If you have ever wanted to send a form without reloading the page, provide a look-ahead search function that prompts the user with suggestions as they type, or auto-save documents, then what you need is AJAX (also known as XHR). A behind-the-scenes request is sent to the server, and returning data to your form. Whenever…
The rise of mobile search has led to many changes in SEO, but none more dramatic than the area of local search. By now, most of us are familiar with the Google update known as Pigeon. Launched in 2014, it allowed greater search visibility for local directories, which helped local search engine optimization (SEO) establish…
Despite the amazing growth of the stock market in 2017, several sectors of the American economy had a cataclysmically bad year. The poster child for this decline is traditional retail: things like clothing stores, department stores, malls and toy stores. Bloomberg reported more than 7,000 physical stores closed in 2017, and analysts expect 2018 will…
“Progressive Images” is a hot topic these days. We often come across articles explaining techniques on how to avoid showing an empty space where an image will load. Medium and Facebook are examples of websites and mobile apps that apply this pattern. I recently wrote about different ways to use SVG as placeholders, and this…
Back in July 2010, I wrote an article for Smashing Magazine entitled “How To Use CSS3 Media Queries To Create A Mobile Version of Your Website.” Almost eight years on, that article still receives a lot of traffic. I thought it would be a nice idea to revisit that subject, now that we have layout…
Recently, Google reported 80 percent of users churn within three months of downloading an app. Meanwhile, over on TechCrunch, a study showed people only interact with a total of 30 apps per month. Those numbers are fairly significant, but not surprising considering the large number of apps available. Not every app downloaded will resonate with…
Sometimes Bing Ads is the forgotten stepchild of PPC. The reasons probably trace back to when Bing Ads was very hard to manage and provided very little opportunity for the effort invested, but times have changed. With now more market share and easier tools to manage them, Bing Ads can be a lucrative opportunity for…
The beginning of a new year seems like a perfect time to think about what we web professionals do, why we do it, how we could do it better and even how we could have more fun doing it. Like everyone, we learn lessons as we make our way through life and work. If we’re…
Smashing Magazine gave us a little surprise recently: Its website has been completely overhauled, switching away from WordPress to Netlify. One of the several reasons for the move is cost: Netlify allows for a static version of a website, which can be hosted directly on a content delivery network (CDN), reducing the number of web…
In Q1 and Q2 of 2017, Merkle (my employer) reported on a positive trend for advertisers that showed a decline in brand cost per click (CPC) year over year. The CPC of brand terms is often determined by Google’s algorithm as opposed to the competitive landscape, so brands are often left to Google’s mercy in…
