While accessibility measures are meant to be an inclusive means to provide people with disabilities the same opportunities as those without disabilities, they are also used to improve the general user experience for any service, device or infrastructure.

If you’ve ever visited a site that was disorganized or you couldn’t find what you were looking for (even though you know the information is there), you’ll understand how frustrating a bad layout can be. You may even have decided to stop using that site and changed over to a different company with similar services as a result.

If this has happened to you, you understand the importance of categorizing your own site’s content in a manner that makes navigating to the desired pages an easy matter—because you don’t want to lose clients, of course!

But how do you know whether your site’s layout and categorization is as easy for your users to understand as it is for you? After all, you built the site (or at the very least gave your developer/website manager directions in doing so), and therefore know where to find everything, but your target market may have a slightly different way of thinking. And if your users struggle to find your content the way you’ve grouped it, they too may consider moving on to a competitor. This is where card sorting (and card sorting software or sessions) saves the day.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has always been an escalating arms race. Companies and advertisers continue to look for new ways to organically push their desired results to the top of search engines. Likewise, search engines constantly update their algorithms to combat keyword stuffing and ensure the true cream rises to the top. This constant push and pull has given rise to a new focus in the field. While good, old-fashioned, keyword focused, SEO is still a necessary part of any successful campaign, a growing number of new-age marketers are turning to social media for an added boost.

Not too long ago, Google announced that switching a website over to the HTTPS protocol would give it a small boost in ranking. Google, being the ruler of the Internet, should know what's what then, right? Many people have this mentality but it is vital to understand the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, how to switch, and if even making the switch is right for your brand to begin with. To start with, it is vital to ask a few questions; why would Google rather HTTPS for SEO rankings? And what are the benefits of using HTTPS for SEO? It should also be noted that there are a few concerns regarding SEO and changing an HTTP website to HTTPS.

What is a password protected website? Why would a website be password protected? Why would I want to crawl a password protected website? These are common questions that everyone asks themselves at some point, especially if you work in website design, development, or SEO. Let’s take each question one at a time, before looking at a few others as well.