With a large majority of us using the internet for online shopping and banking, there has been a massive increase with online fraud. Unfortunately many of us are simply not aware of what to look out for and innocently could be giving away our person details to these fraudsters, opening ourselves up to spam and worse still fraud.

When visiting a website it is vital that you know what to look out for. If the site redirects you on to another site and looks odd, then it probably is odd so don’t use it. Never click a link that has been sent to you without confirming it is genuine. If in doubt, visit the site through your browser by searching on Google for the website.

If the website is asking for person details, always check that you are using a secure connection as open wifi networks can sometimes be compromised.

All too often people get calls from companies claiming they have an issue with their computer and that they can talk you through how to fix it. Internet companies do not do this unless you have registered a fault with them, so if in doubt hang up the phone and call the usual number for your internet provider.

You may have seen websites that have blogs on them and wonder what they are all about. Blogs are added to websites for a number of reasons; some are added because the creator feels that some of the information would be useful and of interest to their viewers and some are created purely for marketing purposes, to improve the onsite SEO and help improve the website rankings in the search engines.

When considering adding a blog to your website you should try and ensure that your blog will do both. Yes you can have a blog purely to satisfy the need for fresh, relevant content on your site, but if you can make the blog useful and of interest then that has to be better.

If you have an accountancy website for example, then your visitors may find it very useful to have a blog that contains latest industry news such as changes to the tax allowances, employment laws and company car rules and regulations. It may also be useful to include a calendar with useful dates such as tax deadlines and VAT submissions etc. This way you are adding fresh, relevant content to your site but you are also adding content that will be read and possibly even shared.

Regardless of if you have years of front end web development or if you are just starting out, there are many tips and advice that can help you take your career to the next level and become a better programmer.

Often one of the biggest mistakes many programmers make, regardless of experience, is to not plan their projects in advance. It may seem pointless and time consuming but planning and preparation can save you a lot of time and avoid costly mistakes later on down the line.

Firstly create a site map of the website to show all the pages and forms etc needed. You may want to also create a template visual showing labels for banners, ads, menus etc. Once you have this you can start to work on what plugins or programming is required for each section. If you are using WordPress for example, then you will need to find a template that fits and that you can amend. You will also need to check that the plugins that you are going to be using are compatible with the newest version of WordPress.

Always produce visuals for the client to sign off this can show them what they can expect the site to look like and rule out any errors from the start.

If you are looking for a company or a programmer to create a website for you then I would strongly recommend that you try and obtain reviews before agreeing to go with them. You should be able to see working examples of websites they have created and if possibly, try and find out what the brief was. Some programmers are only that and will not get involved in web marketing, but to get a website to truly work well then the programmer needs to have some knowledge or need to be able to work closely with a website marketer to ensure that all the elements are there to allow the site to be optimised as it should.

If you have any concerns then it may be advised to go to a company that offers the whole process as the optimisation and marketing of the website is vital to get the site to perform as it needs to, to be successful.

When you have a website live, it is important to check on the progress it is making. You may be keeping track of all the enquiries and sales but are you looking into your rankings on the search engines and the traffic to your site. Sales is often a numbers game, the more visitors you get to the site the more sales you receive. When analysing the traffic to your site, see where the visitors has come from, where they found your website.

It may be that the majority of your traffic is coming through the social media websites and that this is an avenue that works well for you. If so, you may wish to invest more time and money into this marketing avenue.

You can rent software that will tell you where your website is ranking for certain search terms. This can save a huge amount of time by you not having to do it manually.

Your business many have a totally different list of competitors online that it does offline. It may be that within your area there are a number of businesses offering the same or similar products to you. These are mostly likely to be your competitors. When looking online you may find a number of businesses that are in direct competition with you that are not even locally based. If, for example, you are selling office furniture, it may be that the buyer is not interested where the furniture comes from just that it is good quality at a reasonable price. When shopping online it is a lot easier to compare prices, so if you are going to list prices you need to be competitive or state why people may want to pay more to use your company (for example longer warranty or free aftercare on your product for 12 months etc).

There are literally thousands of websites that go live every week and even more that are changed or updated. Having a website that has bugs, meaning it will not function or look as it should, can be enough to put many visitors off using your website before they have even had the opportunity to have a look at what you have to offer.

Whenever you are changing or creating a new website it is vital to test it vigorously to ensure that everything works as it should. Sometimes you may be too close to the project to test it sufficiently so it may be worth asking another colleague or even a family member or friend to test it for you, ideally someone that doesn’t use the website often, to pick up on any problems. Do not be tempted to set a website live that contains bugs as you may find you lose customers and they will not be willing to return having been frustrated the first time they visited your website.

PHP is a programming language that a lot of software and websites are designed with. It has a wide range of functionalities and is compatible across multiple platforms. It is also what’s known as open source, meaning that you do not have to pay to use PHP.

When learning a programming language it is often said to being similar to learning a new spoken language. Once you can understand the reasons behind it, it becomes much easier. The code for a website example is often made up of multiple parts such as the HTML, PHP, CSS and JavaScript. All of these work together to output what you see on the screen. If there is a calculator on there for example then the titles, labels etc will be created by HTML and styled by CSS. The PHP or Javascript is often responsible for doing the actual maths behind the calculation.

If you are looking at going into computer or website programming then having experience with PHP is definitely an advantage.

When you have an e-commerce website that has been up and running for a few months it is worth analysing your check out process. It may be that you are losing business that could have been easily avoided by making a few small changes during the checkout procedure.

Often a common cause for people leaving a checkout process is that it is too lengthy and time-consuming. Adding in a guest checkout process that will only take the bare minimum of details from a customer may vastly improve your checkout completion rate.

Another issue is not being able to find out delivery costs until the last minute, some companies even ask for card details prior to showing delivery costs. This will make customers dubious and they do not want to have to create an account just to see the delivery costs. Ideally, you should put a separate delivery calculator on the basket page or at least give customers a band in which their delivery will be, which will then be confirmed in the checkout process.

If you enjoy working with computers and have a technological mind then you may have considered website programming. Website programmers can vary in terms of their ability, qualifications, experience and cost and to find the one most suitable to your requirements can be a tricky task.

Firstly the company will need to consider the budget they have to spend. There is no point in going to a web agency if they only have a £200 budget as they will not be able to build a website for that.

Ideally the client should then write a brief specification of what the website will need to do. From this specification they can start to look for a suitable programmer.

To become a programmer, you do not need any qualifications, but it will often go in your favour when applying for a job at an agency if you do have a relevant one.