other Provisions. Several other policies such as the Research and Experimentation tax credit, many of which are typically enacted retroactively, are due to sunset at years' end.
Affordable Care Act Taxes. Some provisions in the Obama health care legislation, including increased tax rates on high-income earners, are set to take effect in January 2013.
Spending Cuts
Budget Control Act. The automatic spending cuts or sequester legislated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 will hit January 2. Half of the scheduled annual cuts ($109 billion/year from 2013-2021) will come directly from the national defense budget, half from non-defense. However, some 70 percent of mandatory spending will be exempt.
Extended Unemployment Benefits. The eligibility to begin receiving federal unemployment benefits, last extended in February, will expire at year's end.
Medicare "Doc Fix." The rates at which Medicare pays physicians will decrease nearly 30 percent on December 31.
Debt Ceiling
The debt limit, which sets the maximum amount of outstanding federal debt the U.S. government can incur by law, is currently capped at $16.394 trillion. Treasury could hit this borrowing capacity again sometime in early 2013. Analysts fear another protracted debate on the debt ceiling could bring repercussions similar to those that followed the debt battle in summer of 2011, which rattled markets and, according to a study from the Government Accountability Office, raised the cost of borrowing by $1.3 billion for FY2011.
How did it come to this?
The fiscal cliff is in many ways the culmination of a series of increasingly contentious fiscal showdowns between the two parties over the last few years. The most noteworthy, the debt-ceiling fight of August 2011, threatened the country's ability to meet its financial obligations and resulted in an unprecedented downgrade in the U.S. credit rating by Standard and Poor's. The subsequent failure of the bipartisan supercommittee to reach a deal on $1.2 trillion in targeted budget savings over ten years unleashed automatic spending cuts for both defense and non-defense spending.
Most critics believe that the lack of a comprehensive, long-term deal on deficit reduction--one that addresses the need for major tax and entitlement reform--has propelled the use of short-term political expedients like the "doc fix" and other extenders. Meanwhile, the nation's debt soars on an unsustainable path, according to most projections.
Taxes and the role of government lie at the heart of the debate. Generally speaking, Republicans favor spending cuts as a primary means to achieve deficit reduction. Most have also publicly pledged to oppose all tax hikes, suggesting growth through tax cuts will increase revenue. Democrats typically believe tax increases should be part of any bargain to reduce long-term entitlement spending, and have generally supported greater reductions in defense spending.
This philosophical rift is on display in the debate leading up to the fiscal cliff. The two parties are divided over how to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, the largest single component of the fiscal cliff. Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, are pushing for all cuts to be extended, while many Democrats, led by President Obama, would extend all cuts except for the wealthiest 2 percent of taxpayers. The fight over taxes is also very much part of the sequester debate (Politico), with Democrats pushing for more revenue as part of any deal to avert the drastic mandatory cuts.
What are the domestic consequences?
A $607 billion budget contraction in 2013 would likely send the United States into another recession in the first half of the year, according to the CBO. In such a scenario, analysts project real economic output in 2013 to grow at just 0.5 percent, resulting in lower taxable incomes and higher unemployment (one to two million).
International shipping giant UPS, which is often considered a bellwether for the business community at large, has already reduced its growth forecast for the second half of 2012 to just 1 percent, citing the climate in Washington (The Hill). "[Our] customers are concerned. They're not going to invest. They're not going to hire people. They're not going to stock inventory with all that uncertainty," said CEO Scott Davis.
A July report from Morgan Stanley (WashPost) similarly states the company is already experiencing cutbacks in business orders and hiring, and notes that "the negative impact of fiscal cliff uncertainty is becoming more widespread."
Moreover, a report from the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) suggests CBO projections "may underestimate the pain associated with the fiscal cliff since they do not fully account for the continued market uncertainty or the potential 'hysteresis' associated with continued long-term unemployment." In economic theory, labor market hysteresis occurs when persistently high unemployment fosters even higher levels of joblessness in the long term due to a number of causes (i.e., the skills of long-term unemployed diminish, thereby reducing the chances of becoming re-employed.)
What are the national security implications?
Automatic, across-the-board spending cuts of approximately $55 billion per year (through 2021) are scheduled to hit the Pentagon in January unless Congress steps in before the new year. Details of how the cuts will be enacted are yet to be fully worked out by the White House Office of Management and Budget, but some preliminary decisions have been made. In late July, President Obama exempted all members of the military from the potential cutbacks, an authority granted to the White House under the 2011 Budget Control Act (TheHill).
The decision will likely shift the burden of sequester cuts onto other areas of the Pentagon, including weapons programs. Defense contractors have already condemned the sequester as a potential "jobs killer." A fact sheet from the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee describes the looming defense cuts (PDF) as an "unacceptable risk" that will "severely diminish America's global posture" and lead to the loss of over one million private sector jobs.
Similarly, the White House has described the potential cuts as "highly destructive to national security and domestic priorities, as well as to core government functions," and continues to push for a political compromise that would avert major cuts.
What are the global consequences if Congress fails to act?
The repercussions abroad would likely be significant if Congress is unable to at least temporarily stave off the acute onset of year-end tax increases and spending cuts. A July 2012 IMF report notes that massive fiscal tightening in the United States in early 2013 is a primary risk to global economic stability. Protracted gridlock in Washington would stall the U.S. recovery "with significant spillovers to the rest of the world," say experts. In addition, "delays in raising the federal debt ceiling could increase risks of financial market disruptions and a loss in consumer and business confidence."
What are the practical policy considerations?
Economists suggest a more prudent compromise would involve extending some current provisions either indefinitely or at least temporarily in order to avoid undercutting economic growth. The IMF advises U.S. policymakers to pursue tax and spending policies that bring down the 2013 deficit by a more modest 1 percent. At the same time, analysts say policymakers should forge a credible plan to impose a requisite amount of medium to long-term fiscal consolidation.
A host of public and private policy groups have proposed more than thirty different deficit reduction approaches that address the root problems of soaring U.S. debt: an aging population, longer life expectancies, and rising health care costs. A fiscal cliff dive, on the other hand, would significantly slash the deficit but would not address the fundamental drivers of long-term U.S. debt. A comprehensive deficit deal would map out a gradual schedule of targeted tax and entitlement reforms that businesses, individuals, and government agencies can plan for and adjust to.
The sooner such a plan can be worked out, the better, say analysts. "Failure to make the hard but necessary choices now on our own terms will lead to much harder and more severe choices later" at the behest of the markets, says CRFB. Continuing to grow the debt at unsustainable levels threatens to trigger a sharp increase in U.S. borrowing costs and further downgrades to the nation's credit rating. While global investors may continue to fund high U.S. deficits for several more years, recent experiences of several advanced economies in Europe indicate the unpredictability and speed at which fiscal crises can come.
What are the prospects for progress over the next few months?
Analysts say the approaching fiscal crisis at year's end offers Republicans and Democrats yet another opportunity to strike a balance between the short-term measures needed to feed the recovery and the medium to long-term policies that will stabilize and eventually lower the debt. But prospects for a significant political compromise that averts the fiscal cliff (Reuters) before the November election is highly unlikely, and some speculate that lawmakers may even wait until a Congress is seated in January before any action is taken.
The theory behind a deliberate cliff dive (CSM) would be to enable election winners to return to Washington with swollen coffers in January, hit the reset button, and put together a new package of policies they can frame as "tax cuts." Part of the recouped revenue could also be used for deficit reduction. Some think policymakers are already telegraphing this strategy in order to inoculate the markets. Even if there is a temporary crisis, it would likely only last a couple months before recessionary pressure forces Congress into action, some analysts say.
Expectations for a pre-election deal that would put the brakes on the $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts are also quite low. While both parties have expressed opposition to the "meat axe" approach to deficit reduction (WashPost), they remain divided on a workable alternative. However, similar budget sequesters in 1988 and 1990 (PDF), which were reduced or erased by subsequent legislation, may offer insight into a likely outcome.
The following set of revenue and spending measures are set to expire or take effect at year's end, representing an acute fiscal consolidation that could be further intensified by a potential showdown over the debt ceiling:
Revenue Increases
2001/2003/2010 Tax Cuts & AMT Patch. This series of legislation, often referred to collectively as the "Bush tax cuts," will expire on December 31, 2012, raising all income tax rates (top will go from 35 to 39.6 percent), as well as rates on estate and capital gains taxes. The alternative minimum tax (AMT) will also automatically apply to millions more citizens.
Payroll Tax Cut. The Social Security payroll tax holiday will expire December 31, raising the rate from 4.2 to 6.2 percent.
Other Provisions. Several other policies such as the Research and Experimentation tax credit, many of which are typically enacted retroactively, are due to sunset at years' end.
Affordable Care Act Taxes. Some provisions in the Obama health care legislation, including increased tax rates on high-income earners, are set to take effect in January 2013.
Spending Cuts
Budget Control Act. The automatic spending cuts or sequester legislated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 will hit January 2. Half of the scheduled annual cuts ($109 billion/year from 2013-2021) will come directly from the national defense budget, half from non-defense. However, some 70 percent of mandatory spending will be exempt.
Extended Unemployment Benefits. The eligibility to begin receiving federal unemployment benefits, last extended in February, will expire at year's end.
Medicare "Doc Fix." The rates at which Medicare pays physicians will decrease nearly 30 percent on December 31.
Debt Ceiling
The debt limit, which sets the maximum amount of outstanding federal debt the U.S. government can incur by law, is currently capped at $16.394 trillion. Treasury could hit this borrowing capacity again sometime in early 2013. Analysts fear another protracted debate on the debt ceiling could bring repercussions similar to those that followed the debt battle in summer of 2011, which rattled markets and, according to a study from the Government Accountability Office, raised the cost of borrowing by $1.3 billion for FY2011.
How did it come to this?
The fiscal cliff is in many ways the culmination of a series of increasingly contentious fiscal showdowns between the two parties over the last few years. The most noteworthy, the debt-ceiling fight of August 2011, threatened the country's ability to meet its financial obligations and resulted in an unprecedented downgrade in the U.S. credit rating by Standard and Poor's. The subsequent failure of the bipartisan supercommittee to reach a deal on $1.2 trillion in targeted budget savings over ten years unleashed automatic spending cuts for both defense and non-defense spending.
Most critics believe that the lack of a comprehensive, long-term deal on deficit reduction--one that addresses the need for major tax and entitlement reform--has propelled the use of short-term political expedients like the "doc fix" and other extenders. Meanwhile, the nation's debt soars on an unsustainable path, according to most projections.
Taxes and the role of government lie at the heart of the debate. Generally speaking, Republicans favor spending cuts as a primary means to achieve deficit reduction. Most have also publicly pledged to oppose all tax hikes, suggesting growth through tax cuts will increase revenue. Democrats typically believe tax increases should be part of any bargain to reduce long-term entitlement spending, and have generally supported greater reductions in defense spending.
This philosophical rift is on display in the debate leading up to the fiscal cliff. The two parties are divided over how to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, the largest single component of the fiscal cliff. Republicans, including presidential candidate Mitt Romney, are pushing for all cuts to be extended, while many Democrats, led by President Obama, would extend all cuts except for the wealthiest 2 percent of taxpayers. The fight over taxes is also very much part of the sequester debate (Politico), with Democrats pushing for more revenue as part of any deal to avert the drastic mandatory cuts.
What are the domestic consequences?
A $607 billion budget contraction in 2013 would likely send the United States into another recession in the first half of the year, according to the CBO. In such a scenario, analysts project real economic output in 2013 to grow at just 0.5 percent, resulting in lower taxable incomes and higher unemployment (one to two million).
International shipping giant UPS, which is often considered a bellwether for the business community at large, has already reduced its growth forecast for the second half of 2012 to just 1 percent, citing the climate in Washington (The Hill). "[Our] customers are concerned. They're not going to invest. They're not going to hire people. They're not going to stock inventory with all that uncertainty," said CEO Scott Davis.
A July report from Morgan Stanley (WashPost) similarly states the company is already experiencing cutbacks in business orders and hiring, and notes that "the negative impact of fiscal cliff uncertainty is becoming more widespread."
Moreover, a report from the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) suggests CBO projections "may underestimate the pain associated with the fiscal cliff since they do not fully account for the continued market uncertainty or the potential 'hysteresis' associated with continued long-term unemployment." In economic theory, labor market hysteresis occurs when persistently high unemployment fosters even higher levels of joblessness in the long term due to a number of causes (i.e., the skills of long-term unemployed diminish, thereby reducing the chances of becoming re-employed.)
What are the national security implications?
Automatic, across-the-board spending cuts of approximately $55 billion per year (through 2021) are scheduled to hit the Pentagon in January unless Congress steps in before the new year. Details of how the cuts will be enacted are yet to be fully worked out by the White House Office of Management and Budget, but some preliminary decisions have been made. In late July, President Obama exempted all members of the military from the potential cutbacks, an authority granted to the White House under the 2011 Budget Control Act (TheHill).
The decision will likely shift the burden of sequester cuts onto other areas of the Pentagon, including weapons programs. Defense contractors have already condemned the sequester as a potential "jobs killer." A fact sheet from the Republican-controlled House Armed Services Committee describes the looming defense cuts (PDF) as an "unacceptable risk" that will "severely diminish America's global posture" and lead to the loss of over one million private sector jobs.
Similarly, the White House has described the potential cuts as "highly destructive to national security and domestic priorities, as well as to core government functions," and continues to push for a political compromise that would avert major cuts.
What are the global consequences if Congress fails to act?
The repercussions abroad would likely be significant if Congress is unable to at least temporarily stave off the acute onset of year-end tax increases and spending cuts. A July 2012 IMF report notes that massive fiscal tightening in the United States in early 2013 is a primary risk to global economic stability. Protracted gridlock in Washington would stall the U.S. recovery "with significant spillovers to the rest of the world," say experts. In addition, "delays in raising the federal debt ceiling could increase risks of financial market disruptions and a loss in consumer and business confidence."
What are the practical policy considerations?
Economists suggest a more prudent compromise would involve extending some current provisions either indefinitely or at least temporarily in order to avoid undercutting economic growth. The IMF advises U.S. policymakers to pursue tax and spending policies that bring down the 2013 deficit by a more modest 1 percent. At the same time, analysts say policymakers should forge a credible plan to impose a requisite amount of medium to long-term fiscal consolidation.
A host of public and private policy groups have proposed more than thirty different deficit reduction approaches that address the root problems of soaring U.S. debt: an aging population, longer life expectancies, and rising health care costs. A fiscal cliff dive, on the other hand, would significantly slash the deficit but would not address the fundamental drivers of long-term U.S. debt. A comprehensive deficit deal would map out a gradual schedule of targeted tax and entitlement reforms that businesses, individuals, and government agencies can plan for and adjust to.
The sooner such a plan can be worked out, the better, say analysts. "Failure to make the hard but necessary choices now on our own terms will lead to much harder and more severe choices later" at the behest of the markets, says CRFB. Continuing to grow the debt at unsustainable levels threatens to trigger a sharp increase in U.S. borrowing costs and further downgrades to the nation's credit rating. While global investors may continue to fund high U.S. deficits for several more years, recent experiences of several advanced economies in Europe indicate the unpredictability and speed at which fiscal crises can come.
What are the prospects for progress over the next few months?
Analysts say the approaching fiscal crisis at year's end offers Republicans and Democrats yet another opportunity to strike a balance between the short-term measures needed to feed the recovery and the medium to long-term policies that will stabilize and eventually lower the debt. But prospects for a significant political compromise that averts the fiscal cliff (Reuters) before the November election is highly unlikely, and some speculate that lawmakers may even wait until a Congress is seated in January before any action is taken.
The theory behind a deliberate cliff dive (CSM) would be to enable election winners to return to Washington with swollen coffers in January, hit the reset button, and put together a new package of policies they can frame as "tax cuts." Part of the recouped revenue could also be used for deficit reduction. Some think policymakers are already telegraphing this strategy in order to inoculate the markets. Even if there is a temporary crisis, it would likely only last a couple months before recessionary pressure forces Congress into action, some analysts say.
Expectations for a pre-election deal that would put the brakes on the $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts are also quite low. While both parties have expressed opposition to the "meat axe" approach to deficit reduction (WashPost), they remain divided on a workable alternative. However, similar budget sequesters in 1988 and 1990 (PDF), which were reduced or erased by subsequent legislation, may offer insight into a likely outcome.
-Jonathan Masters, Online Editor/Writer Council on Foreign Relations
Monday, November 12, 2012
Selecting Good Keywords for Your SEO Strategy
by Victor J. McCoy
The first step in generating good keywords begins with understanding the topic of your website and the target audience. This is arguably a most important step in search engine optimization. The bulk of your website from the directory and file names to the title tags and page copy, should be built around the words and phrases you choose during the process of selecting your keywords. Initially you want to generate a potential keyword list that is as large as possible, with the keywords organized by search volume. Volume refers to the number of searches performed on a unique keyword over a period of time. A large list will help you to have a good mix of search terms associated with your website. Be careful to not only select terms that are associated with large companies but to mix your keywords with terms that are not heavily searched. For example, if people are searching for exotic green tea and that's something you sell but Midwest Tea Company sells the same thing nationally and has national advertising you might want to add exotic green tea in Michigan - or whatever your state may be, along with other lessor searched terms for the product. The same is true for a service oriented business, or non-profit.
If you need assistance or access to the tools needed to do a keyword search email victor@3vdesignmedia.com
The first step in generating good keywords begins with understanding the topic of your website and the target audience. This is arguably a most important step in search engine optimization. The bulk of your website from the directory and file names to the title tags and page copy, should be built around the words and phrases you choose during the process of selecting your keywords. Initially you want to generate a potential keyword list that is as large as possible, with the keywords organized by search volume. Volume refers to the number of searches performed on a unique keyword over a period of time. A large list will help you to have a good mix of search terms associated with your website. Be careful to not only select terms that are associated with large companies but to mix your keywords with terms that are not heavily searched. For example, if people are searching for exotic green tea and that's something you sell but Midwest Tea Company sells the same thing nationally and has national advertising you might want to add exotic green tea in Michigan - or whatever your state may be, along with other lessor searched terms for the product. The same is true for a service oriented business, or non-profit.
If you need assistance or access to the tools needed to do a keyword search email victor@3vdesignmedia.com
Thursday, November 8, 2012
The Products or Services Page
by Victor J. McCoy
The homepage of your website should be designed to concisely describe what your website offers. The remaining pages should concisely present and describe what your products/services do going - going in-depth. Be careful not to overwhelm the reader with to much information - they probably will not spend time reading it anyway unless necessary. Your visitors only that it does it do what they want, or will it provide what I need how and when I need it? That information is varied based on your industry, but still must be concise. Here is where knowing your target audience is important. The onus is on you to provide important information in as appealing a manner as possible.
The best way to organize information on your website is to categorize your offerings into main headings that are frequently searched terms and subheadings. The font should be larger than it's subheadings giving it visible importance.
If you are selling products make sure your pictures have been optimized and are large enough for visitors to get a good look at. In some cases you may need to have pictures at different angles of the product.
For a service oriented page, make sure you include pictures of your work, not stock photography. A short video snippet of your work will work well especially if the snippet is of good quality. Customer comments are always welcome.
The homepage of your website should be designed to concisely describe what your website offers. The remaining pages should concisely present and describe what your products/services do going - going in-depth. Be careful not to overwhelm the reader with to much information - they probably will not spend time reading it anyway unless necessary. Your visitors only that it does it do what they want, or will it provide what I need how and when I need it? That information is varied based on your industry, but still must be concise. Here is where knowing your target audience is important. The onus is on you to provide important information in as appealing a manner as possible.
The best way to organize information on your website is to categorize your offerings into main headings that are frequently searched terms and subheadings. The font should be larger than it's subheadings giving it visible importance.
If you are selling products make sure your pictures have been optimized and are large enough for visitors to get a good look at. In some cases you may need to have pictures at different angles of the product.
For a service oriented page, make sure you include pictures of your work, not stock photography. A short video snippet of your work will work well especially if the snippet is of good quality. Customer comments are always welcome.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The Fiscal Cliff
by Victor McCoy
Now that the election is over and the television stations have made a lot of money along with other businesses associated with the process, what can small businesses and non-profits expect to see? What key indicators should we be looking at? What about the Bush Tax Cuts, etc.? How will this impact your business and personal life?
Over the past few weeks you may have heard the term "Fiscal Cliff". It refers to the tax increases and spending cuts that take effect in January -- includes $7 trillion worth of tax increases and spending cuts over a decade.
Those policies include reductions in both defense and nondefense spending, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, the end of a payroll tax holiday, extended unemployment benefits, and the onset of reimbursement cuts to Medicare doctors.
Lawmakers must choose whether to leave in place some or all of them, replace them, postpone them or cancel them entirely. That is the greatest issue facing the Senate and House, which have not come together to deal with these issues. The decision will affect the economy, the country's credit rating and the U.S. debt burden.
If left in place, the fiscal cliff would lead to the biggest single-year drop in the annual deficit as a percent of the economy since 1969.
This could throw the United States back into recession next year, when more than $500 billion will be taken out of the economy. If this issue is of such great importance, why was it not emphasized in the Obama or Romney campaign? Yes, both did spoke on the Bush tax cuts and defense spending cuts but it seems the debt ceiling issue was overlooked, or was it?
Now that the election is over and the television stations have made a lot of money along with other businesses associated with the process, what can small businesses and non-profits expect to see? What key indicators should we be looking at? What about the Bush Tax Cuts, etc.? How will this impact your business and personal life?
Over the past few weeks you may have heard the term "Fiscal Cliff". It refers to the tax increases and spending cuts that take effect in January -- includes $7 trillion worth of tax increases and spending cuts over a decade.
Those policies include reductions in both defense and nondefense spending, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, the end of a payroll tax holiday, extended unemployment benefits, and the onset of reimbursement cuts to Medicare doctors.
Lawmakers must choose whether to leave in place some or all of them, replace them, postpone them or cancel them entirely. That is the greatest issue facing the Senate and House, which have not come together to deal with these issues. The decision will affect the economy, the country's credit rating and the U.S. debt burden.
If left in place, the fiscal cliff would lead to the biggest single-year drop in the annual deficit as a percent of the economy since 1969.
This could throw the United States back into recession next year, when more than $500 billion will be taken out of the economy. If this issue is of such great importance, why was it not emphasized in the Obama or Romney campaign? Yes, both did spoke on the Bush tax cuts and defense spending cuts but it seems the debt ceiling issue was overlooked, or was it?
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