In our last article we provided some reasons you should choose HTML5 instead of  HTML for converting designs. Today we bring you the latest industry’s news on HTML5 features:

• The Mobile Benefits Promised in HTML5
• HTML5 Elements For SEO Benefit
• HTML5 to Create New Wave of Opportunities in Mobile Landscape
• HTML5 vs Native: The Mobile App Debate

For any website development project, converting the design to HTML is a necessity. HTML is considerably the most well known and most preferred markup language in use today. One of its greatest values is its ability to help describe and structure the content and appearance of website pages on the Internet. That is one of the key reasons it can be found in use by web developers worldwide. And with the introduction of HTML5, and its expanded capabilities, it’s no surprise to see web developers flocking to embrace the technology so they can experience its benefits.

HTML5 is an improved version of HTML with a number of new features that provide the ability to enhance the functionality of a website to an even greater extent. HTML5 answers some fundamental needs of the modern Internet and addresses some of the shortcomings inherent in the earlier versions of HTML. One of the most important enhancements of HTML5 is that it is easily accessible by the newer versions of web browsers like Firefox, Chrome or Opera.

Some of the basic differences between HTML and HTLM5 are:

• Better usability. HTML5 focuses on improving the accessibility of the Internet to provide better usability to users and makes the Internet more understandable for search engine robots.
• Easier to access by all the web browsers.
• Search engine friendly. This feature helps any website gain better ranking in search engines and can provide a greater volume of traffic. The more accurate the code behind a website is, the higher that website is ranked by search engines, resulting in increased audience visibility.
• Backwards compatibility. Websites written in previous versions of HTML don’t need to be updated to be correctly displayed by the most modern browsers.

In addition, HTML5 has some exciting features that are useful for the mobile web. Being supported by Apple and Google, it introduces several technology improvements like: adding off-line data storage, video and audio streaming and playback, geo-location, extended drag and support system, and user interface tools.

HTML5 is the best technology to implement into your website to proactively keep up with Internet dynamics. We also believe that mobile websites need to keep pace and be innovative and easy to use. We are experienced with coding PSD to HTML5 websites and we can help your business achieve an effective presence both in the traditional and mobile web zones.

At CodeMyIMAGE we are aware that HTML5 offers one of the best opportunities for creating more interactive and efficient websites, and we encourage the implementation of this newer technology.

Looking ahead 2011, we predict an increase in the level of interest and investment in advertising.  With clients gaining more confidence in this economy and becoming more efficient with their investment spending, advertising agencies have the difficult challenge to stay competitive by delivering the highest quality services at the best price.

Advertising agencies need to have the capability to manage numerous web design and development projects. So as the work volume increases and deadlines become more pressing, they need to make strategic decisions in order to improve work processes and to be even more effective. Some agencies decide to hire more experienced developers that will provide the desired quality of service and handle the volume; others invest in tools like Dreamweaver for automation in order to reduce turnaround time; and some agencies will choose a PSD to HTML conversion services provider in order to meet all the requirements they cannot cover with in-house resources. One might ask – which of these options is the best for my business?

At CodeMyIMAGE, we believe that PSD to HTML conversion service is a market that continues to grow, and one that can deliver the most satisfying results in terms of code quality and turnaround time. Since it is a very specific business that engages only professional developers, it can deliver high quality valid XHTML and CSS markup in a fast and cost effective way to address the needs of your advertising business. When you choose a markup provider, your benefits are many, from cross browser compatibility, and W3C compliance, to semantic quality coding that will improve the performance of your website with search engines.

However, automated web development software like Dreamweaver continues to be improved so advertising agencies will continue to see new applications that may cover their development requirements. If you are in need of a fast and easy conversion solution, and your project does not require sophisticated manual markup, then this may be a worthwhile investment for your business. Nevertheless, keep in mind that your costs might be higher as automated tools are not sensitive to technicalities that are inherent in more complex layouts and navigation capabilities that can be achieved only with manual markup.

When we asked for feedback from our advertising clients, we have come to a few solid conclusions:

• Hand coding is a much more efficient service than automated software and provides the creatives the freedom to develop web pages with optimum flexibility, ensuring long term maintenance for our advertising partners.

• When you are seeking the pixel perfect HTML markup, find a provider who specializes in it and have them do it for you! Our advertising partners were more satisfied to work with a provider for bringing out the best in their creative designs.

PSD to HTML services are increasingly in demand and have proven to be of great benefit to web designers who want to reduce turnaround time, deliver professional code, and produce high quality websites.

After investigating the available PSD to HTML providers on the market and selecting one, the next step for a web designer should be to focus on how to achieve the optimum level of service, quality and efficiency out of the collaboration.

At CodeMyIMAGE, we manage numerous clients and development projects every day, and our focus is to consistently do our part to deliver the most services in support of the collaboration with designers. Having dealt with very different technical requests, we found it necessary to define some best practices guidelines.

We hope that you will find these to be useful tips for you as you move forward with your PSD to HTML outsourcing opportunity:

Communicate clearly your expectations in terms of creative and technical design. As a web designer, you will want your design to keep its essence, so make sure you understand any potential technical limitations and you convey, as accurately as possible, your desired results.

1. If you are pressed by your own deadlines, then make sure the turnaround time committed to by your PSD to HTML provider meets your requirements. Two-way communication during every step of the development process with your provider is a necessity, in order to make improvements and stay efficient.
2. Provide feedback to your markup provider – check the final XHTML/CSS markup and how it matches your design concept.  Be sure and check for any conversion peculiarities and deliver feedback quickly to insure that any edits or fixes can be completed while still maintaining your schedule.
3. Check if your PSD to HTML provider offers further services that might suit your needs! Decide if it makes sense for the website to be integrated onto a CMS platform or if you want to make it compatible with mobile as well.  See if your provider can provide and integrate these services. It will save you time and you will build an even stronger collaboration.

Outsourcing PSD to HTML services is definitely a smart move with many advantages for web designers. And it should be developed using a process built on a solid foundation of communication and technical expectations of the design.

Semantic coding is a type of code that is both descriptive and representative and used by developers with the main purpose of enabling search engines to read their web pages and improve their rank. More recently, its role has been credited with improving the overall organization of the World Wide Web environment.

In the highly competitive world of the web, every developer should focus on quality coding and have a sound understanding of the importance of semantic coding. The result of this will be improved search engine optimization, accessibility, and maintenance over the long term.

At CodeMyIMAGE, our focus is to provide only semantic, hand coded, cross-browser compatible and W3C compliant markup. We believe this approach has enabled many of our clients to deliver more accessible, easy to maintain, and SEO optimized websites.

If you are looking for more arguments in support of semantic coding, we will further share some guiding principles we embrace when developing a website:

1. Think of semantic code as aesthetic code that is attractive for both users and search engines! SEO friendly semantic code will return the best search engine rankings for your website.
2. In the long run, semantic code is easier to maintain by developers and ensures that your markup remains valid and easy to manage.
3. Consider code separation as a best practice! By including semantic code in your HTML and CSS, and applied to the design and style, you will ultimately improve your web pages’ maintainability, look and feel.
4. If you decide to outsource your coding to a PSD to HTML provider, make sure you are provided with SEO optimized markup. We think you will find it a worthwhile investment for all the reasons previously mentioned.

Semantic coding is in many ways superior and adds value to your website in terms of accessibility and search engine optimization. We think quality coding is a required step in order to move the web experience to a more meaningful semantic level.