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Why Your Website Bounce Rate Matters

Bounce rate may be a useful measure to evaluate and learn about how you can enhance your site’s design and user experience.

As a general rule, the proportion of visitors that leave a website after reading just one page is known as a bounce rate. It’s all taken care of for you by the Google Analytics monitoring programme. A poorly designed website or web page with irrelevant content to the search keywords will have higher bounce rate than relevant site with good UX, which do have low bounce rate. When users stays on your web page more, it indicates to the search engines algorithm that the search result is very relevant and reliable, hence, it will be mostly suggested to users.

Google do often disclaim the importance of bounce rate in ranking, but top australian seo companies knows how important it can be and why it should be optimised for better results, hence the reason why the best SEO agencies will always put it into consideration when auditing your web page content and keywords.

When it comes to online marketing data, the lower your bounce rate, the more successful you are. When the bounce rate is high it indicates poor UX on the page, irrelevant content -keywords usage or poor site design.

Why Your Website Bounce Rate Matters

Bounce Rate Tracking: Where to Look

Bounce rate may be found under Behavior in different places of the interface if you have Google Analytics installed on your website.

What Is the Importance of Bounce Rate?

It might be helpful to know how your clients engage with various pieces of information on your site by analysing the bounce rate. There are several ways SEO agencies enhance it, such as shifting a form to a different location on the page, adding CTAs, or simply writing extra content.

That’s not true for everyone. The cause of high bounce rate might be different for each web page and for different websites. That is why an SEO agency before taking action about the bounce rate will first conduct an SEO analysis and site audit to pin down the actual cause of the issue. If you just dabble into doing all sort of activities about your site bounce rate you might eventually put of those things that are rightly positioned. 

Are High Bounce Rates a Concern?

This isn’t always the case. There are situations when the user’s query may be answered promptly by the material on your website. Of course, this isn’t true for all types of businesses or web content.

Your website’s bounce rate is an essential metric that shows how many people depart after seeing your site and returning to their prior search results or closing the browser window.

A high bounce rate is a symptom of bad content for Google and other major search engines, therefore it may have an impact on SEO results.

Increasingly, the best SEO agencies are concentrating more and more of their time and resources on content production and content marketing as Google continues to fine-tune its secret algorithms. Google, of course, anticipated and planned for this outcome. Demanding high-quality material from websites has not only improved the quality of results for Google users, but it has also improved the quality of all information on the web as a whole.

While the production of quality content is an essential component of any SEO effort, it is not the only one. People just care whether they can find what they’re searching for, no matter how great the information may be. Because of this, it is essential that you target the right demography and keywords while optimising your website. In order to rank content, Google takes into account a wide range of characteristics. For the millions of individuals who use their search service, they have a commitment to offer what they consider the most relevant material.

Why Your Website Bounce Rate Matters

How You May Enhance Your Bounce Rate.

To reduce the bounce rate of websites, SEO agencies should take many factors into account. SEO companies make sure that any external links of a website opens in a new browser window or tab to increase bounce rate immediately. It’s not only a matter of looking good; it’s also a matter of making it easy for people to find what they’re looking for. Keep in mind the keywords you’re trying to rank for as well as the rest of your content. Is your website capable of delivering on the promises you make in its Meta descriptions? As an example, let’s say you want to rank well for the phrase “affordable SEO services in Melbourne” or “top SEO agencies in Sydney” Your bounce rate will likely be close to 100% if someone searches for “affordable SEO services in Melbourne” on Google and ends up on your site, where they discover list of some SEO services. It demonstrates the need of backing up your keyword claims, otherwise optimising your site for them might be detrimental.

An easy-to-understand explanation for Google’s algorithms is much more powerful than any other nuggets or insider information. Give visitors a reason to remain on your site and you’ll see an improvement in your bounce rate and website traffic. Oversimplifying things may seem like a cop-out, but it’s true. This simple statement, however, should serve as your guiding principle while creating a user-friendly, dynamic, and engaging website. Never lose sight of what makes us human. As a consequence, Google’s robots that index the web are effectively intended to be as human as possible, or at least to assess what would end up being the greatest outcome for humans. Your bounce rate will appreciate if your website is easy to navigate, rich in information, and relevant to your audience.

Why Your Website Doesn’t Show Up in Search Engines

Fewer visitors to your site implies fewer sales and revenue for your company. This is why large corporations and enterprise takes the input of SEO agencies and their SEO strategies seriously, because of its potential impact on the business. As a result, it’s critical for your website to aim to rank as high as possible in those search engine results! Here are some possible reasons why your website isn’t showing up!

IF YOUR WEBSITE HASN’T BEEN INDEXED YET

If your site isn’t indexed by Google, it won’t appear in a user’s search and need local seo agency to optimize your site. The following are some of the reasons why your website might not be indexed:

1. Your website is in its infancy.

New websites and web pages take time for Google to discover. If you just published your site this morning, the most likely explanation is that Google hasn’t yet discovered it. Run a search for “site:yourwebsite.com” to see if Google is aware of your website’s existence.

If at least one result appears, Google is aware of your website. They don’t if there aren’t any outcomes. Learn more how to increase SEO juice for your website with internal linking.

Why Your Website Doesn't Show Up in Search Engines

Even if they are familiar with your website, they may not be aware of the page you are attempting to rank. Search for “site:yourwebsite.com/a-page-you-want-to-show-up-in-google/” to see if they’re aware of it.

There should only be one outcome. If neither of these searches yields any results what the best SEO agencies do is to generate a sitemap and upload it to Google Search Console. Doing so is good practice in any case.

Search Console > Sitemaps > Enter the URL for the sitemap > Submit

NOTE: Before you can do this, you’ll need to create a free Search Console account and add your website. A sitemap shows Google which pages on your site are significant and where they may be found. It can also help to speed up the process of discovery. If you find it difficult to work around these techniques, do yourself a favour to hand it into the safe hands of a professional SEO company. 

You can’t seem to find your sitemap? Go to yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml for more information. If nothing appears, go to yourwebsite.com/robots.txt, which frequently contains the sitemap URL.

Is there still nothing? It’s possible you don’t have one. An SEO agency or your web developer can help out to help you define one. 

2. You have a “noindex” tag in your HTML code 

If your site isn’t brand new, you can have a “noindex” tag in your HTML code. This code expressly states that Google should not index your website. Make sure your Google Search Console and Bing Webmasters accounts are authenticated so you can upload your website’s sitemap to allow search engines to index your site more quickly.

Why Your Website Doesn't Show Up in Search Engines

3. Your content isn’t optimized.

All SEO agencies and business who has interest in search engine ranking knows that the contents published on a website is really significant. You must do the following:

Define your keywords: You must conduct research and choose the keywords you want your company to rank for. You’ll need to strategically integrate them into your content once you’ve chosen them. When Google scans your site, it looks for keywords to help it define it and rank it for them. It’s also crucial not to overdo it. Overuse of keywords, sometimes known as “keyword stuffing,” can have a detrimental impact on your rankings.

Having enough copy: Google rewards sites with long copy in addition to quality content. According to a study, articles with 2,000 words or more rank higher in search engine results than those with less words. You can include more internal links, external connections, infographics, and optimized photos with more content, which will help your SEO rankings.

Important Point to Note: Google ranks single pages rather than entire websites. While it’s possible that you wish to rank your homepage for a specific keyword, you should focus on the amount of referring domains to that page rather than your entire site. Then, in Keywords Explorer, look for your desired keyword and scroll down to the SERP overview. The current top-ranking pages, as well as SEO analytics for each of them, are displayed there.

If your page is lacking, consider adding more backlinks.

Why Your Website Doesn't Show Up in Search Engines

YOU’VE BEEN HIT WITH A GOOGLE PENALTY.

The most unlikely cause of not appearing on Google is a Google penalty. It is, however, a possibility.

Google imposes two types of penalties:

  • Manual: When Google takes action to delete or demote your site from the search results, this is known as a manual action. It occurs when a Google employee performs a manual inspection of your website and discovers that it violates their Webmaster Guidelines.
  • When Google’s algorithm suppresses your website or a web page in the search results owing to quality flaws, this is referred to be algorithmic. It’s more of a matter of the computer saying no rather than a human saying no.

Note: Algorithmic sanctions, to be precise, are filters, not punishments. Fortunately, manual punishments are relatively uncommon. Unless you’ve done something particularly egregious, you’re unlikely to receive one. Google normally warns you about them in Search Console’s “Manual penalties” tab.

If you don’t see a warning, you presumably don’t have a manual punishment. Unfortunately, Google does not inform you whether your site is being filtered algorithmically, and detecting this can be difficult.

If you suspect an algorithmic penalty as a result of a recent big decline in organic traffic, the first thing you should do is see if the drop corresponded to a known or suspected Google algorithm update. Penguin is an excellent resource for this. It displays known algorithm change dates over your Google Analytics traffic, making it simple to identify problems.

If you’re still concerned that your site has been blocked or punished, consult an SEO agency before taking any potentially disastrous actions, such as disavowing links. Consulting a local SEO services might be of importance, because they understand what goes well within that geo-location. You can contact an Australia SEO company if you’re based in that region. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s like playing a video game when it comes to ranking on Google. You’ll never win if you have technical issues like a faulty controller, no matter how hard you try. The same may be said for your website. Before you may play the game, you must first resolve serious technical issues such as rogue “noindex” meta tags and crawl blocks.

The next step is to figure out what level you’re playing at and how strong your opponents are. Because if your opponents are weak, certain levels are easy. Others are difficult to deal with because they are powerful.

6 Steps to Take on How to Learn Search Engine Optimization

Learning SEO is essential for the growth of your organization. To join the league of SEO agencies is not what a man can wake up in a day to achieve. There is some crucial and technical part of SEO that one must know. What are we saying in essence? To become an SEO Agency, one needs to take much time in learning some tips and steps. However, don’t be scared; you can achieve it if you pay attention to the details.  

6 steps to take on how to learn search engine optimization

Also, it is expedient for us to inform you that this article cannot give you the full details on the things you are supposed to learn about search engine optimization, but the steps provided here will give you an idea of what you are about to do. Dear readers, don’t you think it would be best to take you through the meaning of SEO briefly? Let us start from there!

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization refers to a technical way of improving and promoting a website to increase the number of people that will visit your site on search engines.

SEO is all about ranking higher in the search engine results for keywords related to your site. Also, Search engine optimization is technical because it requires thorough research that has to do with what people may likely search for on search engines like Google.

Therefore, to rank a website on search engines, an SEO Agency must be a professional. There’s a unique way in which a competent SEO Agency should structure a website so that search engines will understand. Several people use major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to search for one thing. It could be a piece of information or a business. 

Therefore, organic traffic visits are usually from users who haven’t heard of an organization before. Also, search engines allow a website to reach new audiences. If a particular site is what they need precisely, then search engines like Google and Bing are the route that will get people there. Therefore, they provide new, targeted traffic.

For instance, if you sell shoes on your site, a search engine like Google will send you people specifically looking for where to buy shoes.  So, if you can get your site to the first page of Google, you will gain incredible opportunities. Hence, we are saying this to show you the importance of SEO. 

Of course, this article is meant for those who desire to be an SEO Agency and those ready to follow the process, do it by themselves. Therefore, let us jump into details about teaching yourself SEO to become an SEO Agency later.

Step 1: Find a resource for beginners.

The first step in becoming an SEO Agency is to find a resource for starters. We recommend starting with this SEO strategy by the growth marketing pros and getting yourself a keyword research tool like a growth bar.  Sincerely speaking, you will need a research tool. To make the journey of becoming an SEO Agency, we recommend “the beginner’s guide to SEO.”

Step 2: You need to practice.

Search engine optimization is not about knowledge in the head. It requires a lot of practice before one can fully be called an SEO Agency. The theoretical aspect of SEO is just the beginning of the journey. If you want to be called a successful SEO service provider, you must be ready to practice as much as possible.

However, the best way to practice SEO is to practice your website by creating or setting up a blog. Oh! You don’t have a blog yet? Would you please rise and set up one? It will help you a lot. Word press will be a good one. 

Step 3: look for a mentor.

Don’t forget what we said earlier. Search engine optimization is technical, and one must possess some skills before being called a competent SEO service provider. Therefore, you need someone to put you through some aspects of SEO.

Not only that, someone must be there to put you through what you ought to know about search engine optimization. Of course, you need to contact someone that has been in this game. We mean someone that is full of experience and understands the depth of Search engine optimization. like https://www.p1.com.au/, they are in the SEO industry in Australia, for a long time and have a long list of satisfied clients list. Therefore, we will advise you to look for an SEO expert in your area.

You might be wondering if there are SEO experts in your area. Of course, SEO Agencies are everywhere. You can ask a friend or search the web to look for them. Finding a mentor will help you a lot.

6 steps to take on how to learn search engine optimization

Step 4: Join an SEO group

Joining an SEO group will help you to know some discoveries in this industry. People are coming together to join hands together to keep themselves updated on search engine optimization. If you find a group of SEO experts, you are one of the luckiest men on earth.

You will be exposed to deep things about search engine optimization. Therefore, to become an SEO Agency, you need to join an SEO group. However, make sure you do some thorough research before joining any group.

Step 5: Be Inquisitive

To become a successful SEO expert, you need to develop a high level of questioning skills. Don’t forget what we discussed in the previous step that you need to know what is going on in the SEO world. So, the best way to achieve that is to create the act of acting questions. You can ask your mentor and then table it with the group you’ve joined. Also, you can follow some SEO Agencies on social media platforms. Doing this will give you an avenue to ask questions from a different source, then you will be able to compare and contrast.

Step 6: Rinse and repeat

The last step as far as this article is concerned is to follow the steps mentioned above carefully. Not only that, you must learn, practice, and don’t be confused. Don’t forget that every journey to greater height always begins with a single step. Would you like to drop some comments?

7 Essential Ways to Hire the Right SEO Agency For Your Business

Getting the right SEO agency for your business can be somewhat challenging if you lack a basic understanding of SEO. Let me be the one to tell you that not all SEO agency has all it takes to get your business at the top of significant rankings. And what makes it dicier is that they will all promise to deliver according to your desired expectation when negotiating the contract. 

7 Essential Ways to Hire the Right SEO Agency For Your Business

In light of that, it can be somewhat challenging to tell the competent SEO agencies apart from the unprofessional ones. So how do you identify the right SEO agency that can deliver the best result that suits your business? That is what you are going to unveil in this article. 

As an SEO expert, I will tell you seven essential questions you need to ask the prospective SEO agency you want to work with before you agree to give out your hard-earned money. Meanwhile, it is crucial for you to know that you are not supposed to ask your prospective SEO agency all these seven questions. You would have to evaluate questions 1, 3, 4, and 7 personally, and feel free to put the remaining questions directly to the SEO agency representative.

1. Check their track records 

If the SEO agency you want to hire has not been serving their previous clients satisfactorily, they can’t give you what you want. That is why the past results and reviews about the SEO agency matter a lot.  So, how do you know about the agency’s past results and reviews? Don’t fret. The internet is your friend. 

Mind you, visiting the testimonial page of the SEO agency will not give you the objective information you require. Hence, finding the SEO agency on independent testimonial pages such as Yelp, Google My Business, Capterra, and the likes is better. Learning SEO yourself will also help in choosing the right SEO company for your business success is also important.

When you are on those pages, make sure you check their average rating. You can concentrate more on their 1, 3, and 5-star reviews to know about their poor, average, and excellent performance. 

Of course, no matter how good they are, every company would have a few negative reviews. But, if the negative reviews are more optimistic, that’s a warning sign that the SEO agency has not been performing excellently. 

2. Ask about their SEO techniques 

Every SEO agency has unique SEO techniques and methodologies, so they must be able to provide a breakdown of their techniques and show you proven deliverables they have been using during each stage of their processes.

Ask to know how they conduct their SEO audits, including the actions they take (in steps), and see if they can help your business. Also, you need to know how they conduct their keywords research to drive the right traffic and generate leads. You can also ask about their technical moves as regards Search Engine Optimization.

The aim is to know how they go about the SEO practices to get their clients desired results. If they can provide all of that with tangible proof, you can trust them.

7 Essential Ways to Hire the Right SEO Agency For Your Business

3. Ask how long it takes for them to deliver

Get this straight: it takes nothing less than 4 – 6 months before you will start to see the results of your agency’s SEO efforts. From experience, Search Engine Optimization is not an overnight achievement. So, any SEO agency that promises to deliver in few weeks is nothing but a scam. It’s either they are just trying to impress you to patronize them, or they are planning to engage in some illegal practices Like PBNs and other Grey hat techniques, that can bring penalties that would harm your business. 

Though SEO agencies can deliver some impressive short-term results, but it’s always rare, and you should not expect it as well. Hence, you need to ask the SEO agency when you should be expecting results. If they sound too early, you need to be suspicious.

4. Ask about their previous SEO projects 

After you have known about how long it takes for them to deliver, it is time to ask them for a detailed report of one of their previous projects. Seeing what they have practically done for a previous client (especially if the client offers a similar service as yours) will give you a clear picture of what to expect when the result finally comes. 

5. Ask about their transparency

An honest and competent SEO agency will not mind showing their client every detail of their process. One of the best ways to trust the SEO agency you are about to hire is if they are comfortable giving you the details of what they are doing at every notable milestone. If they can’t be transparent in communications, techniques, and status of their deliverables, don’t bother to hire them.

6. Ask about their reporting methods

A productive SEO agency will love to send you detailed reports from time to time. Why/ that is because they are working with you as a business partner. To know about their reporting methods and frequency, ask for the samples of the report they have sent to their former clients to see the details. 

You also need to know the tools they use to prepare their SEO reporting. A few of the most common tools used for SEO reporting include Google Search Console, Google Analytics, SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Moz. Ask the SEO agency if they will give you free access to the tools to check if the metrics they send to you are accurate. 

7. How about the commitment on your end?

Have you ever questioned how much it would cost you to in terms of time and money to evaluate the works of your SEO agency? It’s something you need to discuss with the SEO agency before you agree to hire them. 

Know how much commitment you will be giving on your end, and the costs bring desired results to your business in the long run. It is good to work with an SEO agency that will not put much commitment on you.   

7 Essential Ways to Hire the Right SEO Agency For Your Business

Final Words 

SEO is essential in taking your business to the heights you desire. However, you can only get the correct result when you hire the right SEO agency that understands your business and are ready to deliver to taste. After getting honest answers to the above questions, you and your agency can start working. 

Increase SEO Juice for Your Website with Internal Linking

Are you thinking about building a website or a blog?

Perhaps you have recently built a website for yourself or your business? Whatever the situation be, one thing that is absolutely critical to your new site’s success is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Optimizing your website for search engines can be one of the most overwhelming tasks for new website owners. Everyone wants their website to come up at the top of Google search results.

Unfortunately, most website owners don’t realize just how much work it takes in order to make that happen. read on to learn more about SEO at http://webscriptplus.com/6-steps-to-take-on-how-to-learn-search-engine-optimization/

When it comes to SEO, there are many different factors that go into your website’s ranking. One of the best things that you can do to increase your search ranking is to use internal linking. As you can probably tell, this article is geared towards website newbies, and we are going to discuss what internal linking is, why it’s important for search engine optimization, tips for using internal linking, and the benefits of doing so.

What is Internal Linking?

Very simply, internal linking is the process of linking one page of your website with another page of your website. You probably see internal links all the time when visiting other websites without even realizing it.

For example, say you’re on a website’s Home page and there’s a link to the About page — that’s an internal link. When internal links are set up properly, they allow your visitors to navigate through your website and learn everything they need to know about your website’s topic.

Increase SEO Juice for Your Website with Internal Linking

Why is Internal Linking Important for SEO?

For those of you who are familiar with the importance of Inbound Links, which are links to your website from other websites, then you know that search engines like Google and Bing look at how many inbound links your website has in order to derive how valuable your site is for a given topic.

The more inbound links you have, especially those from high-ranking websites, the higher your site will rank for a given topic. The same is true, though slightly different when it comes to internal links.

If there is a page on your website that you think is absolutely critical for your visitors to land on in order for them to understand your website’s topic then you’re going to make sure that you link to that page from as many pages as possible within your website. This is sometimes called the link wheel formula, learn more about the link wheel by clicking here.

Search engines can see how many pages within your website link to this critical page. The more pages on your site that drive visitors to that critical page, the higher search engines will rank that page for your website’s topic.

Using the logic above, let’s review an example. Let’s say your website is about the importance of eating organic fruits and vegetables. Within your website, you have a web page that shows an important study from a high-profile nutritionist in which the data shows the benefits of organic foods versus non-organic foods.

If your goal is to get more people to eat organic food and this study by SEO hero’s provides real evidence of the benefits of doing so, then you’re going to want to link to that study from as many other pages within your website as possible. This way, no matter where a visitor lands within your site, he can quickly get to your “Study page”.

As Google’s algorithm crawls your website it will pick up on the fact that your Study page is linked from all other pages within your site. Google will take note of that and make your Study page the main page that it serves up to people who are searching for the benefits of eating organic food.

Tips for Using Internal Linking on Your Website

Internal linking is a pretty straightforward concept. Once website owners understand the importance of using internal links, and how to properly do so, it’s a pretty easy task to start incorporating internal links on your website. With that said, here are a few tips to help you get started:

  • Make sure the anchor text for your internal links are filled with keywords that make sense for the page that you’re linking to
  • Keep the number of internal links on any one page to 3 or less
  • Bullet lists that link to other pages within your site are a great way to utilize internal links
  • Limit the number of outgoing links (links to other websites) to only a few throughout your entire site. Outbound links lower your SEO juice as that juice flows to the site you’re linking to

Benefits of Internal Links on Your Website

Using internal links on your website is extremely important for many different reasons. Some of the top benefits of using internal links are as follows:

  • Indicates to search engines what your most important pages are
  • Increases your ranking for the keywords you link from
  • Helps visitors navigate through your website efficiently
  • Moves certain pages within your website higher in search engine results
  • Attracts more visitors to your website through higher search engine ranking
  • Allows you to ensure visitors to your website are seeing your most important content

Ways to Incorporate Internal Links on Your Website

There are a lot of ways to incorporate internal links on your website. Here are a few of the best ways:

  • Blog articles – Writing blog articles provides you with the opportunity to focus on a key topic and link your blog readers from your blog article to other pages within your website
  • Text links – Internal links can be placed from any content within your website. Be sure your anchor text are keywords that you think people will use when trying to find websites that focus on the topic that your website is focused on.
  • Banner ads – Internal banner ads are a great way to utilize internal links. Do you have a sidebar on your website? If so, putting a banner ad in the sidebar that links your visitors to your top pages is another good way to utilize internal links.

With that said, be sure to think about how you can leverage internal links within your website as they will help search engines decipher which pages are most important on your website and also help push those pages up the ranks of search engine results. Strategically using internal links within your website will increase your website’s SEO juice and ultimately increase your website traffic.

Check domain availability with JQuery and PHP

My Facebook-style tutorials are very popular among you people and Almost 5000 downloads have been counted for the Facebook wall script application. Thank you all who like and appreciate my work.
Last few days I was searching about checking domain names’ availability using Ajax and PHP.

I found some solution and I thought to create a post on my blog so that anyone can get this simple script easily. I used jQuery and CSS3 to put some attractive looks in this. Share it if you like this tutorial. Thanks a lot!

JQuery Code

  1. $(document).ready(function() {  
  2. $(‘#Submit’).click( function() {  
  3.   
  4.         if($(‘#Search’).val() == “”)  
  5.         {alert(‘please enter your domain’);return false;}  
  6.   
  7.         results.style.display = ‘none’;  
  8.         $(‘#results’).html(”);  
  9.         loading.style.display = ‘inline’;  
  10.   
  11.         $.post(‘process.php?domain=’ + escape($(‘#Search’).val()),{  
  12.         }, function(response){  
  13.   
  14.             results.style.display = ‘block’;  
  15.             $(‘#results’).html(unescape(response));  
  16.             loading.style.display = ‘none’;  
  17.         });  
  18.   
  19.         return false;  
  20.     });  

HTML

view plain copy to clipboard print?

  1. <div id=”Heading”>Domain Checker</div>  
  2. <form id=”form” action=”./” method=”post”>  
  3. <input id=”Search” name=”domain” type=”text”>  
  4. <input id=”Submit” type=”submit” value=”Submit”>  
  5. </form>  
  6. <div id=”loading”>Please wait…<img src=”http://webscriptplus.com/check-domain-availability-with-jquery-and-php/load.gif” alt=””></div>  

CSS

view plain copy to clipboard print?

  1. body {  
  2. font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif;  
  3. font-size: 12px;  
  4. font-weight: bold;  
  5. }  
  6.   
  7. #loading {  
  8. display: none;  
  9. }  
  10.   
  11. #Heading {  
  12. -moz-border-radius:10px 10px 0 0;  
  13. -moz-box-shadow:0 0 1px #FD0000 inset;  
  14. background:-moz-linear-gradient(center top , #DB0000, #9B0000) repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;  
  15. border:1px solid #8D0000;  
  16. color:white;  
  17. margin-left:-5px;  
  18. font-size:22px;  
  19. padding:16px;  
  20. text-shadow:0 1px 1px black;  
  21. z-index:2;  
  22. background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottombottom, from(#db0000), to(#9b0000));  
  23. background: -moz-linear-gradient(top center, #db0000, #9b0000);  
  24.   
  25. -webkit-border-radius: 10px 10px 0 0;  
  26. -webkit-backgroundclippadding-box;  
  27. -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px #fd0000;  
  28. -moz-border-radius: 10px 10px 0 0;  
  29. -moz-backgroundclippadding-box;  
  30. -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px #fd0000;  
  31. -webkit-border-radius: 15px;  
  32. margin: 50px 0;  
  33. top:65px;  
  34. width:220px;  
  35. color:#ccc;  
  36. position: relative;  
  37. text-transform:uppercase;text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #000;  
  38. }  
  39.   
  40. #form {  
  41. width:520px;  
  42. background-color: #463d00;  
  43. padding: 40px 50px 30px;  
  44. margin: 10px 0;  
  45. position: relative;  
  46. border-radius: 15px;  
  47. -moz-border-radius: 15px;  
  48. -webkit-border-radius: 15px;  
  49. -moz-border-radius:15px 15px 15px 15px;  
  50. }  
  51.   
  52. #Search {  
  53. background:url(“Text.png”) no-repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;  
  54. border:medium none;  
  55. color:#888888;  
  56. float:left;  
  57. font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif;  
  58. font-size:15px;  
  59. height:36px;  
  60. margin-right:12px;  
  61. outline:medium none;  
  62. padding:0 0 0 35px;  
  63. text-shadow:1px 1px 0 white;  
  64. width:425px;  
  65. }  
  66.   
  67. #Submit {  
  68. background:url(“Search.png”) no-repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;  
  69. border:medium none;  
  70. cursor:pointer;  
  71. height:36px;  
  72. overflow:hidden;  
  73. text-indent:-999px;  
  74. text-transform:uppercase;  
  75. width:83px;  
  76. }  
  77. [ad#co-7]  
  78.   
  79. h4 {  
  80. border:2px solid #EEEEEE;  
  81. font:14px/1.3 Verdana,”Lucida Grande”,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif;  
  82. margin:0px;  
  83. padding:5px;  
  84. min-width:120px;  
  85. text-align:left  
  86. }  

 

23 Excellent Tutorials For WordPress Theme Developers

WordPress is undoubtedly an amazing publishing platform. You can get started as quickly as with few clicks or you can customize it to any level you want. The internet is filled with good-quality tutorials on customizing every aspect of WordPress.

Here are 23+ excellent tutorials that will help WordPress theme developers make better themes and give them an idea of different and unique ways to customize WordPress according to need.

1. Create a Login Form Overlay

Login form overlay
Give your users a quick way to log in to your WordPress blog in a JQuery lightbox window. Quite useful for multi-author blogs or blogs that allow users to log in to comment.

2. Add Tweets Related To Your Posts in WordPress

Tweets Related to Posts
Awesome tutorial on showing tweets related to your posts from the Twitter timeline. You can specify the tags or keywords in the custom field which will be used to fetch tweets.

3. Create an Awesome WordPress Theme Options Page

This is a two-part tutorial on how to create an options page for your WordPress Theme to make it stand out from the crowd.

4. How To Get Custom Field Outside WordPress Loop

Ever thought of using post custom fields outside the WordPress loop, then use the following code to access the custom field, simply replace the ‘custom field in the fourth line with your own custom field. 

  1. <?php  
  2. global $wp_query;  
  3. $postid = $wp_query->post->ID;  
  4. echo get_post_meta($postid, ‘customField’, true);  
  5. ?>  

5. Using Multiple WordPress Loops in Your Theme

Sometimes, you might want to show featured posts before the normal posts or you want or you want to format posts from a particular category in a different way from others, then you will have to use multiple WordPress loops in your theme. Cristian Antohe explains everything you need to know about using multiple WordPress loops in your theme.

6. How To Get First Image from post and display it

In most of the premium-like themes, the first image of the post is given special attention as a thumbnail version of it is used on the blog homepage, sometimes a smaller thumbnail in the sidebar or footer alongside the post listings. Simply paste this function into your theme’s functions.php file and use the statement <?php echo catch_that_image() ?> in the WordPress loop where you need the first image.view plaincopy to clipboardprint?

  1. function catch_that_image() {  
  2.   global $post, $posts;  
  3.   $first_img = ”;  
  4.   ob_start();  
  5.   ob_end_clean();  
  6.   $output = preg_match_all(‘/<img.+src=[\'”]([^\'”]+)[\'”].*>/i’, $post->post_content, $matches);  
  7.   $first_img = $matches [1] [0];  
  8.   
  9.   if(emptyempty($first_img)){ //Defines a default image  
  10.     $first_img = “/images/default.jpg”;  
  11.   }  
  12.   return $first_img;  
  13. }  

7. How To Use Thumbnails Generated By WordPress in Your Theme

WordPress also creates a thumbnail version of each image you upload inside WordPress post whose size you can alter from Settings > Media in the administration panel. Now to use that thumbnail version within your theme, simply use the following code:view plaincopy to clipboardprint?

  1. <?php  
  2. //Get images attached to the post  
  3. $args = array(  
  4.     ‘post_type’ => ‘attachment’,  
  5.     ‘post_mime_type’ => ‘image’,  
  6.     ‘numberposts’ => -1,  
  7.         ‘order’ => ‘ASC’,  
  8.     ‘post_status’ => null,  
  9.     ‘post_parent’ => $post->ID  
  10. );  
  11. $attachments = get_posts($args);  
  12. if ($attachments) {  
  13.     foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {  
  14.         $img = wp_get_attachment_thumb_url( $attachment->ID );  
  15.                 break;  
  16.         }  
  17. //Display image  
  18. echo ‘<img src=”‘.$img.'” alt=”something” />’;  
  19. }  
  20. ?>  

This one is useful if your theme requires only a single-sized thumbnail version of the first image, if you require multiple thumbnail versions, then use the method specified by the 6th point.

8. Display Future Scheduled Posts on Your Blog

Show your readers in advance which posts are you writing and when should they come to see the new post. Add the following code anywhere in your theme, preferably sidebar to show upcoming scheduled posts.view plaincopy to clipboardprint?

  1. <h3>Upcoming Posts</h3>  
  2. <?php query_posts(‘showposts=5&post_status=future’); ?>  
  3. <?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>  
  4.   
  5.   <ul>  
  6.   <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>  
  7.     <li>  
  8.         <?php the_title(); ?> <?php edit_post_link(‘e’,’ (‘,’)’); ?><br />  
  9.     <span class=”datetime”><?php the_time(‘j. F Y’); ?></span>  
  10.   
  11.     </li>  
  12. <?php endwhile; ?>  
  13.   </ul>  
  14. <?php endif; ?>  

9. Using Cron to Schedule Events in WordPress

You might sometimes need to schedule certain events in WordPress like a daily backup of the database, send a summary report to blog administrator, etc, WordPress has the ability to cater to this need too. Simply paste the following code into the functions.php file to create a scheduled event.

  1. if (!wp_next_scheduled(‘my_task_hook’)) {  
  2.     wp_schedule_event( time(), ‘hourly’, ‘my_task_hook’ );  
  3. }  
  4.   
  5. add_action( ‘my_task_hook’, ‘my_task_function’ );   
  6.   
  7. function my_task_function() {  
  8. //code for your scheduled task  
  9.     wp_mail(‘[email protected]’, ‘Automatic email’, ‘Hello, this is an automatically scheduled email from WordPress.’);  
  10. }  

10. Separate Comments and Trackbacks in WordPress

This tutorial shows you how to separate comments and trackbacks in the comments section. This tutorial uses comments.php file from WordPress 2.5 or earlier which did not have support for wp_list_comments function. With WordPress 2.7 or later, you can simply pass a parameter to wp_list_comments() function to separate comments and trackbacks. e.g.
Use wp_list_comments('type=comment') to show comments and wp_list_comments('type=pings') to show pings and trackbacks.

11. List All Hooked WordPress Functions

WordPress Hooks are very useful and help developers to customize WordPress the way you want, but sometimes things might go wrong and you might want to view all the hooks that are being used, then this tutorial will come in handy.

12. Detect Visitor Browser Within WordPress

One of the lesser known features of WordPress is that it provides global variables for browser detection which you can use to customize your theme for different browsers. Here’s a useful function which you can add to your functions.php file that adds browser specific css classes to body tag so that you can control looks for different browsers.

  1. <?php  
  2. add_filter(‘body_class’,’browser_body_class’);  
  3. function browser_body_class($classes) {  
  4.     global $is_lynx, $is_gecko, $is_IE, $is_opera, $is_NS4, $is_safari, $is_chrome, $is_iphone;  
  5.   
  6.     if($is_lynx) $classes[] = ‘lynx’;  
  7.     elseif($is_gecko) $classes[] = ‘gecko’;  
  8.     elseif($is_opera) $classes[] = ‘opera’;  
  9.     elseif($is_NS4) $classes[] = ‘ns4’;  
  10.     elseif($is_safari) $classes[] = ‘safari’;  
  11.     elseif($is_chrome) $classes[] = ‘chrome’;  
  12.     elseif($is_IE) $classes[] = ‘ie’;  
  13.     else $classes[] = ‘unknown’;  
  14.   
  15.     if($is_iphone) $classes[] = ‘iphone’;  
  16.     return $classes;  
  17. }  
  18. ?>  

13. Get Tags Specific to a Particular Category in WordPress

Wouldn’t it be nice to show tags related to the category of the post instead of showing all the tags and eating up page real estate. Here’s the code that shows only the tags related to a particular category.

  1. <?php  
  2.     query_posts(‘category_name=work’);  
  3.     if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();  
  4.         $posttags = get_the_tags();  
  5.         if ($posttags) {  
  6.             foreach($posttags as $tag) {  
  7.                 $all_tags_arr[] = $tag -> name; //USING JUST $tag MAKING $all_tags_arr A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL ARRAY, WHICH DOES WORK WITH array_unique  
  8.             }  
  9.         }  
  10.     endwhileendif;   
  11.   
  12.     $tags_arr = array_unique($all_tags_arr); //REMOVES DUPLICATES  
  13.     echo ‘<pre>’.print_r($tags_arr, true).'</pre>’; //OUTPUT FINAL TAGS FROM CATEGORY  
  14. ?>  

14. Create Archive Page Using WordPress Loop

Archive Page Using WordPress Loop
This is a nice tutorial from WP-Recipes about how to create an archive page for your blog that lists all the posts without installing any plugin. Simply create a custom page template and paste the given code in it and then create a new blank page with its template set to the one with custom code.

15. Get The Latest Sticky Posts

One of the useful features in WordPress 2.7 or later is the sticky posts, so if you need to output 5 latest sticky posts using WordPress loop, here’s the code:

  1. <?php  
  2. $sticky = get_option(‘sticky_posts’);  
  3. rsort( $sticky );  
  4. $sticky = array_slice( $sticky, 0, 5);  
  5. query_posts( array( ‘post__in’ => $sticky, ‘caller_get_posts’ => 1 ) );  
  6. if (have_posts()) :  
  7.     while (have_posts()) : the_post();  
  8.         the_title();  
  9.         the_excerpt();  
  10.     endwhile;  
  11. endif;  
  12. ?>  

16. Only Show Posts With a specific Custom Field Value

You might some time need to show posts having a specific custom field value, then use the code below to get posts in the loop.

  1. <?php query_posts(‘meta_key=[custom field name]&meta_value=[custom field value]’);  ?>  
  2. <?php if (have_posts()) : ?>  
  3. <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>  
  4.     //display posts  
  5. <?php endwhileendif;  
  6. ?>  

17. Use Multiple Loops on a Page Without printing Duplicate Posts

If you use multiple loops within your theme file, then chances are that some posts might be output by both loops simultaneously. To prevent this, do the following:
When you use loop for first time, record the id’s of posts in an array e.g.view plain copy to clipboard print?

  1. <?php  
  2. query_posts(‘showposts=8’);  
  3. $ids = array();  
  4. while (have_posts()) : the_post();  
  5. $ids[] = get_the_ID();  
  6. the_title();  
  7. the_content();  
  8. endwhile;  
  9. ?>  

And when you use the loop next time, modify your query to exclude the post with id’s already displayed by first loop.view plain copy to clipboard print?

  1. <?php  
  2. query_posts(array(‘post__not_in’ => $ids));  
  3. while (have_posts()) : the_post();  
  4. the_title();  
  5. the_content();  
  6. endwhile;  
  7. ?>  

Source: 10 Useful WordPress Loop Hacks(Smashing Magazine)

18. Displaying Author Meta Information in WordPress 2.8

Display Author Info in WordPress
WordPress 2.8 includes a new function the_author_meta() to display author information easily. This tutorial explains every aspect of the new function. Here’s the sample code to make an author info box like the image, you will need to apply your own styles.

  1. <div id=”authorbox”>  
  2.   
  3.    <?php if (function_exists(‘get_avatar’)) { echo get_avatar(get_the_author_meta(‘user_email’), ’80’); }?>  
  4.    <div>  
  5.       <h4>About <a href=”<?php the_author_meta(‘user_url’); ?>”><?php the_author_meta(‘display_name’); ?></a></h4>  
  6.       <p><?php the_author_meta(‘description’); ?></p>  
  7.   
  8.    </div>  
  9. </div>  

19. Make Your Theme Comments Backward Compatible with version 2.7 and earlier

If you design themes for WordPress 2.7 or later, then you might be using wp_list_comments() to show comments but since this function is not supported by earlier functions, you’ll have to use legacy methods to show comments. This tutorial shows you how to make your theme compatible by using a different versions of the comments file depending on the WordPress version.

20. Show Your Latest Tweet in Just 5 Lines of Code

This piece of code is just awsome as it lets you show your latest tweet with no more than 5 lines of code using the twitter search feed. Add this code to functions.php.

  1. function wp_echoTwitter($username){  
  2.      include_once(ABSPATH.WPINC.’/rss.php’);  
  3.      $tweet = fetch_rss(“http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=from:” . $username . “&rpp=1”);  
  4.      echo $tweet->items[0][‘atom_content’];  
  5. }  

To display the latest tweet within your theme, use the below line of code, remember to replace the username with your own.

  1. <?php wp_echoTwitter(‘webdevplus’); ?>  

21. How To Embed CSS in your posts With Custom Field

If you would like to style a particular post in a different style from the rest, then here’s a nice custom field hack from WP-Recipes.
Add the below code to your theme’s header.php file between <head> and </head> tags.

  1. <?php if (is_single()) {  
  2.     $css = get_post_meta($post->ID, ‘css’, true);  
  3.     if (!emptyempty($css)) { ?>  
  4.         <style type=”text/css”>  
  5.         <?php echo $css; ?>  
  6.         <style>  
  7.     <?php }  
  8. } ?>  

Now whenever you want a custom-styled post, add a custom field named CSS to it with its value set to the styles you want to apply.

22. Create Custom User-Defined RSS Feeds

If you are redirecting your feed to FeedBurner using the feed smith plugin, then it becomes nearly impossible to provide feeds for a particular category, but this one is a really nice solution from WP-Recipes that involves creating a custom page template for your custom feed.

23. Guide To Launch Your WordPress Theme

If you develop Free WordPress Themes for the community, then you not only need to code and develop it but also, it’s your job to promote it to the WordPress community. This article from WP Lover guides on how to successfully promote your theme.

45 Great Free Navigation Menu PSDs

free-navigation-menu-psds

Having a great and user-friendly navigation menu is important for any website to give visitors a good experience and to help them navigate to the content they need, it is an important requirement for SEO and it helps in site ranking. When designing a website it is useful to look for Navigation menu PSDs as a source of inspiration and to find usable design elements.

This may speed up the design process and also help to overcome the design of difficult elements by having a look at how others solved it. Besides doing the hard work yourself it is also an option to pick a ready-to-use CSS navigation menu plugin that should work on any type of website.

WordPress users are typically spoiled as there are so many nice simple WordPress themes with great-looking navigation and WordPress navigation plugins.

In this article, you will find plenty of inspiration to get started designing your own navigation menu on Photoshop.

Simple navigation menu by Pawel Kadysz

This is a simple navigation menu with a dark mega sub-menu.

simple-navigation-menu

Free PSD – 6 Navigation Bars by Design Beep

This navigation menu PSD set includes 6 Navigation Bars with fully layered and easy to modify every element including colors and patterns. All the fonts and icons are free for personal and commercial uses. You can change to whatever you like. You can easily resize the navigation bar.
You can use both for personal and commercial projects.

free-psd-by-designbeep

Awesome Navigation

This is a set of 3 awesome navigation styles (FREE PSD)

awesome-navigation-psd

Drop-down navigation bar (Free PSD) by duck files

Neat and simple navigation menu bar for a corporate website. Clean style. Unlimited levels. The current menu item is available.

Slick Menu

Slick Menu comes in a variety of colors such as Blue, Aqua, Pink, Mustard, Purple, and Lime. A perfect unique blend of colors tailored for your future web project.

slick-menu

Dark Menu PSD by Ahmad Hania

The Dark Menu is designed to look simple, stylish, professional, and attractive. This resource has all layers intact, with menu items normal, hover, and active states, it has also a design for a dropdown. You can customize and use this resource for web or interface design projects or simply as a learning material to see how it was designed.

Free Ribbon Navigation PSD by WillyEpp

This is a really great-looking navigation menu using ribbon as the finish.

free-navigation-psd

Pop Up Black Sleek Buttons by Layer Lovers

Pop up Black Sleek Buttons Lined with Pink Diagonal Striped Bar under Green and Pink Flowers Navigation

pop-up-black-sleek-navigation

Candy Coated Red Navigation by Layer Lovers

Same concept as the previous but with the new color palette. A glossy candy-coated red finished tabbed navigation on a detailed wood grain texture background. CSS, JavaScript, and PSD files included

candy-coated-red-navigation

Greyscale

Grayscale is Mac Inspired and fully editable. PSD file with FREE grayscale web elements for your website or another project.

greyscale

Dropdown Navigation Bar by DuckFiles

This is a navigation menu for different types of websites. Good base for a future web design. The .PSD file has a good hierarchy. It is ready to customize.

drop-down-navigation-menu

Black and Silver Navigation by easy display name

This menu PSD contains a black and a silver design where active menu items look like they are cut out or pushed down. The light effects are pretty good and worth using.

black-and-silver-navigation

Modern menu & GUI elements PSD

This is a set of modern menus and related GUI elements in PSD format. These ribbon-style menu and web elements are pretty handy and may be helpful in your next creative web design.

modern-menu

Iconic Navigation Menu bar PSD by CSS Junction

Here you find a free navigation menu PSD that is silky, high contrast, and with icon + texts for menu items.

iconic-navigation-menu-bar-psd

Profile Menu by Hector Ardila

Different but cool navigation meant to be used as a profile menu. Idea saw on a community site project.

profile-menu-

Pretty dropdown menu by Pawel Kadysz

Great looking dropdown menu PSD with icons. Two-color schemes for both light and dark backgrounds. You can change the color of the menu with just a few clicks.

pretty-dropdown-menu

Navigation PSD Pack

7 Layered Navigations in black, blue, red, green, orange, pink, and grey.

navigation-psd-pack

Mini Navigation Daniel Sandvik

Simple and clean menu layout in light and dark colors.

mini-navigation

Yellow Navigation David Bradley

yellow-navigation

14 Free Custom Web Navigation Menu PSD by Download PSD

The PSD set consists of 1 PSD file with different Navigation Menu Styles and color variation.? This layered PSD is arranged in groups and named perfectly. You can modify this PSD according to your needs. All menus are editable, you can easily update color, change the size, remove text. Rollover states and sub-menus? are in their own layers and groups.

custom-web-navigation

Navigation Free PSD by WillyEpp

Another dropdown design available as a Photoshop PSD file for free download

navigation-free-psd

Horizontal Dropdown Menu Bar by Adrian Pelletier

Horizontal Dropdown Menu Bar is a PSD file with a clean menu design. Dropdown menus are one of the most commonly used elements in web design.

horizontal-drop-down-menu-bar

Simple Dark Navigation Menu (PSD) by Orman Clark

This is a clean and simple dark navigation menu PSD ready to be picked up.

simple-dark-navigation-psd

Stylish Navigation by sirjeffoakley

Navigation menu PSD with 3 ready-to-use menus.

stylish-navigation

Dark Button Navigation (PSD) by Orman Clark

This is a simple navigation menu made up of a series of buttons and a single search field

dark-button-navigation-psd

Header & Navigation Pack by Adrian Pelletier

Header & Navigation Pack is a PSD file with 3 different styles of header and main navigation designs. Each design includes normal, hover, and active states for the links

header-and-navigation-pack

Checkout Process Navigation (PSD) by Orman Clark

Not really a traditional navigation menu, but a checkout process indicator or navigation – an absolute must for any eCommerce operation.

checkout-process-navigation-psd

Free Colored Web Menus by MosheSeldin

Here you find several cool Looking Colored Web Menus In a Single. PSD

free-colored-web-menus

Clean & Simple Navigation Menu (PSD) by Orman Clark

This PSD provides a great design for a clean and simple navigation menu.

clean-and-simple-navigation-psd

Bold and Chunky Navigation PSD by Liam McCabe

Simple dark navigation menu PSD with a good-looking mouse over effect.

bold-and-chunky-navigation-psd

Plaid Navigation by Layer Lovers

This is the full package… navigation design + source code from Cloud Nine Labs.  CSS, JavaScript and a fully layered .psd included.

plaid-navigation

Premium tabbed navigation by Layer Lovers

This PSD offers a cool tabbed navigation with icon images.

premium-tabbed-navigation

Vertical Navigation Menu (PSD) by Orman Clark

In this PSD you will find a sweet and simple vertical navigation menu with styles for sub menus thrown in for good measure.

vertical-navigation-menu-psd

Elegant Ribbon Menu by Adrian Pelletier

Elegant Ribbon Menu is an attractive, ornate PSD file with three different ribbon colors. The layers are well organized and creating new menus with your own color choice is very easy.

elegant-ribbon-menu

Breadcrumbs Navigation PSD by Liam McCabe

Navigation menu PSD for designing a breadcrumbs function.

breadcrumbs-navigation-menu

Sexy Dropdown Menu by Web Designer Aid

This is a nice dark dropdown navigation menu PSD where the dropdown overlaps the main menu area.

sexy-dropdown-menu

Free PSD Source – 2 by prkdeviant

Simply menu for that could be useful e.g. for an upcoming WordPress theme or portfolio site. It is available in all that 4 colors.

awesome-menu

PSD navigation menu by PSD Graphics

10 unique website navigation menus with rounded corners, for your web project. Used glossy style. All menus are editable, you can easily update color, change the size, remove text and export it in a necessary file format. Rollover states are in their own layers.

psd-navigation-menu

Pixel Navigation by Layer Lovers

A sheik looking black metallic navigation on a pixel background.  The author has included CSS, JavaScript & .PSD!

pixel-navigation

Mega Menu Navigation Free PSD by Victor  Osea

Mega Menu Navigation, perfect for an e shop website. You can modify the PSD to suit your needs.

mega-menu-free-navigation-psd

Website menu PSD by Martz90

website-menu-psd

Menu Notification Badges (PSD) by Orman Clark

Included in the download (layered PSD) is a navigation menu which is a nice little bonus. The main freebie, the badges, come in 3 colours giving you some options to play with.

menu-notification-badges

Dark Navigation Menu (PSD) by Orman Clark

This dark navigation menu can be dropped straight into a bunch of different designs and you’re good to go. Included in the download (PSD) is of course the navigation menu bar itself and two varying hover or active states

free-navigation-menu-psd

3 color borders navigation by goldhand88

3 color border-style navigation.

three-color-border-navigation

Clean, Crisp Settings Menu by Taiyab Raja

clean, crisp settings menu (PSD) for all your menu lovers. The download includes a fully-layered PSD ready for use.

clean,-crisp-settings-menu

Author: Lars Vraa

Lars started tripwire magazine back in January 2009. He is really passionate about web design, web development, SEO, social media and loves to look into new technologies, techniques, tools, etc., and to write articles for tripwire magazine readers.

15 Ways to Improve CSS Techniques Using jQuery

CSS is great and when it is combined with powerful JavaScript frameworks like jQuery, you can achieve some really amazing things. Combining these two together will let you enhance the user experience by providing a more intuitive and responsive web interface. Here are 15 ways you can use jQuery to improve CSS techniques.

1. Custom Styled Radio Buttons and Checkboxes

It is always hard and next to impossible to customize the style of radio buttons and checkboxes. But using jQuery we can easily customize the radio buttons and checkboxes to make them more user-friendly. Here are two different ways to stylize them:

Custom Designed Checkbox and Radio Buttons
Custom Styled Checkboxes and radio buttons

Radio Button and Checkbox replacement.
radiobutton and check box replacement with jquery

2. Setting Equal Heights with jQuery

equal height columns using jquery
Creating the visual effect of equal-height columns or content boxes has been a challenge ever since we abandoned table-based layouts, JQuery can improve your SEO efforts. Here’s the jQuery way to set the equal height of multiple elements using the equal heights plugin. With this plugin, you can make equal height columns with just a single line of code. view plain copy to clipboard print?

  1. $(“someselector”).equalHeights();
$("someselector").equalHeights();

3. Styling Select Elements

<select> is another HTML element that is not easy to customize using CSS, but with jQuery at our disposal, we can certainly make them look cool and usable.

jQuery UI Select menu
This is a plugin for jQuery UI that lets you customize select elements easily.
jquery ui selectmenu plugin

jQuery image dropdown
jQuery image dropdown

4. Current Field Highlighting in Forms

highlight current field in a form
It is always good to provide visual feedback to users when they perform any action while using a web form. Highlighting the field in which the user is currently typing is one of the usability features you should add to web forms. Though, this can be achieved using the pseudo selector in CSS. But this technique of highlighting the label along with the selected input field from CSS Tricks provides a good user experience.

5. Fix IE Overflow problem

Internet Explorer has this rather strange problem, when overflow is set to auto or scroll, the scrollbar shows up inside the width of the element. This is fine when you have multiple lines of text within that element, but if you just have a single line of text, then the scrollbar would cover that and it won’t be visible. This jQuery technique from Remy Sharp will fix that IE bug.

6. Block Hover Effect

jquery biggerlink
Creating block hover effect with CSS using display:block is possible but when you have some other content inside a box alongside the link, then it is not possible to create a semantically correct block hover effect using CSS. Here’s a nice jQuery plugin – Bigger Link to achieve that.

7. Rounded Corners

jQuery Curvy Corners
CSS Rounded corners are now supported by most browsers like Firefox, Safari but some browsers like IE do not support them. For those unsupported browsers, you can use jQuery Curvy Corners.

8. Attractive Menus with jQuery

Creating a CSS-based navigational menu that displays hover state separately is not difficult, but with a little amount of jQuery, you can achieve some really nice effects. Check out these two example menus that use jQuery to produce a very subtle hover effect.
Create an Attractive jQuery Menu with Fade In and Fade Out Effect
Attractive menu with jQuery
Animated Menu Using jQuery
Animated menu with jQuery

9. Creating a Floating HTML Menu Using jQuery and CSS

Live Floating Menu
You can fix the position of an element using the property but that won’t provide as rich a user experience as Live floating menu using jQuery. It creates a floating menu on the page and as you scroll down, the menu also follows your mouse scroll.

10. Splitting Content over multiple columns

Ever thought of splitting the text of a page into multiple columns just like a newspaper. With CSS, this will take a lot of effort but this Columnizer jQuery plugin will do all the effort for you to split the content into multiple columns with a single line of code.

11. Semantic Blockquotes with jQuery

Semantic Blockquoteswith jQuery
If you use blockquotes in your design to highlight important points of an article, then you also duplicate the content within blockquotes as it is also there in the article. Here’s a nice jquery way to do this leaving the duplication of the content to jQuery by specifying which content to show as a blockquote.

12. Text Shadows

Text Shadow in IE
CSS3 includes a nice property of text-shadow that allows you to set a text-shadow to generate nice text effects without using any images. But IE does not support this feature to date. Text-shadow in IE adds this support to Internet Explorer using jQuery.

13. Border Image

CSS3 border-image
CSS3 lets you use images as border backgrounds in addition to just colors. But since it is not supported my many browsers, you’ll need jQuery to come to the rescue. jQuery. border-image provides cross-browser support for border-image property.

14. Opacity

Opacity is one such CSS property that is supported by most browsers including IE but each has a different way to implement it, though CSS3 standard defines a property opacity to be used for setting the opacity of elements, you end up writing many lines of CSS code just to make opacity cross-browser compatible. jQuery can make this easier too.$(“some selector”).css(“opacity”, 0.5);

15. Super CSS Selector Support with jQuery

CSS 2.1 supports various types of selectors including :focus, :first-child, nth-child but not all browsers(IE!) support these selectors. but with Super CSS Selector, you can be sure to have support for those selectors even in IE.