Alt Attribute & Search engine optimization

SEO Optimization images has become increasingly more important in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for websites. The ALT attribute is a critical step that is sometimes forgotten. This can be a lost chance of better rankings.

In Google's webmaster guidelines, they advise the use of alternative text for that images on your web site:

Images:. Make use of the alt attribute to provide descriptive text. In addition, we recommend utilizing a human-readable caption and descriptive text round the image.

Why would they ask us to achieve that? The answer is easy, really; search engines have a similar problem as blind users. They can't see the images.

Many webmasters and inexperienced or unethical SEOs abuse the use of this attribute, attempting to stuff it with keywords, looking to achieve a particular keyword density, which is not as relevant for rankings now since it once was.

On the contrary, high keyword density can, on some search engines like google, trigger spam filters, which might result in a penalty for your site's ranking. Even without such a penalty, your site's rankings won't benefit from this plan.
This process also puts persons who use screen readers in a greater disadvantage. Screen readers are software-based tools that really read aloud the items in what's shown on the screen. In browsing the net, the alt features of images are read aloud as well.

Imagine hearing a paragraph of text that is then repetitions of numerous keywords. The page will be far from accessible, and, to put it mildly, would be found quite annoying.
What exactly is an Alt attribute?

An ALT attribute should not be used like a description or a label for an image, though lots of people utilize it for the reason that fashion. Though it might seem natural to assume that alternate text is really a label or a description, it's not!

The words used within an image's alt attribute should be its text equivalent and convey the same information or serve the same purpose that the image would.

The thing would be to supply the same functional information that a visual user would see. The alt attribute text should function as a "stand in" in the event that the image is not available. Ask yourself this question: Should you replace the image using the text, would most users receive the same basic information, and wouldn't it create the same response?
A few examples:

 

Some SEO Optimization Tips

If a search button is really a magnifier or binoculars its alt text ought to be 'search' or 'find' not 'magnifying glass' or 'binoculars'.

If the image is supposed to convey the literal contents of the look, then a description is appropriate.

If it's meant to convey data, then that data is what is appropriate.

If it's meant to convey using a function, then the function itself is what should be used.

Some Alt Attribute Guidelines:

Always add alt attributes to images. Alt is mandatory for accessibility as well as for valid XHTML.

For images that play only a decorative role within the page, use an empty alt (i.e. alt="") or perhaps a CSS background image so that reading browsers do not bother users by uttering such things as "spacer image".

Remember that it is the function from the image we are trying to convey. For example; any button images should not include the word "button" within the alt text. They should emphasize the action performed by the button.

Alt text ought to be based on context. The same image in a different context may require drastically different alt text.

Try to flow alt text with the rest from the text because that is how it is going to be read with adaptive technologies like screen readers. Someone listening to your page should hardly be aware that a graphic image can there be.
Please remember that using an alt attribute for every image is needed to satisfy the minimum WAI requirements, that are used since the benchmark for accessibility laws in UK and also the remainder of Europe. Also, they are necessary to meet "Section 508" accessibility requirements in the US.

It is important to categorize non-text content into three levels:

Eye-Candy
Mood-Setting
Content and Function

I. Eye-Candy

Eye-Candy are stuff that serve no purpose apart from to create a site visually appealing/attractive and (in many cases) fulfill the marketing departments. There isn't any content value (though there may be value to some sighted user).

Never alt-ify eye-candy unless there is something there that will enhance the usability of the site for someone using a non-visual user agent. Use a null alt attribute or background images in CSS for eye-candy.

II. Mood-Setting

This is the middle layer of graphics which may actually set the mood or set happens as it were. These graphics aren't direct content and could 't be considered essential, but they're essential in they help frame what's going on.

Attempt to alt-ify the second group as makes sense and is relevant. There may be times when doing this may be annoying or detrimental to other users. Then try to avoid it.

For example; Alt text that's identical to adjacent text is unnecessary, and an irritant to screen reader users. I suggest alt="" or background CSS images in such cases. But sometimes, it's vital that you get this content inside for all users.

Usually it depends on context. The same image in a different context may need drastically different alt text. Obviously, content ought to always be fully available. How you use this case is a judgment call.

III. Content and Function

This is where the look is the actual content. Always alt-ify content and functional images. Title and long description attributes may also be in order.
The main reason many authors can't understand why their alt text isn't working is that they don't know why the images exist. You need to figured out precisely what function an image serves. Consider what it is about the image that's vital that you the page's intended audience.

Every graphic includes a reason behind being on that page: since it either improves the theme/ mood/ atmosphere or it is advisable to what are the page is trying to describe. Knowing what the image is for makes alt text simpler to write. And exercise writing them definitely helps.
A way to look into the usefulness of alternative text would be to imagine reading the page over the telephone to someone. An amount you say when encountering a particular image to create the page understandable to the listener?

Aside from the alt attribute you've got a couple more tools at your disposal for images.
First, in degree of descriptiveness title is in between alt and longdesc. It adds useful information and can add flavor. The title attribute is optionally rendered through the user agent. Remember they're invisible and not shown as a "tooltip" when focus is received via the keyboard. (A lot for device independence). So use the title attribute only for advisory information.
Second, the longdesc attribute points to the URL of a complete description of an image. When the information found in an image is essential to the concept of the page (i.e. some important content would be lost when the image was removed), a longer description than the "alt" attribute can reasonably display should be used. It may offer rich, expressive documentation of a visual image.

It should be used when alt and title are insufficient to embody the visual qualities of an image. As Clark [1] states, "A longdesc is really a long description of an image...The aim is to use any period of description essential to impart the facts of the graphic.

It would not be remiss to hope that a long description conjures an image - the look - in the mind's eye, an analogy that is true even for that totally blind."

Although the alt attribute is mandatory for web accessibility as well as for valid (X)HTML, not all images need alternative text, long descriptions, or titles.

Oftentimes, you are better off just going with your gut instinct -- if it's not necessary to include it, and if you don't have a strong urge to get it done, don't add that longdesc.

However, if it's necessary for the whole page to work, then you've to add the alt text (or title or longdesc).

What's necessary and what's not depends a lot about the function of your image and its context about the page.

Exactly the same image may require alt text (or title or longdesc) in a single spot, but not in another. If the image provides simply no content or functional information alt="" or background CSS images may be appropriate to make use of. However, if the image provides content or adds functional information an alt would be required and perhaps a long description will be in order. Oftentimes this kind of thing is really a judgement call.

Image Seo optimization Tips

Listed here are key steps in optimizing images:

Choose a logical file name that reinforces the keywords. You should use hyphens in the file name to isolate the keyword, but avoid to exceeding two hyphens. Stay away from underscores like a word separator, such as "brilliant-diamonds.jpg";

Label the file extension. For example, when the image search engine sees a ".jpg" (JPEG) file extension, it's going to assume the file is really a photo, and when it sees a ".gif" (GIF) file extension, it's likely to assume that it is graphic;

Make sure that the text at the image that is highly relevant to that image.
Again, don't lose a great chance to help your site with your images in search engines. Begin using these steps to rank better on all of the engines and drive increased traffic for your site TODAY.

SEO Optimization

Last week, I was on a panel at a CTIA pre-conference show in Orlando, and a question that was asked during several sessions at the conference was “what should we invest in: a mobile site or a mobile app?”

I heard this same question in a panel I was on at Digiday Mobile in September 2010, and earlier at the Mobile Search App Opportunities session at SMX West 2010, so it’s clear that this is still a question that marketers and developers are still struggling with, and have been since the opening of Apple’s App Store in 2008.

If you’re lucky enough not to be familiar with the question, brands with limited resources often wonder whether they really need to build both a mobile site and a mobile app, and would prefer to funnel their limited resources into one fully-funded mobile project.

Mobile apps have historically been seen by web designers as the only way to provide a rich user experience in mobile, and they are recommended frequently by CEOs who have been impressed by the user experience of an app and then fast-tracked their own mobile app project.

Why are companies still struggling with this issue after three years of talking about it? I think that’s because it’s a complex issue with more than one right answer depending on your business goals and objectives.

Add to that the countless partisan debates between those who want to sell you a mobile app and those who want to sell you a mobile site and it can be difficult to get to some semblance of truth about what it actually makes sense for your business to invest in.

As an SEO, I’m not selling mobile apps or mobile sites, and I can help you optimize either for more qualified traffic in search, but I’ve seen enough to know that the strongest mobile strategies start with a mobile web site and use it as the foundation for success.

Consider the following problems inherent with betting the farm on a mobile app:

• The most successful iPhone app project, which becomes viral enough to be passed around to every user on the platform, would only ultimately reach only 7% of the total mobile market. A mobile website or mobile web app, on the other hand, has the potential to reach 100% of mobile web users.

• Many iPhone apps require the current version of iOS to run, which can’t be run by first-generation iPod touches. According to Chitika research, these devices account for almost 10% of iPhone traffic, which could lower your reach even more. Android devices are even more fragmented, and could require additional development time to make your applications accessible to the already-limited app market. Mobile websites and web apps built with a progressive enhancement strategy, however, should be accessible to most users regardless of device.

• It’s a myth that users prefer a mobile app experience, largely propagated, I suspect, by those who are looking to sell additional services. Research shows that most users, in fact, prefer mobile websites over mobile apps (Adobe, eMarketer, InsightExpress), and that more people use mobile websites than apps.

• Users of search engines will likely not find your app in Google or Bing unless they’re looking for it. You can optimize the app for app stores and to some extent for Google, but it’s a different process that requires some specialized knowledge for success. As of this writing, it’s highly unlikely that searchers will find your app when searching on high volume, competitive keywords in search engines outside of app stores unless you buy a search ad. Given that 21.4% of mobile users in the United States search on their phones, a brand that wants the content it creates to find an audience would be wise not to ignore traffic from mobile search.

• Most apps are downloaded once and discarded (Pinch Media, Localytics). If you don’t have a good reason for creating your app and don’t ultimately succeed in creating an app that people need to use regularly, it’s likely that your app will suffer the same fate.

• There are very few apps that exist that provide something beyond what a mobile web site can do. If you’re creating a game or an application that truly cannot exist on the mobile web as it exists today, then by all means, build an app. However, given that Safari now has support for accelerometer and gyrometer, there are many things that mobile websites can do now that they couldn’t do previously. Be sure that you can’t build your mobile app as a web app before you build it, as there’s a good chance that you could build something similar with greater reach and engagement.

• Apps drive link equity to iTunes, Android Market, or Blackberry App World, and not to your website, which needs it to help your other content be found in search results. Even mobile websites at m.subdomains ultimately benefit the host domain, which could help you generate more revenue on your desktop, tablet and mobile websites if they’re hosted at the same domain.

• Apps are software. As such, they’re not currently able to be crawled and indexed as individual pages with a separate theme. It’s likely that you will index and rank one or two mobile applications pages for navigational keywords for apps, but you have the potential to rank as many pages as you have accessible pages with web apps. If your app is relevant to more than one concept or audience, building it as an accessible, open web app instead of a native application will give you greater relevance and reach.

There are good reasons for creating native apps as well, so I don’t want to make it seem as though creating a mobile website is all any business needs to reach its mobile target. For example, if you build a mobile website and not an app, you run the risk of alienating your brand from the audience that does prefer mobile apps and uses them regularly.

That audience, though, is the minority target; and if you only have funds to build one experience—mobile web or native mobile app—my recommendation is to build the best mobile web app you can afford, market it as aggressively as possible, and use the money you make and the data you collect to experiment with native apps.

If you can afford it, of course, the best solution is to build both a mobile site and a mobile app, and to enjoy not having to answer this question of limited resources that many businesses are struggling with today.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Mobile Mondays | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines | Search Marketing: Mobile | SEO: Mobile Search

The following is part of a multiple part series covering image optimization techniques. This article is intended for beginners through intermediate SEO’s; if this doesn’t pertain to you, you may want to skim as most of this will probably be review material for you.

Some of the big questions many people ask are why would they even want to perform image optimization? Doesn’t it just help people who want to steal or hotlink images? And is there really any meaningful traffic or links that you can get from image optimization? IMHO the answer is yes. Let’s say someone is going on a trip to Italy. They might do image searches for things to do or see in Italy and for famous Italian landmarks like the Leaning Tower of Piza, the Trevi Fountain, or St. Peter’s Basilica. Thanks to Google’s universal search results, images provide a way to get onto the first page (or, in some cases, the top result) and get a click through, an ad view, or adsense impression. It might even get a lead generation completion. Maybe you run a fish store. If a university professor or government agency needs a picture of a fish and your image result appears, and you allow your images to be reused in exchange for a link, this can be huge way to passively build links slowly over time (true story! It happened for a client I used to have). Now that we’ve got the why out of the way, let’s talk about the “how” of image optimization.

Filenames

This is one of the most basic elements of image optimization. If you have an image of blue widgets, I would name your image “blue-widgets.jpg” or “blue-widgets.gif”. You can use other formats like PNG, but I have gotten better results with “jpg” and “gif” files. You can use other characters like underscore as word delimiters, but I get better results with hyphens. You can run the words together if they are separate in other factors. I have found stemming plays a role (ie widget vs widgets), but you can get around it using other factors. I haven’t seen capitalization play a role, but I prefer to use all lower case because I usually use Apache servers and case sensitivity matters. If you are going to have multiple images of the same object-type, I suggest adding a “-1″, “-2″ onto the end.

Now, before the hate mail or hate tweets start, it is entirely possible to have an image rank without the keywords being in the file name–IF there are enough other factors in place. However, you should ask yourself why would you give up a chance to give a search engine a signal about what an image is about? If you work on a large ecommerce platform or other large database application, chances are good that your gold diamond earrings will have an image file name like “GDX347294.jpg” that corresponds to the item’s SKU or other internal classifier. So, yes, you will have to sacrifice the keyword for business reasons.

ALT Text

Let’s get the basic information out of the way: ALT text was designed for screen readers or visually-impaired people to know what they weren’t seeing. Your goal is to use it to satisfy the screen readers while being keyword focused enough for the search engines and without being a keyword stuffing spammer. Here’s an example of ALT text variations:

Keyword stuffed: discount hotel room paris france

ALT text only: Eiffel Tower

SEO optimized: Eiffel Tower from Louvre Bons Enfants hotel room

Striving to find a balance between pleasing the search engines and text readers can be a juggling act. If you are risky with some of your other SEO techniques, I’d play this on the safe side.

Headings and Bold Text

If image optimization for a particular image is important, I really like to optimize the image with bold or a heading tag of the term I’m chasing right above the image. I’ve found this really helps give a strong signal to the engines

seo optimization services

Bench Craft Company on the subject of flights

A 75-year-old woman was recently arrested by the Georgian police after she single-handedly cut off Internet connections in Georgia and neighbouring Armenia.

AFP reports that the pensioner was digging for scrap metal with the intention of stealing it when she stumbled upon a fibre-optic cable which runs through Georgia to Armenia, forcing thousands of Internet users in both countries to lose Internet connection for several hours. Georgian Railway Telecom, the company that owns the cable, said that the latest damage was serious, causing 90 percent of private and corporate Internet users in Armenia to lose access for nearly 12 hours while also hitting Georgian Internet service providers.

“I cannot understand how this lady managed to find and damage the cable. It has robust protection and such incidents are extremely rare,” Giorgi Ionatamishvili, Georgian Railway Telecom’s marketing head, told AFP.

Apparently, this wasn’t the first time it happened. In 2009, another scavenger damaged a fibre-optic cable while hunting for scrap metal in the impoverished ex-Soviet state, forcing many Georgians’ Internet connections to get interrupted.

The woman has been charged with damaging property and could face up to three years in prison if convicted.

A 75-year-old woman was recently arrested by the Georgian police after she single-handedly cut off Internet connections in Georgia and neighbouring Armenia.

AFP reports that the pensioner was digging for scrap metal with the intention of stealing it when she stumbled upon a fibre-optic cable which runs through Georgia to Armenia, forcing thousands of Internet users in both countries to lose Internet connection for several hours. Georgian Railway Telecom, the company that owns the cable, said that the latest damage was serious, causing 90 percent of private and corporate Internet users in Armenia to lose access for nearly 12 hours while also hitting Georgian Internet service providers.

“I cannot understand how this lady managed to find and damage the cable. It has robust protection and such incidents are extremely rare,” Giorgi Ionatamishvili, Georgian Railway Telecom’s marketing head, told AFP.

Apparently, this wasn’t the first time it happened. In 2009, another scavenger damaged a fibre-optic cable while hunting for scrap metal in the impoverished ex-Soviet state, forcing many Georgians’ Internet connections to get interrupted.

The woman has been charged with damaging property and could face up to three years in prison if convicted.

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Kansas ticket office official sentenced to 57 months for role in scalping scandal

A former associate director in charge of the University of Kansas ticket office and "gatekeeper" for stolen tickets was sentenced Thursday to 57 months in prison for her role in the $2 million conspiracy.

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Former ABC <b>News</b> President David Westin Announces Next Move - The <b>...</b>

He's named president and CEO of the News Licensing Group, launching this summer.

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GWU Suicide Tragically Coincides with Obama Speech - FoxNews.com

George Washington University students in Washington, D.C. learned of a tragic coincidence of timing on their campus Wednesday. As President Obama delivered a speech on deficit reduction in the Jack Morton Auditorium, ...

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Apple should see a material dip, on top of the one that occurred
after I indicated that I was short the stock on March 16th. Before we
delve into my opinion, let’s peruse the news from 1 a.m. this morning:

WSJ: Apple Crunched in Nasdaq Rebalance- In
a move likely to ripple across the stock market, Nasdaq OMX plans to
announce a rare rebalancing of its Nasdaq-100 index, which will reduce
the big weighting of Apple, which currently makes up more than 20% of
the index.

Bloomberg: Apple’s Weight in Nasdaq-100 to Be Reduced as Microsoft, Cisco Are Raised

So, why do you think Nasdaq decides to reduce Apple’s weighting now?
Well, the competitive pressures that Apple faces are nigh guaranteed to
make it impossible for it to fulfill the pie in the sky expectations
that are being built for it.  That in combination with a 20% weighting
create a recipe for a guaranteed crash in the Nasdaq unless something
was done about it. Signs of heavy reliance on on or two products for 70%
of their profit, while sourcing the most important parts of those
products from their biggest competitors, were starting to show. iPad 2
supplies are tight due to Japan’s woes, and Apple does not have the
mobile computing product diversity to handle it like the 150 or so
Android competitors it is battling. This means much more than just a gap
in profits for the quarter. These companies are in race, and Apple is
being forced to give up some of its lead due to diversification issues –
issues that Android manufacturers (who are more diversified because
there are so many more of them from different places) don’t have, or at
least not to the extent that Apple does. Thus, Samsung, LG, Asus, HTC,
etc. will be rolling out to customers who may have had an Apple iPhone
or iPad.

This is also another (of many) massive triumphs of BoomBustblog
research over that of the most esteemed Godman Sachs who put a $430
price target on Apple just as it was making all time highs and in direct
contravention to BoomBustBlog’s stated logic. See Shorting Apple and Why Software Developers Can Make More Money On Android Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

I have finally started dabbling with Apple
shorts and puts. My OTM S&P put positions were profitably stopped
out due to trailings yesterday when the market recovered some of its
losses. I have decided to use Apple in the place of the S&P puts
for the time being. Medium to long term, the trade is more evident and
obvious to anyone who is objective and follows BoomBustBlog. It is
significantly more risky shorter term. Alas, there are marginal gains
already, and once they accrue to the point of indemnifying my trailing
stop, I will add more. After I finish the current leg of my global real
estate research to be disseminated to institutions, I will offer
tidbits of the modeling (I have already offered subscribers significant
info on why I think Apple is a risky long play). From a contrarian
standpoint, it may be safe to go short with tight stops, after all
although Apple Gears Up To Combat The Margin Compression That Apparently Only It, Google & Reggie Middleton Sees Coming, we still have those guys over at West Street… Goldman’s
$430 Target, Screaming Buy On Apple At Its All Time High Is In Direct
Contravention To Reggie Middleton’s Logic – Who’s Right? Well, Who
Has Been More Right In The Past? I have taken The Challenge To Goldman Sach’s Apple Proclamation One Step

Farther, Apple’s Closed System Risks
Failure! Listen, everyone, regardless of what investment positions or
tech products you may have in your stable, needs to ask themselves the
appropriate “What if’s”. I have spurred the conversation with “Will Google Win The Mobile Computing War? Let’s Walk Through Where They Stand Now & How To Value Them”

Remember, I may not always be right, but it does pay to look at the track record…  Did Reggie Middleton, a Blogger at BoomBustBlog, Best Wall Streets Best of the Best? More attention should be paid to the little guy, after all by now it is Now Common Knowledge That Goldman’s Investment Advice Sucks!
Didn’t you get the memo? I’m sure many traders have spurned Apple due
to the Japanese market being cut off right at the launch of the iPad 2,
but the issues go deeper than that. I will cover it in depth at a later
date, though.

Additional thoughts on the Apple short:

1. Note For The Few Realistic Apple Bears… Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
2. Buffet on Apple – Common Sense! Monday, March 21st, 2011
3. Competition Heats Up In The Mobile Computing Space On Many Fronts – Prices Driven Down Once Again By The Big Players Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
4. How the “I Love Apple, There Is No Other Fever” Adds To The Attractiveness Of An Ever So Unpopular Apple Short Monday, March 21st, 2011

And that Research in Motion short alert
given to subscribers is working like a charm – even more so if it get’s
caught in  NASDAQ storm: Research in Motion Drops 10% After Hours, Precisely As We Warned Two Months Ago – MARGIN COMPRESSION!!! Thursday, March 24th, 2011

As rumors of a later-than-usual iPhone launch for 2011 persist, a new report reveals that the notoriously secretive Apple is being even more careful than usual when dealing with overseas suppliers.



"Apple is keeping its iPhone 5 cards extra close to the vest on this launch to avoid a falloff in iPhone 4 demand ahead of a refresh, especially given the February launch of the CDMA iPhone 4 with Verizon," Analyst Brian White with Ticonderoga Securities said in a note to investors on Friday. He believes that the iPhone 5 could still launch in June or July, as previous models have.



White noted that various rumors have pointed toward a launch later than June this year for the fifth-generation iPhone. One report from March alleged that Apple has not even begun ordering components for the anticipated "iPhone 5," and the device is slated to arrive in the company's 2012 fiscal year, which begins in late September.



And a third report alleged that Apple is working on a major revamp of iOS, its mobile operating system, for version 5.0. New features like cloud-based storage of music, photos and video are rumored to arrive in the update this fall, likely alongside new iPhone hardware.



But despite all of those reports, White isn't yet convinced that the iPhone 5 will be introduced later than its typical June or July timeframe.



"Although we do not have a smoking gun that definitively rules out a delayed autumn unveiling or one that supports a launch this summer, there is a pattern of activity in motion with the supply chain that makes us question a delayed launch," he said.



White also cited sources who indicated that iPad sales could reach up to 40 million units in calendar year 2011. And supply chain sources also indicated that disruption from the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan will actually end up benefitting Apple, as suppliers will "rush to support Apple at the expense of competitors."



The analyst already revealed earlier this week that Apple has been offering upfront cash payments to component suppliers in order to secure components in the wake of the disaster in Japan. Apple has apparently also been using a "three cover guarantee," referring to capacity, stock and price, to block out competitors and prevent them from building ample supply of devices.

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It’s not such a wonderful time to be a doctor, patient, hospital, health plan or pharma company, but judging by the quality and quantity of entries received for this edition of the HWR, it’s a wonderful time to be a wonk.

A couple weeks ago CMS released draft rules for Accountable Care Organizations. Several bloggers weighed in on that development:

• Mark McClellan and Elliott Fisher at Health Affairs provide some historical context and argue that “those who care deeply about health care reform all have a common interest in the success of ACOs as a way of avoiding more classic fee-for-service payment cuts to providers.”


• On a more downbeat note, The Road to Health concludes, “Dr. Berwick and his colleagues at CMS appear to have taken the ACO concept and made it into a financial program that only delusional practice administrators, or physician organizations bent on financial self-destruction, could love.”


• The Healthcare IT Guy expects ACOs to be “far more lucrative and disruptive than Meaningful Use and likely to yield more patient quality improvements.”


• GE Healthcare puts the emphasis on ACO change management challenges: “Healthcare executives and management teams are left to focus on preparing their organizations for a cultural shift of seismic proportions.”


• HealthBlawg reviews the proposed rules and produces 8 takeaways. #2: “This is the Frankenstein regulation: A Medicare beneficiary must sit on the board of the ACO, CMS must approve all marketing materials before they are used.”

In the midst of the battle over funding the 2011 budget, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan came out with a plan to radically restructure Medicare and Medicaid starting in 2012:

• The Apothecary likes much of what he sees and thinks the proposal may force Democrats to devise a credible plan of their own


• John C. Goodman’s Health Policy Blog contrasts PPACA and the Ryan plan. “Obviously, the path we are on leads to an impossible place. So the only question is whether we are going to get off the current path in a planned, orderly way or whether we are going to let unplanned chaos do the trick.”


• Wright on Health is less impressed and wonders, “if Rep. Ryan is so adamant about reducing the deficit, why is he cutting taxes for the wealthy and cutting programs for the poor and the elderly?”


• Managed Care Matters is decidedly unswayed. “If you were looking for real solutions to the health cost problem, you’re going to be sorely disappointed… Unfortunately, he’s fallen into the same trap his Democratic colleagues did with their version of health reform – the Ryan plan does little to address costs.”


• The Incidental Economist takes issue with Ryan’s plan to convert Medicaid to block grants and cut spending. “Should Medicaid be cut back, more people will be uninsured. Contrary to what some wish you to believe, those who become uninsured will suffer worse health outcomes”

As if the ACO rules and Ryan plan weren’t enough, there’s more on Medicare in the blogosphere:

• The Covert Rationing Blog –always good for a lighthearted pick me up– “asserts that we are one giant step closer to the day when it will become illegal for all Americans to spend their own money on their own healthcare.”


• Dr. Liberty discusses CMS’s deliberations on whether to pay for Provenge, a pricey prostate drug. “Decisions are made on the basis of politics, and the drive is to cover everything, leading to higher costs.”

Amid all the federal policy blogging, there’s still some room for technology talk:

• Healthcare Talent Transformation has had it with Health Net’s repeated goof up’s leading to loss of confidential data. Although it may seem like there’s not much the average person can do, the blog argues, “You can make an impact on the security of your sensitive data by conducting due diligence when it comes to your insurance provider.”


• The Healthcare Blog offers a video collage of the new Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health. “The Center is  a pretty fascinating place–part tech and idea showcase and part meeting room. Certainly no other health care organization that I’m aware of has spent so much on a place designed to stimulate the imagination and enhance conversation–under the nose of the folks on Capitol Hill.”


• Meaningful HIT News features a podcast with mHealth Initiative’s Peter Waegemann, who’s shifted over from EMRs to ride the mobile wave


• Healthcare Economist delves into new papers that, “examined how to develop accurate algorithms to account for cancer stage in studies using claims data.”

It was encouraging to receive a couple submissions about  journalism:

• Disease Care Management Blog asks, “Is the kerfuffle over National Public Radio (NPR) the long delayed comeuppance for liberal bias run amok, or a narrow-minded attack on the inconvenient truths from journalistic excellence?” The blog reaches into the world of medicine and discusses of “framing” and its impact on patient decision making to provide an answer


• HealthNews ReviewBlog cites, “daily evidence of the need for improvement in health care journalism – especially when we see examples like hype of a tiny, preliminary study of strawberries for esophageal cancer.”

We always have room in the Health Wonk Review for some posts on medical ethics:

• Nuts for Healthcare looks at the pharma industry and concludes, “Doctors need to take a more definitive stand against the specter of industry influence. A good target? Industry sponsorship of continuing medical education.”


• Health Care Renewal is concerned that so-called government run programs are more private than we think. “The majority of Medicaid has been out-sourced to private health care insurance companies… We need to have some real discussions about the rise of corporatism in US health care, in other aspects of US society and around the world.”

And finally, a few odds and ends

• Workers’ Comp Insider provides resources for employers concerned about radiation exposure


• Colorado Health Insurance Insider chronicles the decline of bipartisanship in the creation of a health insurance exchange for that state. “Healthcare reform has become such a polarized topic that it’s difficult for lawmakers to have any stance other than for it or against it.  Even though the health insurance exchanges would be marketplaces that sell private health insurance, the word ‘exchange’ has been thrown around so much during the reform debates that many opponents of the PPACA see it as synonymous with ‘ObamaCare.’”


• Last week I went to a health care direct to consumer marketing conference to see former TimeWarner CEO Jerry Levin interviewed by OrganizedWisdom CEO Steve Krein. I also shared my thoughts in the video clip below

Thanks for reading the Health Wonk Review! The Incidental Economist hosts the next edition.

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Next, Odeo moved into an office and started hiring more employees – including a quiet, on-again, off-again Web designer named Jack Dorsey and an engineer named Blaine Cook. Evan Williams became Odeo's CEO.

By July 2005, Odeo had a product: a platform for podcasting.

But then, in the fall of 2005, "the shit hit the fan," says George Zachary, the Charles River Ventures partner who led the firm's investment in Odeo.

That was when Apple first announced iTunes – which included a podcasting platform built into every one of the 200 million iPods Apple would eventually sell. Around the same time, Odeo employees, from Glass and Williams on down, began to realize that they weren't listening to podcasts as much as they thought they would be.

Says Cook: "We built [Odeo], we tested it a lot, but we never used it."

Suddenly, says Zachary, "the company was going sideways."

By this point, Odeo had 14 people working full time – including now-CEO Evan Williams and a friend of his from Google, Christopher "Biz" Stone.

Williams decided Odeo's future was not in podcasting, and later that year, he told the company's employees to start coming up with ideas for a new direction Odeo could go.  The company started holding official "hackathons" where employees would spend a whole day working on projects. They broke off into groups.

Odeo cofounder Noah Glass gravitated toward Jack Dorsey, whom Glass says was "one of the stars of the company."  Jack had an idea for a completely different product that revolved around "status"--what people were doing at a given time.

"I got the impression he was unhappy with what he was working on –  a lot of cleanup work on Odeo."

"He started talking to me about this idea of status and how he was really interested in status," Glass says. "I was trying to figure out what it was he found compelling about it."

"There was a moment when I was sitting with Jack and I said, 'Oh, I do see how this could really come together to make something really compelling.' We were sitting on Mission St. in the car in the rain. We were going out and I was dropping him off and having this conversation. It all fit together for me."

One day in February 2006, Glass, Dorsey, and a German contract developer Florian Weber presented Jack's idea to the rest of the company.  It was a system where you could send a text to one number and it would be broadcasted out to all of your friends: Twttr.

Noah Glass says it was he who came up with the name "Twttr." "I spent a bunch of time thinking about it," he says.  Eventually, the name would become Twitter.

After that February presentation to the company, Evan Williams was skeptical of Twitter's potential, but he put Glass in charge of the project. From time to time, Biz Stone helped out Glass's Twitter team.

And it really was Glass's team, by the way. Not Jack Dorsey's.

Everyone agrees that original inkling for Twitter sprang from Jack Dorsey's mind. Dorsey even has drawings of something that looks like Twitter that he made years before he joined Odeo. And Jack was obviously central to the Twitter team.

But all of the early employees and Odeo investors we talked to also agree that no one at Odeo was more passionate about Twitter in the early days than Odeo's cofounder, Noah Glass.

"It was predominantly Noah who pushed for the project to be started," says Blaine Cook, who describes Glass as Twitter's "spiritual leader."

"He definitely had a vision for what it was," says Ray McClure.

"There were two people who were really excited [about Twitter,]" concurs Odeo investor George Zachary. "Jack and Noah Glass. Noah was fanatically excited about Twitter. Fanatically! Evan and Biz weren't at that level. Not remotely."

Zachary says Glass told him, "You know what's awesome about this thing? It makes you feel like you're right with that person. It's a whole emotional impact. You feel like you're connected with that person."

At one point the entire early Twitter service was running on Glass's laptop. "An IBM Thinkpad," Glass says, "Using a Verizon wireless card."

"It was right there on my desk. I could just pick it up and take it anywhere in the world. That was a really fun time."

Glass insists that he is not Twitter's sole founder or anything like it.  But he feels betrayed that his role has basically been expunged from Twitter history.  He says Florian Weber doesn't get enough credit, either.

"Some people have gotten credit, some people haven't. The reality is it was a group effort. I didn't create Twitter on my own. It came out of conversations."

"I do know that without me, Twitter wouldn't exist. In a huge way."

By March of 2006, Odeo had a working Twitter prototype. In July, TechCrunch covered Twttr for the first time. That same summer, Odeo employees obsessed with Twitter were racking up monthly SMS bills totalling hundreds of dollars. The company agreed to pay those bills for the employees. In August, a small earthquake shook San Francisco and word quickly spread through Twitter – an early 'ah-ha!' moment for users and company-watchers alike. By that fall, Twitter had thousands of users.

By this point, engineer Blaine Cook says it began to feel like there were "two companies" at Odeo – the one "Noah and Florian and Jack and Biz were working on" (Twitter) and Odeo. Twitter, says Ray McClure, "was definitely the thing you wanted to be working on."

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Roofing Contractors Vancouver - 5 Inquiries to Ask yourself

Roofing Vancouver - Frequently Asked Questions

1. Repair or Replace?

There's no opinion like an expert opinion. Most contractors will provide you with a free estimate. Get a list of a couple trusted contractors and contact them well in advance of when you wish to get your roof fixed so you can compare costs and opinions.

2. Beauty versus Practicality?

Discuss this together with your spouse or partner. (The children could care less...at least the children.) Truth is, nobody wants an ugly roof just like nobody wants to be viewed with bed hair. If you've got a good quality roof and you simply need to repair it, it's worthwhile to pay the price of the initial shingle rather than doing patchwork. A roof replacement doesn't happen frequently (we hope!) and so make a decision that best suits you and your family well or it'll stand out like a sore thumb everyday you go home.

3. Should I replace the rooftop so I can sell the home for more?

Consider this cautiously before making a choice. With respect to the roofing material you select, a new roof lasts between twenty, fifty, to one-hundred years! This means you need to check the year from the roof that's currently too deep first. Are you at year 18 of a 20-year warranted roof or year 30 of the 50-year warranted roof? Obviously, the quality is the reason why the rooftop last longer, but if you're not planning to remain in your current home throughout your life, the higher expense might not be worth neglect the. Although a new roof can improve the value of your selling price, the increase might not be enough to pay for your investment and that's bound to hurt your wallet.

4. Is it advisable for me to repair the rooftop myself?

Sure it is. Before you do, consult a specialist first. You can perform it yourself, but you shouldn't be considered a complete ‘lone ranger.' Depending on the extent of your repair, you might or may not convince you. In either case, it will help to obtain a professional eye on the problem first and perhaps even a free quote so you can do the math later and see if it's truly worth your time, sweat, and cash to become mister or miss fix-it.

5. When is a great time to get the roof replaced?

Weather may cause delays from days to weeks. Most people prepare yourself to have their roof replaced in the summertime once they have a friend will be home during the day for any solid fourteen days. Once you have this period in your mind, make a call to some trusted contractor months ahead of time to obtain a quote. Some companies get reserved fast and odds are, they're probably the most reputable. Preparing in advance of the summer also provides you with time for you to discuss with many compare costs...especially if you need to have the roof made by a specified date.

 

The Top Roofing Company In Vancouver!

It is possible to leak in your home's roof? Have you lost shingles or tiles inside a storm? Have overhanging branches caused damage? Is your roof a lot more than Two decades old and showing wear and tear? Are your gutters overwhelmed and draining poorly?

If the response to any of these questions is "Yes" it is time to call the very best roofing contractor Vancouver - Crown Roofing & Drainage.

For more than a century Crown Roofing continues to be the roofer of choice among our Vancouver neighbors. We offer complete roofing services, from emergency repairs and roof restoration, to accomplish roof replacement. All using the finest quality materials, installed with precision and the highest level of customer support.

YOUR Vancouver ROOF DESERVES Believe it or not!

The rooftop of your Vancouver house is the very first type of defence against wind, rain, snow, ice along with other weather conditions. Be sure it is up to the task. Among Vancouver Roofing companies, only Crown Roofing has the depth of experience and successful history to make sure your roofing system is going to be properly designed and installed.

NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS.

One reason Crown Roofing has been the most successful roofing contractor in Vancouver is our commitment to our neighbors. We treat your house as if it were our very own and we were creating a roof to safeguard our own family. That's what neighbors do, and you can count on Crown Roofing being here to aid you and back our work. After all, we've been repairing and replacing roofs in Vancouver since 1902!

Obtain a FREE INSPECTION AND EVALUATION OF YOUR Vancouver ROOF.

Go to the Roofers Vancouver for a FREE inspection and evaluation of the roof. Give you the best roof for the Vancouver home, at the best value. We build roofs to last!

 

Tacoma Roofing company: Make your Home Beautiful

Very few people view the worth of a solid roof, but your knowledgeable Tacoma Roofing contractor does. From first hand experience, they'll be able to let you know why you need a strong, secure, and leak-free roof in your home.

The local Tacoma Roofing company is well aware how important an economic investment your property is for you, especially since it is a lasting one. Your house may have been damaged slowly through the years and also you need to take steps to reduce this damage. For a number of people, keeping their property beautiful is another few pride. There are those too who'd like to turn their property right into a economical and efficient living place. Your homes roof is a valuable part of your property and plays a role in each of the aspects mentioned above. For this reason, you need to employ the services of qualified a Tacoma Roofing company.

Types of Roofs installed with a Tacoma Roofing company

Among the more common types of roofs are asphalt shingles, steel or metal sheeting, fiberglass, slate and terra cotta tiles.

Each kind of roof invites distinct problems, however they can be easily taken care of with a trusted Tacoma Roofer. It's imperative that you nip roof problems in the bud before they become too expensive or dangerous. You are able to schedule a scheduled appointment using the Tacoma Roofing contractor to consider a glance at your roof to determine if you will find any issues or potential problems with it. If there are, they might be able to tell you how to deal with them.

A Tacoma Roofing contractor Helps you to Build Strong Homes

The exteriors associated with a house, primarily the rooftop and gutters, face the onslaught of bitter and varying climate conditions, day after day. Painting, repairing, and cleaning gutters might be necessary. In some cases you may have to replace them completely. Usually, when your gutters show signs of trouble, your roof also needs to be inspected for problems. Whatever issues there may be, an experienced Tacoma Roofing company can examine them in detail and suggest the remedy.

If your gutters often clog too often, or you will find leaks along the walls of your house, it might mean that there's debris piled up on the top. Loose branches, piles of leaves, along with other light objects which are swept on your roof during a storm can all contribute towards damaging your homes roof, which damages could be lasting. A knowledgeable Tacoma Roofer will explain that birds, mice, along with other kinds of rodents often build nest within the debris that collects on the top. While these nests may look rather innocent, they're great at collecting moisture, be responsible for loose shingles, mold, and indoor leaks in your home. Additionally, it may also cause vermin infestation. After a storm, your Tacoma Roofing contractor will suggest that you inspect your homes roof for any signs and symptoms of debris or damage.

Reverse Damages with the Help of a Tacoma Roofing company

However top quality the rooftop may be, it is going to wear down over time. There are shingles that are known as "25 year" or "30 year" shingles, but those numbers are just related to warranty made by the manufacturers. They seldom last that long. Realistically speaking, "25 year" shingles will not last a lot more than fifteen to twenty years. In an area that is prone to storms, shingles or the entire roof may need to be replaced every 10 years. Having a Tacoma Roofer, the cost will be less than what you think.

If there you lose any shingles, or there's some damage to them, a Tacoma Roofing company can assist you to. Damaged shingles can result in indoor leaks, since the substrate of the roof becomes subjected to the sun and rain. Shingles that are loose or broken can slip off and pose a possible hazard to people standing below. Missing shingles create a gap that allows rain, wind, ice, and debris to develop under the adjoining shingles, which creates a "domino effect" that affects other shingles and they become loose or broken. A thorough investigation is going to be produced by the local Tacoma Roofing contractor, should you give them a call up with your suspicions of loose or missing shingles.

Your Tacoma Roofer will be in a situation to inform you what are the smartest choice is for your roof. If your roof isn't inside a good condition, it's advised that you have it replaced completely. The Tacoma Roofing contractor may take you thru the various roofing possibilities for you which will fit your requirements as well as your budget.

Tacoma Roofer: Improving your Home's Efficiency

Your homes roof shelters you from storms, sleet, and hail. By providing adequate ventilation, your homes roof protects your home from overheating, and by holding within the heat, it keeps your home warm. That's why you ought to prepare your roof from indoors as well as outdoors for any kind of weather emergency. A professional Tacoma Roofing company can offer assist in this case.

To begin with, inspect your roof thoroughly for just about any and all sorts of kind of damage, prior to the beginning of a year. The gutters ought to be clear, debris should not be piled on or trapped under shingles, tthere shouldn't be homes of squirrels or birds within the eaves or attic, and the roof should be structurally sound. For that last part, you'll need the help of your local Tacoma Roofing company. It may be quite dangerous to climb onto the roof of your house. This is where the contractor from Tacoma Roofer is available in. He will read the strength and security of your roof and shingles, and perform a general inspection from the entire roof structure, to make sure that it's in proper working order. They will be in a position to point towards problems that you need to keep close track of and problems you might not have spotted.

You will need all the assist you to can get in the Tacoma Roofer. You can help your roof by installing a gutter guard or leaf cover to assist prevent debris from forming inside your gutters. The additional weight of debris prevents the gutters from draining and may even tear them down. Look into the fasteners in your gutters and when they're loose, tighten them. Do something to change worn screws and brackets. If you have a chimney in your house, inspect the bricks and mortar signs of wear. A trusted mason can be recommended because of your Tacoma Roofing company, if you will find any repairs to become done.

Tacoma Roofing company: Someone You Can Count On
When you know or suspect that there is a problem, your Tacoma Roofing company ought to be contacted. They are able to use their knowledge and expertise to obtain your house back in ace condition by simply focusing on the roof. Your homes roof deserves attention. So call them today, to enable them to get down to caring for your roof.

 

What is Difference Between Commercial Roofing Companies From Residential Roofing Companies

If you are considering getting a roofing company to re roof your house or building then you may be wondering what are the differences are between residential roofing companies and commercial roofing companies. To begin with, the one huge difference is that often times a commercial roofing company may have signed a contract with and become obligated to a roofing union in able to focus on union commercial jobs.

If this sounds like the case then their labor costs will prohibit them from working on non union residential jobs. Beyond that, if a commercial roofing company has not signed an agreement having a union they might be outfitted just for commercial jobs and that means that their workers and equipment might not be consistent with smaller residential jobs.

Residential roofing contractors in general tend to run smaller companies and hence, tend to be more in a position to bid competitively on residential jobs, which tend to be smaller than comercial jobs. Actually, often times residential roofing contractors will run one man operations, where the contractor that you simply speak with could be the one that actually does the work about the building.

Also, liability insurance for commercial roofing is more epensive along with a larger bond is required for any commercial roofing work which can make it not economical for any commercial roofing contractor to complete residential roofing jobs.

Still an additional factor is that commercial jobs can run on tighter time frame for any quantity of reasons, requiring an industrial contractor to employ a larger crew or crews which again makes smaller jobs not as profitable for them.

 

Difference Between Commercial Roofing and Residential Roofing

Did you know that the roof of a building includes a huge effect on the whole structure itself? Damage caused to roofs due to natural or other disasters causes a considerable loss of property everywhere. The kind of materials accustomed to construct the roof which should be sturdy and long-lasting, the way in which the roof continues to be installed as well as its timely maintenance are extremely crucial. There are two kinds of roofs that are utilized on all the buildings that we see around us: commercial and residential. Although it might seem that commercial roofing is done just for businesses or offices and residential roofing is done for apartments and houses, the truth is the differences tend to be more complex than that.

Residential roofing is generally completed just by one hired contractor but commercial roofing usually takes a whole team to complete the job. The reason being an industrial roof is commonly larger in terms of sq ft than the usual residential roof.
Commercial roofs are necessary carefully keeping the character and reason for your building in mind. For instance, if there is a cafe or restaurant in the building then external components like ventilation systems, smoke stacks and pipes will be required. Residential roofs tend not to have such components apart from a chimney or two at most.
Commercial roofs is commonly flat in design to accommodate further changes in a later period, whereas most residential roofs have peaks along with other architectural features like roof gardens.
Commercial roofing is a lot more expensive than residential roofing because of the special tools, materials and safety equipment which are needed onsite. Often the patching or maintenance work is done in segments unlike for any residential roof in which the repair or replacement work can be completed in a short while. This is another reason why the equipment employed for residential roofs is often smaller and less costly as well.
Commercial roof installations take a extended period to complete in comparison to residential roof installations and are usually constructed in large sections. In this phase however, you should make sure that there aren't any leakages, cracks or other visible wear and tear signs as it can certainly cause considerable damage to the entire building.
You should install the right roof for any building based on its purpose. Make sure that you hire a construction company that uses top notch materials and it has the best equipment for the job or neglect the may turn out to be considered a huge loss later.

 

Commercial Roofing Contractors: How to Find a Qualified Commercial Roofing Company

If a clients are looking to have work done on its roof, you should use commercial roofing contractors which have a keen understanding of any special needs that a business might have. As an example, a roofing job is often disruptive for the operation of business as usual. Because of this, it may be essential for the company to become temporarily turn off, or the roofing to take place after business hours have ended. A roofer that understands these needs can function plus a business in order to make sure that these kinds of issues are minimized.

First of all , a business must do when it's searching for commercial roofing contractors is to find out who other businesses in the region are working through. Obviously, this article not be helpful whether it may come as a suggestion from competitors, but there are circumstances by which it is not too hard to find this information from suppliers or retailers. Since roofing isn't an industry-specific service, this post is readily available.

It's a good idea for just about any business to get in touch with at least three commercial roofing contractors to create bids about the price. In this way, the business can often get a better price. It is also important to ensure that each of the roofing contractors is licensed and bonded. This information can be found by permitting touching their state contractor's board. This assists you to determine if there has been any claims filed from the company in the past.

When looking at bids, it is only as vital to look at what services are being offered and which products will be used as it is to check out the overall cost. The costs can differ quite drastically, but as tempting as possible to choose the lowest bid, this isn't always your best option. In many cases, more costs now means fewer costs in the long run due to a poor roofing job. To further investigate the caliber of the job, it is a good idea to check using the Bbb in order to find out if the business continues to be accredited, and if it's not, to at least see what its rating is.

 

Picking out a Commercial Roofer

When you are looking for a roofer for the commercial roofing project you need to look for a contractor who understands the special needs of the commercial roofing project. For example it can be harder to operate on the business during business hours so either the company has to be shut down for the repair or replacement or even the job has to be done after conventional business hours. May be the roofer you are considering for the job ready to work around your schedule constrictions which might involve working weekends or evenings?

When you start your search for any roofing contractor you don't only need to answer those questions but you should also find someone which will perform a high quality job with no great deal of time delays. Going about finding someone can seem as an obstacle by itself but there are several ways to result in the search easier.

Ask people around you for referrals and try to find at least three contractors to give you written bids in your job. Before you go any more you need to ensure that the contractors you are considering are fully licensed and bonded. An easy search using the state contractor's board will verify in case your roofer is licensed and if you will find any past judgments or claims against their license.

Once you select 3 or 4 roofers to put bids, you need to get ready for that bids to become widely varied. Roofers may have brand preferences that will vary and could element in pretty much compared to next guy for a labor estimate. The more detailed a written bid is the more helpful it will be for you to see in which the cost will be incurred. Don't, however, select a roofer based solely on the bid price. Any low ball bids might be tempting to consider, but if they are low because of poor quality workman ship it may not be worth it ultimately.

As the saying goes, you generally get that which you pay for, so if you can afford a mid-priced bid it's always a good idea to go up within your budget instead of down. Additionally you should select your roofer depending on how professional they were and just how comfortable you anticipate you will be dealing with them.

Finally your cost will vary based on what type of roofing material you choose as well as the cost to haul your old roof to the landfill. If you are looking for places to chop corners on your roof, rather than cutting labor set you back may want to inquire about metallic roof option. Metal roofs can be economical and energy efficient making them overall money savers for that long run, as well as on commercial buildings they can be very low maintenance. Plus given that they can be placed on top of a current roof, you don't need to have the old one removed and hauled away, that make a large impact on your cost.

Choosing a comerical roofing company in your local area, doesn't have to become a struggle. For more information, visit http://www.vancouverroofers.net

 

Seattle Roofing Companies - How To Find The very best

In your home of rain and sleet, commercial coffee and grunge, and the famous space needle, you'll find a house that will suit you. Seattle, Washington can be a great place to construct a house, however, you need Seattle roofing contractors to help you out. Your roof is, after all, the crowning glory of your house, as well as your strongest type of defense against the elements. You must have something which is not only built to last, but built to attract making your home more beautiful

Harsh Weather

Why are roofing contractors so important within this the main country? Because Seattle is often bombarded by rain and other harsh climate conditions, you'll need a roof that may withstand all the forces of nature. With this thought, you'll need individuals who know the Seattle weather best, and who know what materials can best get into your homes roof in order for it to last far longer in the region. In addition to all this, you have to blend with the rest from the houses in your living space, which means you cannot simply get whatever roof you please.

In most these aspects, a Seattle roofers will be able to help you out. All you need to do is search for Seattle roofing contractors online to be able to obtain the best value for your money without wondering if the contractor will suddenly try to escape with it and leave you roof-less.

Why the Contractor Model Works

If you wish to put up your homes roof on your own, you will have to purchase a good deal of materials, secure permits and licenses, and get materials that are suitable for help you stay safe against harsh extremes of Seattle weather. Which means that if you're a DIY kind of guy or gal, you'll have to undergo a good deal of legwork to get the task done.

On the other hand, a Seattle roofing contractor can do all the jobs for you and provide you with a package that can help you save time and money. Because contractors operate under licenses and purchase materials in bulk, they are able to get discounts on building materials that you'd not otherwise get if you were buying merely for your own home.

Roofing Associations

Most roofing contractors also fit in with roofing organizations that are bound by strict guidelines and standards. When they prosper on the roofing job, they are able to showcase their roofing contractors association; if they do poorly, they can ruin the trustworthiness of their roofing contractors association and keep other contractors within the association from receiving targeted roofing jobs. There is a lot of pressure to do well, so you can be confident that prefer a roofing job completed in Seattle, you can aquire a contractor from the roofing association to help you out.

For example, Seattle Roof Brokers operates with more than five hundred roofing contractors in the Puget Sound. This group has over fifty years of roofing experience and experience dealing with Seattle roofing contractors, therefore it knows what type of roofing you want. The Roof Brokers group can put you in contact with the contractor that you need so that you don't have to search for contractors individually.

What In the event you Demand from Your Contractor?

When you finally get a contractor within the Seattle area, you need to do a lot of background research about the roofing contractors themselves. Ask for a list of previous companies or persons that the contractor worked with to get a definite look at the roofing contractor's work ethics and roof quality. Your roofing contractor must also have the appropriate working licenses and city licenses required by the Seattle city government.

Select a Seattle roofers that insures its employees, which has courteous workers who will respect your opinions and make sure that your needs are met. Make sure that you get the best value for your money: if you are unsatisfied with the job, you have to be guaranteed either money-back, or a free, new roof. Moreover, you also need the workers to find the job done on time, so be strict with your deadlines - and find a contractor that's as strict as you are.

You need guarantees and warranties on your roof, so look for a contractor that can meet your budget and roofing needs. If you achieve in touch with good Seattle roofing contractors, you can be guaranteed a good roof along with a better house in this fantastic city.

Choosing the proper Roofing Contractor Company for Replacing Your Roof

The shingles in your roof need replacing and you are minded to find a roofing contractor to change the them. Maybe you have already known as a few and are evaluating which contractor to use for your upcoming roof repair. How do you choose the best contractor for caring for your roof? Here are a number of things you should look at when searching for a legitimate roofer.

Where's the roofer located? You should hire a roofing contractor that is local. Then you will receive the next step and services information if the roofing company is located near your house or comes with an office near your residence.
References. To determine the reliability of the contractor, references should be provided of the previous customers who are willing to vouch that excellent service was received. This should 't be the only element in deciding upon your future roofing contractor as some may claim they value the privacy of their clients and do not wish to bother them. If this is the case, request business related references. The places that provide the contractor with supplies can reveal the amount of materials and regularity of supplying the contractor to assist determine their stability.
How does the roofing contractor company handle complaints? There are a multitude of issues that can arise during the progress of the roofing replacement. Ask what their process is perfect for handling complaints if they arise. It is also a great idea to receive a past client reference who were built with a complaint that was resolved towards the satisfaction from the client.
Terms of payment. Do you know the terms of payment to do the job? What's the down payment and amount due upon completion? Even though it is certainly reasonable that a substantial payment be produced before a contractor begins work on a project, it is highly recommended that full payment isn't made until after the entire job is finished.
Written contract. All terms of the roofing replacement should be place in an itemized contract. No the main contracting job should depend on verbal assurances.
Bonding. You will find things that can go wrong with roofing installations that wind up costing a substantial amount of money to repair. If this happens in your roofing replacement, you'll feel a whole lot better knowing that your roofer is bonded. This will supply the funds to fix whatever mistakes were made. Look for a roofing contractor that's bonded.
Manufacturer Warranty. Quality materials for roofing typically come with a warranty. It is important to verify that there is actually a warranty on the materials being installed. Request a copy from the warranty.
Length of Time in Business How long has the company you're interviewing experienced business? A short in time business may reflect instability. When the contractor has been around business less than 3 years, verify just how long they've actually been in the market. A new contractor may have many years experience focusing on roofs before they form their very own business. Seek a company that has been around for 3 years, or where the contractor has had many more years performing roofing replacements. It can should not be the only real factor, everyone has to start sometime. Balance this with referrals and the other points raised in the following paragraphs.
Appropriate Permits. A Seattle roofing contractor ought to know what permits are required for repairing your roof. They must be conscious of how you can obtain these permits for you. Ask the contractor whether or not they will obtain the permits essential to repair the roof.
Liability. If a worker becomes injured, who's accountable for the worker's compensation? If the contractor's equipment damages your house, who's responsible for the repairs? A good contractor will provide certificates of insurance for liability and workers comp before they begin fixing your roof.
Subcontractors. Verify whether the contractor is going to be using subcontractors. If that's the case, it is strongly advised that everything contained in this article for verifying whether the contractor is credible should also be relevant to subcontractors. You need to receive the names and license numbers of all subcontractors. You should verify whether each subcontractor can also be insured so you are not held responsible for their accidents.
Pending Legal Actions. It is important to verify whether you will find any legal actions against the contractor. This is not only necessary for verifying if the roofing company is legitimate (credible roofing companies should not need to defend themselves in court), it is also important just because a lost lawsuit could cause the contractor to go bankrupt. For those who have designed a substantial down payment for services immediately before the company goes bankrupt, you can lose thousands of dollars and never have your roofing completed.
Material Disposal. Who's responsible for disposing of the waste generated in the roof being replaced? Will your contractor handle every aspect of the? Can there be an additional cost for getting rid of this waste?
NRCA Membership. Membership in local or national roofing associations, like the NRCA, shows resolve for staying up to date with the very best methods for roof replacement and maintenance. Find a roofer with a high standard of education regarding their trade.
Replacing your homes roof is really a significant investment. It makes good sense to ask serious questions before working with a roofer. Here are a few more tips that you ought to consider when choosing the best roofer for your upcoming roofing replacement.

Payment. Do not create a full payment for services unless all jobs are finished.
Inspection. Do not create a full payment without doing your final inspection of all services rendered.
Workers liens. Do not fully purchase the roofing replacement job until worker's lien releases happen to be obtained.
Oral Agreements. No agreement ought to be made verbally without backing it up in writing. All points that are vital that you you should be produced in writing.

 

To your SEO needs, you can check out Vancouver web site design and Vancouver Search engine optimization company

It is true that the worldwide web has become the biggest financial market nowadays. Practically everything is anchored on the web. To date, there are more than 182 million web sites online whilst still being counting. If all these websites offers the possiblility to make money, just think of the limitless opportunities which can be perfectly located at the internet. More to the point, with the emergence of sites, the requirement of internet hosting and Search| Engine Optimization is significantly defined.

Seo is basically the entire process of increasing the visibility of a web site. Therefore, if you'd like your web site to be visible to visitors, you need to look for SEO Company. The optimization strategy considers how search spiders work and what people usually and what keywords they'll use. The main objective of SEO is making internet sites visible searching sites with the natural or organic way.

Search optimization or natural search engine marketing is a expression used in describing unpaid, algorithm-driven results of any particular engine. Quite simply, organic SEO uses natural strategies in achieving serp's ranking. While there are 2 camps that search optimization companies may fall to, which will be the 'White Hat' as well as the 'Black Hat', organic SEO would not come under the 'Black Hat' camp.

Organic search engine optimization can be a highly specialized and complex practice which could literally dictate the failure or success of an online business. Since search sites often modify their algorithms, organic SEO just isn't super easy in any way. When search bots modify their algorithms, factors that permit your internet site to appear in front of clients are decayed too. Thus, so that you can deal with these changes, SEO tactics and methods should be employed.

It is always ethical to utilize organic search engine optimization since search sites nowadays are becoming extremely advanced that they'll easily see whether a web site is wanting to manipulate their search indexes. Thus it is empirical to use search engine optimization practices which are completed in a way that appear natural.

The approaches employed by organic search engine optimization and artificial SEO are actually significantly different. Basically, organic SEO uses content when compared with artificial SEO's technical loopholes. Moreover, natural seo provides attracting links instead of linking schemes employed by artificial SEO. Natural SEO also creates valuable resource as opposed to artificial SEO's algorithm chasing. With all these, you can clearly understand why search engines engine optimization is preferable over artificial search engine marketing. Even though the latter might be harder and complex, it makes favorable results that are beneficial for any web site. Fortunately, there are plenty of Vancouver SEO companies today offering the organic method in affordable rates and packages.

Search Engine Optimization Appears in this area

There was a time when search engine marketing was actually not necessary.

Even while late as a decade ago, if you developed a Web site anywhere, Google indexed it and also you gained visibility in their serp's. Your page could have been with a free "estates" where anybody could put in a page and Google didn't mind. It could also have been a pure affiliate page with no original content and Google still indexed it.

The situation is unrecognizably different now.

Affiliate pages with "cookie-cutter" content duplicated everywhere might never reach the Google index; the identical fate is probable for anyone pages you toss in on a free-for-all website. And also "proper" websites with your personal website name failed to achieve visibility among the proliferating sites in millions.

These would not have mattered, except for one thing. It was Google that provided the bread and butter for the countless smaller businesses that may not afford expensive marketing campaigns. If the site was among the top few sites the appeared before a searcher's eyes when see your face sought out your product, you've got hundreds as well as 1000s of visitors, lots of whom even bought your product or service.

Search engine marketing (SEO) entered the scene. Internet search engine specialists "reverse-engineered" to spot the factors that Google consider for showing websites at the top of its search engine results pages. These factors were then consciously incorporated into your Web pages in the hope that Google can have your site among the first ten results it showed about the first page.

As more of one's competitors adopted seo practices, things became difficult again. Your role begun to slip if the competitors did the SEO better. SEO battles became serious fights with every dirty trick working.

There was "black hat" SEO practitioners who showed one page to find engines and the other to human visitors. As engines like google weren't bothered with readability, you might fill the "search engine" page with pure gibberish, but gibberish developed in a way that the engine dutifully indexed high.

A war of wits followed between unscrupulous SEO practitioners and check engines. Google changed its ranking algorithms regularly to be effective around practices that allowed low value content to look at the top of its search results. All things considered, Google's success been dependent on providing value to searchers, not merchants. And SEO practitioners developed new tricks.

We will look at seo inside a series of articles, starting off having an overall look at on-line or Web marketing.

 

To your SEO needs, you can check out vancouver web site design and Vancouver SEO company.

 

Cedar Roofing: Advantages

Cedar shakes are simply in regards to the most aesthetically pleasing shakes available today. Frequently designed from red-colored cedar about the coniferous forests of northwestern Usa, they're only the best roof covering materials for proprietors who prefer supplying their roofs an organic look.

Unique cedar shingles are naturally resistant to the sun and rain, this is the key answer why cedar shingles are widely-used generally around various climatic conditions. They're generally for sale in a couple of specific qualities. At least one may be the shingle made out of red cedar as the other is produced right out of the bright white variety. Red cedar shakes are designed from tight-grained particles that will be previously saturated with tannic acidity that experts say is surely an all-natural additive. Red cedar shingles which can be dipped in creosote to avoid corrosion and they are desirable to homeowners given that they put in a rich and unique look to one's property or home.

You need to observe that red cedars usually change dark-colored if exposed continuously to seaside weather. As a result, sea side homes have to have white cedar shakes. Red cedar shingles are usually a lot more expensive compared to white cedar types, although cost factor doesn't diminish its reputation in anyhow. They might be preferably perfect for classic New England houses while white cedar shingles appear to be image suitable for bungalows and bungalows which were built-in Nantucket design.

Through the years, classic cedar shakes have mislaid in a point to synthetic shingles that emulate the cedar appear. Superior systems are used in order to make these types of shingles have a for an extended period life-span in comparison to unique cedar shingles. Most include advanced UV inhibitors and have about 5 decades of steady guarantee. These shingles in many cases are great insulators and lots of superior ones provide a much cooler inside during summer months plus a warmer inside during harsh winters.

Cedar shakes, mostly for sale in honey, cinnamon, and silvery gray colors, need several level of repairs and maintenance. They might need initial treatment solution before installation. White cedar shakes for example, may be treated with bleaching oil which must be done nearly every six to seven years to enhance their durability.

Cedar shakes and cedar shingles are either CCA treated or not CCA treated. CCA stands for chromated copper arsenate. CCA is really a chemical that stops the rise of mold, mold and fungus so that it helps maintain insects from eating away your own wonderful cedar roof. CCA cedar could make your homes roof go longer, but CCA isn't A fireplace TREAMENT. Cedar that has been fire treated can be acquired, your roofing company need to special order it. CCA treated cedar shingles cost 15 - 20% more than non-CCA cedar. Most cedar roofs are often not CCA treated.

Cedar shakes and cedar shingles are wonderful, plus they are also a good purchase. Information of terms such as CCA, advanced quality, Number 1, blue label and black label will help you to find the right cedar roof for your personal home.

Elite Roofing & Small remodels, LLC provides detailed information about shingles, cedar shakes, fiberglass shakes and much more. Elite Roofing & Small remodels, LLC is affiliated with the nation's Roofers Association.

You can learn more about cedar shingles, and acquire more articles and resources about cedar shakes at cedar roofing materials and shakes website.

 

Cedar Shingle Roof Vs Asphalt Shingle Roof

A cedar shingle roof remains highly coveted by homeowners. It really is one of the oldest roofing products which includes always been constantly being used inside the hundreds of years. Around new roofing materials remain developed, cedar shakes still endear themselves to numerous. Below is often a comparison analysis of the cedar roof versus an asphalt roof.

Pros of Cedar Roofing shingles

Cedar shakes give rise to far better air circulation inside whole home. The shingles permit the the place to find breathe well without trapping moisture around. This assists to keep the structure of the home who is fit longer. Cedar Shakes are durable and strong. They like a greater potential to deal with bugs. A cedar shingle roof will fully stand up well on the various weather onslaughts. Storms, hurricanes, powerful winds and flying debris will barely damage the top of one's cedar roof. The colour matures beautifully with the passing years, making it even more desirable. A cedar roof adds a distinct charm to your dwelling. Cedar is instantly obtainable in lumber yards as well as doesn't demand a lot of expertise or specialized tools to set up.

Cons of Cedar Shakes

If rot begins, you'd be compelled to improve the entire lot. It is sometimes complicated extracting only the affected pieces. They could are already nailed down in a manner that each elimination proves difficult. Cedar Shingles don't endure well to constant wetting. If you reside in an area where rainfall is heavy or frequent, cedar shingles aren't an ideal choice. Frequent wetting causes mold or mildew to create in. Replacement and repair is actually a costly business. Your very best protection against constant wetting is always to use wide overhangs. Also, should your property is shaded by many trees or nearby buildings, cedar shingles often develop mold. You'll be compelled to change them earlier than you planned. Cedar Shingles tend to be flammable than asphalt shingles. Many areas use a building code set up that restricts cedar shingles to minimize the risk of fire. To setup a cedar shake roof, you must have your financial allowance concerning the higher side. Frequent maintenance may also be important to maintain the roof in good shape. Mildew and rot are ever-constant threats with a cedar roof.

Pros of Asphalt Shingle Roof

An asphalt roof is one of the least expensive to purchase and install. They are available in various designs and colours, ranging from a typical, flat use a 3-dimensional look. Asphalt shingles have a high effectiveness fires unlike cedar roofing. An asphalt roof can in fact decrease the risk of fires brought on by flying embers. Asphalt roofs are easier and cheaper to install than cedar. They are also low maintenance roofs.

Cons of Asphalt Shingle Roof

Algae is much more prone to grow on asphalt roofing than cedar shingles. It causes the cover to produce somewhat from the stain which spoils the looks. You may get an anti-algae coating completed in your asphalt shingles but this enhances the cost. When it comes to stability, an asphalt roof is a lot more apt to be blown off by strong winds compared to a cedar roof.

Uncover more about cedar roof shingles, and get more articles and resources about cedar roofing shakes at cedar roof shingles and shakes website.