Nowadays, in the World Wide Web, it is all about sharing. People all over the world share all kinds of news, photos of people, memes and almost anything under the sun. Because of this reason, social networking sites like Google+ have come up with something that makes this easier: the Share button.

The Google+ Share Button

With the Google+ Share button, the Internet giant is trying to consolidate its social networking site so that users will be able to share content more easily. It is reported to be like the Facebook share button but with slight differences.

Google+1 and Google+ Share: The Difference

The Share button joins the +1 button in Google+ (you can see an example of this button at the top left-hand side of this page). The +1 functions like the “Like” button on Facebook while the Google+ Share button functions like the “Share” button on Facebook. When a user clicks the Google+1 button, it is akin to giving approval to the web content but is not necessarily shared with other people.

Similarly, the Google+ Share button is meant for sharing the content to the user's friends, and it is not necessarily “liked”. When a user clicks on the Google+1 button, this activity is immediately seen on the Google+ news feed and is shared to the user's friends; this is not the case for Google+ Share as it is not public by default.

A short while ago, Google also added sharing functionality to the +1 button. After clicking +1 the share dialog opens up similarly to the Share button. So you don't necessarily need to add both buttons on your site.

Google+ Share: How It Works

Here is how the Google+ Share button works. When a user clicks on the button, a share box opens up. He or she has the choice to share the web content with members in his or her Circles network.

He or she also has the option to share the web content with a specific group or individual. The user can click on the button several times if he or she wants to share the web content with different individuals or groups of people at the same time. The user can also add comments before the content is shared.

When the user looks at the Google+ Share button, there is a share count indicator of how many times the web content has been shared. It also shows the people who shared the content who are included in the network of the user.

The aesthetics of the Google+ Share button is similar to the Google+1 button. It has a light gray background and the red Google+ logo and the word “Share” is clearly seen. Once the button has been used, the colors of the button interchange: the background is now red and the text is colored gray.

You can add the Google+ Share button to your website. Visit the Google Developers' web page to get the code for the button. Simply choose the button style you like and paste the code on your website as an HTML widget.
 

Author

This guest post was written by Robert Kirk who works as a SEO Consultant for RFK Print Solutions. They are a web based company who specialize in high quality business cards, posters, brochures, stationery and more.

As the first maker of a website builder, Wix released their HTML5 editor by the end of March. Over the Easter holidays we finally took the time to experiment with this new powerful tool. Here’s what we think of it.

Flash versus HTML5

The fact that one of the largest website builder makers creates a new editor with a completely different technology from scratch tells us a lot already. Ever since Apple refused to allow Flash on its mobile devices, the glorious days of this technology seemed to be over. Even more so when Adobe announced last year that it stops the development of mobile browser flash altogether.

Understandably, Wix needed to find a Flash alternative rather quickly. They do state that their Flash builder will also be fully supported and developed in the future, but our guess would be that they will not put too much energy into Flash in the long run. What's more, Google says in this recent webmaster video that Flash should at best be a "decorative element" on websites.

What benefits does the new Wix HTML5 editor offer?

Flash websites are usually not the fastest ones to load, which can lead to high bounce rates and a poor user experience. That’s where HTML5 comes to the rescue: loading times are not only faster but it also runs on smartphones and tablet devices.

For full compatibility your visitors will have to be able to use one of the newer web browsers. You can check out how well your browser does by visiting www.html5test.com. In our tests via browsershots.org Internet Explorer 6 and 7 didn't show anything of our Wix website while it seemed to be working with IE 8.

Wix HTML5 websites and SEO (search engine optimization)

Looking at the source code of our test website can be quite confusing if you are not used to HTML5 markup (just like me). While researching this article I tried SEO forums to ask whether this source code is search-engine friendly. Most people would just say it’s terrible and don’t even bother using a tool like Wix.

I couldn’t believe it was that bad, so I asked Erik Moberg, a web developer friend of mine, for his opinion. Here’s more or less what he said:

This is a bit technical; you can find the short version below.

Wix is using the “single page pattern” meaning that the complete website code is essentially on one page. This works well for website visitors but not necessarily for Google as contents will be shown dynamically using Javascript and DOM manipulation.

To solve this, Google supports something called ‘escaped fragments’ (or ugly URLs). With regards to Wix, it means that URLs will end like this: “#!wixseo|cqh1”. Google replaces the “#!” by “?_escaped_fragment_=” and receives only a minimal text-only page without Javascript. And this works well for Google. Try it here:
http://www.html5-websitebuilder.com/?_escaped_fragment_=cqh1

The official page ID is “cqh1” and not “wixseo”. But as the URL contains both IDs, the visitor can even see a description that’s readable by humans (and that’s important for SEO). You may have seen URLs containing “#!” already if you are a Twitter user.

In short: the source code does look complicated but should be totally fine in Google’s eyes. Your visitors can now also link directly and effortlessly to any page they want (deep linking).

What’s more is that Wix now allows page titles and meta keywords for each individual page, which is a big step forward compared to the Flash version. (Although right now the title is not being shown correctly – but Wix says it will be resolved shortly).

Also, it supports heading tags (H1-H4) and alternative texts for images. So from a SEO standpoint the Wix website builder seems pretty good to us.

Conclusion

The new editor is still labeled beta and sometimes it also behaves like it (e.g. we had formatting issues with the text editor, trouble when moving elements around, etc.). But all in all it looks promising to us. As soon as it’s running smoother, and maybe also has some important features like blogging and HTML code injection added, we’ll update our detailed Wix review.

Update 23 April: Wix pointed out that it is already possible to add external widgets via HTML code. We're sorry to have missed that! You can find this option under "Add ons".

In the meantime check out our Wix HTML5 test website we’ve created!

To build a HTML5 website yourself, simply sign up for a free account and choose one of their HTML5 templates.

Image credit: W3C

It’s the classic challenge for young start-up design or crafts businesses: you have a great new product – but how do you sell it?

Whether it’s shoulder bags made from old rubber dinghies, jewelry from recycled materials, or organic cotton T-shirts: there is no shortage of new product ideas – nor is there a lack of potential customers. But how can the would-be buyer find your brilliant new product?

The key is to strengthen your brand and increase your chances of being found by maximizing your presence offline as well as online. That’s where a seller account with Etsy or Ebay can be very useful.

Here are some of the pros and cons of these two main platforms:

What other platforms are there for selling products?

In addition to the two main players there are a number of smaller platforms using a similar business model to Etsy. Depending on where your main customer base is, you could take a look at the following sites:

Cargoh and Icraft in Canada, Uncommongoods.com in the US, DaWanda (UK, Germany and France) or Folksy in the UK.

Although not quite as big as Etsy, these platforms nevertheless offer some advantages for specific regional target groups.

Not really an alternative to these larger community platforms, but rather an essential necessity is your own online shop. Especially with a view to building your brand, nothing really compares to having your own site where you can present yourself with your own individual image. Not to mention the fact that this allows you to sell your goods without the platform provider taking a cut of your profits.

Another advantage is that you can integrate your own blog with your website. This raises your profile further and enables you to be more customer-facing and authentic. If you’re a prolific blogger you also get the extra bonus of bumping up your search engine ranking.

In this article we explain how to create a simple online shop yourself.

What are the advantages of having your own online shop vs. relying on Etsy alone?

A clear advantage of large platforms such as Etsy or Ebay is, of course, their enormous and instantaneous reach. In the long run, however, it is advisable to build your brand by having your own bespoke website.

Think about it: a new customer who finds your product on Etsy is likely to be looking on Etsy again the next time round. So, every time you are competing with all the other sellers in your product category. Wouldn’t it be much better if your buyer went straight to your own online shop the next time they are looking for a similar product?

Choose your Etsy seller name and logo to make it easy for your customers to find your shop on Google the next time. And, of course, you can also use the shipment of your product itself to advertise your own online shop, by clearly branding the packaging and including a flyer with your website address.

How do you sell your products? Can you recommend other seller platforms or communities?

Image credit: Flickr / polkadotcreations Fotolia / Sunroots

What is a favicon, anyway?

A favicon is a 16x16 or 32x32 pixel small icon, symbol or logo that is usually located left of the address bar of the browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Firefox). Just like here:

When you have many browser windows open, you can easily and quickly find a particular desiredsite by its favicon. The recognition value is key - therefore you should create a favicon that reminds the visitor of the rest of the website.

Creating a favicon step by step

To create a favicon, you need a logo or a picture that is square ideally. Using favicon-generator.org you can convert this logo or image into a favicon.

• On favicon-generator.org click on Browse and upload the particular logo or symbol. Maintain
  Image Dimensions (do not resize to 16x16 pixel square) should definitely remain checked.

• After uploading, click on "Create Favicon"

• Now, you just have to download the generated favicon by clicking on the link (right click > save as).

• To install the favicon, we use the website builder Jimdo. Jimdo is very convenient in this regard, because you can create your own favicon even with a free account. If you are not using a website builder or a CMS that lets you insert a favicon through the menu, use the HTML code you get from favicon-generator.org and install it in the header of your website.
   
• First, go to Jimdo settings, click the favicon icon on the website tab.

• If you have done everything right so far, you can now choose the favicon from your computer (make sure that it is a .ico file).

• After that, just click on "upload" and now you can marvel at our new favicon.

Tutorial created by: Fabian

More and more small-business owners are using platforms like eBay or Etsy to sell their products online. And many do so very successfully.

For a lot of them it also makes sense to create their own online store so that they are more independent when, for example, eBay decides to increase their sales fees again.

It’s great that many online website builders are now equipping their platforms with powerful ecommerce features. Webs.com, Jimdo and Webnode have been offering their online stores for quite a while now, for example.

Many competing website builders, on the other hand, only offer PayPal and Google Checkout buttons that don’t feature real shopping cart functionality.

Read on to see where Yola stands and what we think of the new online store!

Yola online store: pricing and first impressions

If you are not a Yola bronze or silver customer already, the online store is $19.95 per month. If you are then you pay $10 on top of your existing package. Not much for a fully functional web store, that doesn’t charge sales commissions.

One thing you will quickly realize is that Yola didn’t develop this store themselves – they’ve licensed it from Ecwid, a company with a clear focus on ecommerce widgets. Because of that, editing does feel a bit different than with Yola’s native widgets – but more on that in the video below.

E-commerce Features

Yola’s new online store is full of great features! Here are some of them:

• Sell physical and digital goods (including product variations)
• Manage your stock
• Adjust settings for shipping costs and taxes at a very granular level
• Plenty of payment options (including credit card processors)
• Create voucher codes
• Customize confirmation emails for your customers
• Direct integration with shipping providers like FedEx, DHL and UPS

There’s plenty more but I think these are the most important ones.

Creating a Yola store

This video will show you how the Yola store works:

Unfortunately, there is no free trial available at this time. If you want to see what the Ecwid store looks like and how it works you can also go to ecwid.com, create a store with their free plan and put it on your new or existing website. Simply paste the HTML code Ecwid provides into a Yola HTML widget.

>Please also check out our full Yola review here.

>To sign up for the Yola online store, click here.
 

I hope you liked this review and if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment!