Alt Attribute & Search engine optimization

SEO Optimization images has become more and more essential in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for websites. The ALT attribute is really a critical step that is sometimes forgotten. This can be a lost opportunity for better rankings.

In Google's webmaster guidelines, they advise using alternative text for the images in your web site:

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

Why would they ask us to achieve that? The answer is simple, really; search engines like google 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, trying to stuff it with keywords, hoping to achieve a particular keyword density, which is not as relevant for rankings now since it once was.

On the other hand, 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 this type of penalty, your site's rankings won't benefit from this tactic.
This process also puts persons who use screen readers in a greater disadvantage. Screen readers are software-based tools that actually read aloud the items in what's shown on the screen. In browsing the web, the alt features of images are read aloud as well.

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

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

What used inside an image's alt attribute ought to be its text equivalent and convey the same information or serve the same purpose the image would.

The goal would be to supply the same functional information that the visual user would see. The alt attribute text should be the "stand in" when the look is not available. Ask yourself this: If you were to replace the image using the text, would most users receive the same basic information, and would it create the same response?
Some examples:

 

Some SEO Optimization Tips

If a search button is a magnifying glass or binoculars its alt text should 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 suitable.

If it is designed to convey data, then that data is what is appropriate.

If it is designed 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 and for valid XHTML.

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

Remember that it's the function from the image we are attempting to convey. For instance; any button images should not range from the word "button" within the alt text. They should emphasize the action performed by the button.

Alt text ought to be determined by context. Exactly the same image inside a different context may need drastically different alt text.

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

It is useful 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 make a site visually appealing/attractive and (in many cases) fulfill the marketing departments. There is no content value (though there might be value to some sighted user).

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

II. Mood-Setting

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

Attempt to alt-ify the 2nd group as is sensible and is relevant. There might be times when doing so may be annoying or detrimental with other users. Then avoid it.

For example; Alt text that's identical to adjacent text is unnecessary, as well as an irritant to screen reader users. I suggest alt="" or background CSS images in such cases. But sometimes, it's important to get this content in there for those users.

Most times this will depend on context. Exactly the same image inside a different context may need drastically different alt text. Obviously, content should always be fully available. The way 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 so as.
The reason many authors can't understand why their alt text isn't working is that they don't know why the images are there. You need to determined precisely what function a picture serves. Think about what it is concerning the image that's vital that you the page's intended audience.

Every graphic includes a reason behind standing on that page: since it either enhances the theme/ mood/ atmosphere or it is critical to what the page is trying to describe. Understanding what the look is for makes alt text easier to write. And practice writing them definitely helps.
A method to look into the usefulness of alternative text is to imagine reading the page over the telephone to someone. An amount you say when encountering a particular image to create the page understandable towards the listener?

Besides the alt attribute you have a couple more tools available 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 are invisible and not shown as a "tooltip" when focus is received through the keyboard. (A lot for device independence). So make use of the title attribute only for advisory information.
Second, the longdesc attribute points to the Link to a complete description of the image. If the information found in an image is important towards the meaning of the page (i.e. some important content will be lost if the image was removed), an extended description than the "alt" attribute can reasonably display should be used. It can 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 by using any period of description essential to impart the details from the graphic.

It would not be remiss to hope that a long description conjures a picture - the image - in the mind's eye, an analogy that holds true even for the 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.

In many cases, you're better off just choosing your gut instinct -- if it's not essential to include it, and if you don't possess a strong urge to get it done, don't add that longdesc.

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

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

Exactly the same image may need 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 use. But if the image provides content or adds functional information an alt will be required and perhaps a long description would be so as. Oftentimes this kind of thing is really a judgement call.

Image Search Engine Optimization Tips

Listed here are key steps in optimizing images:

Select a logical file name that reinforces the keywords. You can use hyphens in the file name to isolate the keyword, but avoid to exceeding two hyphens. Stay away from underscores as a word separator, like for example "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 that the file is a photo, and when it sees a ".gif" (GIF) file extension, it's going to assume that it is a graphic;

Ensure that the text at the image that's highly relevant to that image.
Again, do not lose a great chance to help your website together with your images in search engines. Begin using these steps to rank better on all the engines and drive more traffic for your site TODAY.

Search Engine Optimization

Note the Client companies are based in either the US or Canada and the “percentage of traffic outside key service areas” are based on each client’s target market.

For instance, if a client only services the US only, any traffic outside the US would be traffic outside their service area.

Evaluating Your Own Traffic For Relevance

To use our own web design and Internet marketing business as an example, we service both Canada and the US, but were getting 24% of our traffic from other international countries. Big portions of that traffic were companies looking to sell their services to us.

These international visitors would fill in our web forms and call us to inquire, untimely skewing our website analytics data by not giving us a real understanding of how our website was performing to quality prospects.

A solution had to be implemented to significantly reduce the amount of resources we were dedicating to people outside our service areas.

Ultimately, we didn’t want to be contacted from people we couldn’t help. The four possible solutions we considered were:

1. Create a custom report in Google Analytics to filter out the unwanted data (reporting related)


2. Adjust the content of our website (website related)


3. Block the traffic from specific Countries from viewing our website (server related)


4. Don’t change anything.

Option #1

When evaluating the first solution, creating a custom report to filter out this data in Google Analytics, this would clear up our analytics data. Implementing a filter would provide a more realistic picture of quality prospects we could service in our geographic area instead of those prospects or solicitors in other counties we don’t service.

This option didn’t run the risk of blocking any traffic or robots that we do want. It’s also a simple filter to add in Google Analytics. We set up another Profile with the country exclusions filters. A new Profile was the preferred approach, rather than going through the extra steps of creating Custom Reports.

However, setting up analytical filters doesn’t fully resolve the issue, since these visitors could still access our site, fill in web forms, and contact us, ultimately wasting resources that we could dedicate elsewhere.

It wouldn’t give us a true picture of what was going on. It also wouldn’t resolve the problem – we didn’t want to be contacted by companies from some outside countries.

Option #2

Updating the website content to say you only service a specific area is another solution that we considered.  This would inject more geo-targeted keywords into your site, which would help in local SEO. Adding a graphical map, drop-down options and/or links that allow the visitor to select their country would help qualify visitors.

Some of the downfalls of this option include spending a much higher amount of time to implement versus the other options. The success of this would also be dependent on how honest the visitor is.

Assuming visitors are reading your website content, adding geo-targeted keywords into your site would set a clearer expectation of service area delivery. However, this option still doesn’t resolve the issue of sharing contact information that allows unsolicited visitors to contact us and invalid web form data.

Option #3

How about blocking or filtering visitors automatically based on their IP address? When considering to block website visitors by IP it’s important to first evaluate the reliability of the IP address(es). The accuracy of an IP list is over 99.5% on a country level and 80% on a city level. The smaller the location, the less reliable the IP address.

Internet Service Providers change IP addresses they designate to customers. Some change them more frequently than others, which is why you want to keep the database of IPs updated. Scheduling a monthly update is typically a good routine if city level IP authentication is required. Country level is much more static.

The benefit of blocking the country via IP address would not only clean up analytical data, but also ensure our sales funnel was more efficient and provide a more accurate picture of real prospects in all systems. We needed to consider other issues in this approach.

One concern was the potential for a search crawler coming from an IP in the location we were planning on blocking. For example, there was a possibility that Google’s search crawler would also be blocked if it came from the same country. The implementation of this option is more technical. One would need to obtain a list of IP addresses for the desired locations and update the websites htaccess file.

In our example, the inquiries from some countries became so frequent that we couldn’t ignore it any longer. After much debate, we decided to ban the countries; however, we would only ban one at a time to evaluate the effects.

For instance, one of the largest traffic sources, accounting for approximately 20% of this, was from India, a market we don’t service. These Indian visitors were companies looking to sell their services to us.

We executed the ban in the polite Canadian way. We also implemented the Google Analytics profile with the country filter to monitor future website statistics versus the past.

Those visitors that came from our blocked list would land on a different page that displayed a nice message. It read: “Thank you for visiting. However, we don’t provide services in your area.”

In sum, the tests have gone over very well. Banning the country from our website has significantly cut down the number of unsolicited calls, emails and web form requests. It also gave us a much more accurate picture of how our website was performing within our own target market and service area.

Considerations For Blocking Traffic By Location

If you’re considering this strategy, some factors to consider when filtering visitors include:

• Why do you want to filter website traffic?


• Which locations would you want to filter?


• How much traffic do you currently get from locations outside your service area?


• How important is this traffic?


• How to funnel visitors outside your service areas?


• The accuracy of the IP addresses locations in mind.


• Effects of non-human visitors.

A few months after we implemented this, we received a direct mail package that contained pens with our logo on them from a company that wished to sell us branded pens.

Guess what it said under our logo? “Thank you for visiting. However, we don’t provide services in your area.” We had a good laugh. Someone obviously didn’t read what they printed. It was evidence that our website block was working and a nice souvenir.

The key takeaway, as always, is monitor your traffic and conversions. Track where your quality traffic is coming from and decide for yourself if you should block the traffic of certain countries. Make sure to proceed with caution to ensure that you are not missing some opportunities.

Think outside of the box for other ideas of how you can use that traffic. Perhaps referring the traffic to a partner or creating a unique service for specific markets is another option to consider.

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

Related Topics: 100% Organic - Search Engine Optimization Tips | SEO: General

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Bench Craft Company on the specialty of interesting

Here is a roundup of important small business tips to start out your week on the right track. We’ve tried to collect some of the best resources to get you started but we’d love to hear from readers as well, so if you’ve got some tips or advice to add, please, as always, leave them in the comment section below. Enjoy!

Legal

Legal tips for your small business. From Jeffrey Fabian of Fabian LLC, serving small business and legal professionals, here are a collection of legal issues every small business must look out for. Consulting on legal matters with an attorney can be another important step, but remember that legal issues of all kinds come with the territory in small business, so be prepared. 365 Days of Startups

Ideas for maintaining your professional image. As a small business owner or entrepreneur, your online reputation is becoming more important every day. So what does a Google search say about you? If you don’t know yet, you should find out. Reputation has always been an important commodity in the business world. The Internet has made it more important than ever. Beware! Startup Professionals Musings

Customer Service

Tips for creating a more appealing product or service. You may think you’re giving your customers choices, but, in reality, you’re only handing them indecision. And perhaps an invitation to do nothing? Here’s an alternative. Give them a step-by-step on how to use your product. Tell them what to do and how to do it. And don’t worry if it doesn’t fit every customer’s needs. They’ll create the fit that’s right for them. Chris Brogan

Marketing

How to set yourself apart from competitors. Saying you’re better than your competitors just isn’t good enough (even if it’s true.) The question is what you can offer customers that is different from any one else in the market. Create a service no one else provides in exactly the same way, and you’ll have a marketing strategy that can work in the long run. Duct Tape Marketing

How to use “help marketing” to strengthen your business and brand. You can call this PR instead of marketing if you like, but no matter what you call it, it may be the best thing for your brand and business, if you do it right. Helping others including your customers is really what your business should be about anyway. So don’t be afraid to show your willingness to extend a helping hand. TechLunatic

Startup

How to seek help from business accelerators. Efforts to get new businesses up and running have increased in recent years and business accelerators in various forms are spreading across the country, according to this piece on the trend. Often these organizations offer “more help than funding” but can still be an important resource depending upon the nature of your startup. Bloomberg Businessweek

Taxes

How to prepare for tax compliance expenses in your small business. Ballooning tax regulations are a huge source of expense for small businesses, especially here in the U.S. It’s important for small business owners to consider the expenses related to tax compliance, since this is likely to be an ongoing burden for small business owners into the foreseeable future. WSJ

Last minute tips for last minute tax filers. If you’re doing your small business tax filings on your own, here are some last minute tips you may want to consider ranging from how to file an extension to how long to keep your tax records and more. If you want some last minute advice as the tax deadline closes in, why not take a few minutes and watch the video? BostoneHerald.com

Self-development

A new persription for stress and overwork: relax! Small business owners and entrepreneurs, like everyone else, experience burnout at times and can easily become overwhelmed with work. After all, when the final responsibility for everything falls upon you, there’s no one else to turn to. But experts now suggest that taking those breaks when necessary can be absolutely essential. Here’s more. The Globe And Mail

Tech

Tips for keeping your business technology up and running. Keeping your business technology alive and kicking is not just a luxury in today’s small business world. It is an absolute and vital necessity! So tips on keeping the critical tools you use to operate your business and serve your customers should always be a priority. Here are some tips you won’t want to forget. Jackrabbit.com Blog

From Small Business TrendsSmall Business News: Best Small Biz Tips Today

Here is a roundup of important small business tips to start out your week on the right track. We’ve tried to collect some of the best resources to get you started but we’d love to hear from readers as well, so if you’ve got some tips or advice to add, please, as always, leave them in the comment section below. Enjoy!

Legal

Legal tips for your small business. From Jeffrey Fabian of Fabian LLC, serving small business and legal professionals, here are a collection of legal issues every small business must look out for. Consulting on legal matters with an attorney can be another important step, but remember that legal issues of all kinds come with the territory in small business, so be prepared. 365 Days of Startups

Ideas for maintaining your professional image. As a small business owner or entrepreneur, your online reputation is becoming more important every day. So what does a Google search say about you? If you don’t know yet, you should find out. Reputation has always been an important commodity in the business world. The Internet has made it more important than ever. Beware! Startup Professionals Musings

Customer Service

Tips for creating a more appealing product or service. You may think you’re giving your customers choices, but, in reality, you’re only handing them indecision. And perhaps an invitation to do nothing? Here’s an alternative. Give them a step-by-step on how to use your product. Tell them what to do and how to do it. And don’t worry if it doesn’t fit every customer’s needs. They’ll create the fit that’s right for them. Chris Brogan

Marketing

How to set yourself apart from competitors. Saying you’re better than your competitors just isn’t good enough (even if it’s true.) The question is what you can offer customers that is different from any one else in the market. Create a service no one else provides in exactly the same way, and you’ll have a marketing strategy that can work in the long run. Duct Tape Marketing

How to use “help marketing” to strengthen your business and brand. You can call this PR instead of marketing if you like, but no matter what you call it, it may be the best thing for your brand and business, if you do it right. Helping others including your customers is really what your business should be about anyway. So don’t be afraid to show your willingness to extend a helping hand. TechLunatic

Startup

How to seek help from business accelerators. Efforts to get new businesses up and running have increased in recent years and business accelerators in various forms are spreading across the country, according to this piece on the trend. Often these organizations offer “more help than funding” but can still be an important resource depending upon the nature of your startup. Bloomberg Businessweek

Taxes

How to prepare for tax compliance expenses in your small business. Ballooning tax regulations are a huge source of expense for small businesses, especially here in the U.S. It’s important for small business owners to consider the expenses related to tax compliance, since this is likely to be an ongoing burden for small business owners into the foreseeable future. WSJ

Last minute tips for last minute tax filers. If you’re doing your small business tax filings on your own, here are some last minute tips you may want to consider ranging from how to file an extension to how long to keep your tax records and more. If you want some last minute advice as the tax deadline closes in, why not take a few minutes and watch the video? BostoneHerald.com

Self-development

A new persription for stress and overwork: relax! Small business owners and entrepreneurs, like everyone else, experience burnout at times and can easily become overwhelmed with work. After all, when the final responsibility for everything falls upon you, there’s no one else to turn to. But experts now suggest that taking those breaks when necessary can be absolutely essential. Here’s more. The Globe And Mail

Tech

Tips for keeping your business technology up and running. Keeping your business technology alive and kicking is not just a luxury in today’s small business world. It is an absolute and vital necessity! So tips on keeping the critical tools you use to operate your business and serve your customers should always be a priority. Here are some tips you won’t want to forget. Jackrabbit.com Blog

From Small Business TrendsSmall Business News: Best Small Biz Tips Today

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Greg Biffle finalizes new contract with Roush Fenway Racing, sources say

Sprint Cup driver Greg Biffle has finalized a new contract with Roush Fenway Racing and primary sponsor 3M, multiple sources told ESPN.com.

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Breaking tech <b>news</b>? Get email notifications as it happens. - TNW Voice

We're in the technology news business. To that end, if it's old, it isn't news. Given that you're reading this, chances are that you live, eat, sleep and breathe the tech lifestyle and want to get the news as soon as it happens. ...

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Courteney Cox Does Letterman and Other <b>News</b> - The Superficial <b>...</b>

Gwyneth Paltrow makes bulimia fancy again. - Robert Pattinson is spreading disease. - Emily Browning stars in a movie about high-end date rape and,

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Video calls were a mainstay of classic sci-fi films, and even today there’s something almost magical about seeing your friends and family on the screen of a portable device. Video calling has been around for some time, but it’s only really in the past year or so that its got more attention among regular users. That’s thanks in no small part to Apple and FaceTime, as found on the iPhone 4, iPad 2 and other gadgets from the company’s range. Read on as we give FaceTime the full SlashGear 101 treatment!

So Apple invented video calling, right?

No, not at all, though they did do a lot to make it easier to use – just as long as you have the right hardware. Video calling is actually a part of the 3G standard, which – if the carrier and whatever phone you’re using supports it, which isn’t the case in the US – has been available since around 2003. Unfortunately a combination of high pricing, poor understanding by users, mediocre quality and patchy reliability meant this form of video calling has never really taken off.

Apple’s FaceTime takes advantage of the company’s tight control over the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and MacBook software, which has allowed it to polish the video calling experience to the point where everyday use is possible. Now FaceTime is available to anybody at the touch of an on-screen button.

Do I need an Apple phone to use FaceTime?

Not necessarily a phone, but definitely something with the Apple logo. FaceTime was first supported on the iPhone 4, which was Apple’s first mobile device with a front-facing camera (i.e. one that looks at the user, rather than out the back of the handset). The latest iPod touch and iPad 2 both have front-facing cameras and FaceTime support as well, and Apple has released a FaceTime app for its Mac and MacBook computers so they can join in the fun as well. FaceTime comes free on the mobile devices and the very latest Macs, and is a $0.99 download from the Mac App Store for earlier Mac owners.

Okay, so how do I use it?

It’s pretty simple, just as Apple was aiming for. On the iPhone you make a voice call in the normal way and then tap the FaceTime button on-screen to switch to video. On the iPod touch and iPad 2, you start a video call in the FaceTime app. You’ll need an Apple account in order to make and receive calls, since that’s used as the “phone number” for devices other than the iPhone 4.

Currently, FaceTime video calls can only be made when you have a WiFi connection, not when you’re using the mobile network for data. That’s a limitation Apple has put in place itself, though the company has said it is working on removing it in the future.

I’m not into Apple, can I video call with something else?

You certainly can, though the process gets a bit trickier. Various apps are available for Android and other mobile phone platforms which promise video calls, sometimes over not only WiFi but the 3G mobile networks too. That means you can make video calls when away from your home network or a WiFi hotspot, as long as your signal is strong enough.

Skype, Fring and Qik are all among the companies offering video calling apps, though their effectiveness often varies on a phone-by-phone basis. Not all phones have front-facing cameras, either, though they’re becoming more common on the latest handsets. A future SlashGear 1010 feature will look at the best video calling apps if FaceTime isn’t your thing.

Apple has said it plans to open up FaceTime to other manufacturers, so that non-Apple phones can make and receive calls too, but so far there’s no sign of that actually happening.

More information at Apple’s FaceTime page.

Seas0nPass jailbreak tool has for both Windows and Mac has been updated with the latest untethered exploit to untether the jailbreak on second generation Apple TV, running on the latest iOS 4.3.1 (4.2.1)

For those of you who don’t know, Seas0nPass jailbreak tool is like PwnageTool for Mac, or Sn0wbreeze for Windows, which can can create custom jailbroken .IPSW files for your second-gen Apple TV.

Before you proceed with the jailbreak, you will need the following:

• A Micro-USB cable


• iTunes 10.2.1


• iOS 4.2.1 (Based on iOS 4.3) for Apple TV


• Seas0nPass

All download links are posted at the end of this article.

Step 1: Download and launch Seas0nPass.

Step 2: Now select “Create IPSW” option to build your own custom jailbroken 4.3.1 firmware for Apple TV.

Step 3: Now wait for Seas0nPass to download all the files required for creating custom firmware.

Step 4: When prompted by Seas0nPass, connect your Apple TV using a micro-USB cable (leave power disconnected), and hold-down both the ‘MENU’ and ‘PLAY/PAUSE’ buttons for 7 seven seconds.

Step 5: iTunes should now open automatically to start the restore process.

Step 6: iTunes will confirm the restore when complete. Once done, your Apple TV will be fully jailbroken, untethered on iOS 4.3.1.

Once complete, remove the USB cable and connect the HDMI cable.

Once you are done with the jailbreak, you can install the following apps on your jailbroken 2nd-gen Apple TV:

• How to Install XBMC Media Center on Apple TV 2G [Guide]


• Plex Has Been Ported to Jailbroken Apple TV 2G ! [VIDEO]


• How to Install NitoTV Weather and RSS App on Apple TV 2G [Jailbreak]


• Apple TV 2G Gets Web Browser and Last.fm Apps via aTV Flash [Video]


• Exposed VNC Server Plugin Enables Remote Access On Apple TV 2G

Required download links are as follows:

Download iOS 4.3.1 (4.2.1) for Apple TV
Download iTunes 10.2.1 for Mac OS X
Download Seas0nPass for Mac OS X
Download Seas0nPass for Windows

You can follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook fanpage to keep yourself updated on all the latest iPhone jailbreaking and unlocking releases.

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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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One important thing about cities is their sex appeal — their magnetism. Places flourish when they attract people, resources, opportunities, and ideas, and match them to one another. Cities are much more than the built environment of roads and real estate. Cities are about relationships, and whether people have access to opportunities. Cities are one big dating game.

When cities lose their magnetism, the whole population suffers. The deterioration of Detroit began well before recent auto industry woes; its population plunge was confirmed by the latest Census. Some attribute decline to bad urban redevelopment schemes or corrupt politics that failed to improve schools or reduce crime. "A once-great American city today repels people of talent and ambition," a Wall Street Journal columnist wrote recently. A local leader told him, "It's been class warfare on steroids, and ... so many Detroiters who had the means — black and white — have fled the city."

Cleveland is another shrunken city with significant poverty. In the 1980s, Cleveland Tomorrow, a coalition of major company CEOs, sponsored downtown projects, including a new baseball stadium and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This attracted luxury apartment developments, luring the affluent to the center city and revitalizing it. But inner city ghettoes were barely touched, and the region continued to lose high-wage manufacturing.

There's a tale of two cities within many city borders: one rich, the other very poor. Dubai, a gleaming new city of luxury high rises, is ringed by hidden slums for temporary service workers from the underclass of Asian nations. In New York, the middle class, including young families, cannot afford to live in the city. Baton Rouge has affluent areas with some of Louisiana's best quality-of-life indicators and extreme poverty areas with some of the worst. Other divides include racial and ethnic enclaves that vary in opportunities — for example, minority entrepreneurs with promising business ideas who can't access mainstream sources of capital and support.

Cities should be connectors but can have connection problems. Cities are where all parts of life come together: jobs, health, education, environmental quality. Yet, in most cities, businesses, schools, hospitals, and city services still operate in silos. And the political boundaries of cities don't encompass their true extent or the flow of people, as the Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Center points out. IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge supports efforts to use technology for connected regional solutions.

Interdependence among urban issues makes vicious cycles worse. If there is no action on high youth unemployment or poor educational quality and high school dropout rates, then too many African-American males end up in prison. High crime rates make sections of cities undesirable, and neighborhoods deteriorate. Aging buildings and toxic environments then cause health problems, such as lead poisoning or asthma, which disproportionately affect inner city children. Children in poor health have trouble learning, learning problems are associated with school dropouts, and vicious cycles continue.

Pivotal investments can start virtuous cycles. The transformation of Miami from sleepy southern city to international trade hub and informal capital of Latin America was propelled by investments in a world class airport and a flood of immigrants from Fidel Castro's Cuba. Mayors and civic leaders took advantage of this to attract new businesses and tout Latin connections, as my book World Class describes. But progress stalls if benefits don't reach the grass roots, racial divides persist, and major institutions fail to collaborate. The Miami Foundation's emerging leaders program is designed to deploy diverse younger professionals for major civic projects.

Revitalizing cities requires national urban policy investments and social innovations on the ground. Leadership might come from:

• Enlightened mayors who build public-private partnerships or join Cities of Service, which align the city and non-profits around high-impact goals.



• Business leaders, such as former Miami Herald publisher David Lawrence, who rallied Miami-Dade County to vote for a tax increase (Yes to new taxes!) to create the Children's Trust, a fund to improve life for all children.



• Faith communities, such as Rev. Raymond Jetson's community organizing toward a coalition for "A Better Baton Rouge."



• Financiers, such as Tim Ferguson and Ron Walker, who co-founded Next Street to invest in inner city businesses.



• Social entrepreneurs, such as Hubie Jones, who wants to replicate a birth-to-college educational model like the Harlem Children's Zone in Boston.



• Community foundations with a strategic perspective, seeking integrated solutions across issues such as youth employment, education, health, and green plans.

The best social innovations will connect people and institutions, producing an infrastructure for collaboration. That social infrastructure will increase the sex appeal of cities by going beyond initial attraction to build lasting relationships for lasting improvements.

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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, ...

Roofing Contractors Vancouver - 5 Inquiries to Really think

Roofing Vancouver - Frequently Asked Questions

1. Repair or Replace?

There's no opinion as an expert opinion. Most contractors provides you with a free estimate. Get a summary of a couple trusted contractors and contact them well ahead of time of when you want to get your homes roof fixed so you can compare costs and opinions.

2. Beauty versus Practicality?

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

3. Must i replace the roof in order to sell the home for more?

Consider this very carefully before making a choice. Depending on the roofing material you choose, a brand new roof can last between twenty, fifty, to one-hundred years! This means you have to check the year from the roof that's currently over your head first. Are you at year 18 of a 20-year warranted roof or year 30 of a 50-year warranted roof? Obviously, the quality is the reason why the roof keep going longer, but when you're not likely to remain in your present home throughout your lifetime, the higher expense might not be worth neglect the. Although a new roof can improve the worth of your value, the increase may not be enough to cover neglect the and that's bound to hurt your wallet.

4. Is it a good idea that i can repair the rooftop myself?

Sure it's. Before you need to do, consult an expert first. You can perform it yourself, however, you shouldn't be a complete ‘lone ranger.' With respect to the extent of your repair, you might or may not convince you. Either way, it helps to get a professional eye about the problem first and maybe even a free quote so you can do the math later and find out if it's truly worth your time and effort, sweat, and money 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 when they know someone will be home throughout the day for a solid fourteen days. Once you have this period in your mind, create a call to some trusted contractor months in advance to get a quote. Some companies get reserved fast and odds are, they're probably the most reputable. Planning ahead of the summer also provides you with time for you to discuss with more and compare costs...especially if you want to have the roof done by a particular date.

 

The Top Roofing Contractor In Vancouver!

Is there a leak in your home's roof? Perhaps you have lost shingles or tiles in a storm? Have overhanging branches caused damage? Is the roof a lot more than Two decades old and showing its age? Are your gutters overwhelmed and draining poorly?

If the answer to these questions is "Yes" it's time to call the top roofing contractor Vancouver - Crown Roofing & Drainage.

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

YOUR Vancouver ROOF DESERVES NO LESS!

The rooftop of your Vancouver home is the first line of defence against wind, rain, snow, ice along with other weather elements. Make sure it is as much as the task. Among Vancouver Roofing companies, only Crown Roofing has got the depth of experience and successful history to ensure your roofing system is going to be properly designed and installed.

NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS.

One reason Crown Roofing has been probably the most successful roofing contractor in Vancouver is our resolve for our neighbors. We treat your house as if it were our own and that 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 any FREE inspection and evaluation of your roof. Give you the very best roof for the Vancouver home, at the cost effective. We build roofs to last!

 

Tacoma Roofer: Help your house be Beautiful

Very few people understand the worth of a good roof, your knowledgeable Tacoma Roofing company does. From top notch experience, they will be in a position to tell you the reason why you need a strong, secure, and leak-free roof on your home.

Your local Tacoma Roofer is well aware how important an economic investment your property is for you, especially since it is a long term one. Your home might have been damaged slowly through the years and you need to take steps to reduce this damage. For a number of people, keeping their property beautiful is also a matter of pride. You will find those too who'd prefer to turn their property into a economical and efficient living place. Your roof is an integral part of your property and plays a role in each of the aspects mentioned previously. Because of this, you need to employ the expertise of qualified a Tacoma Roofing contractors.

Types of Roofs installed with a Tacoma Roofing company

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

Each type of roof invites distinct problems, but they can all be easily taken care of by a trusted Tacoma Roofing contractor. It's imperative that you nip roof problems in the bud before they become too costly or dangerous. You are able to schedule a scheduled appointment using the Tacoma Roofing company to take a look at your homes roof to determine if there are any issues or potential issues with it. If you will find, they might be able to let you know how to approach them.

A Tacoma Roofing company 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 homes roof must also be inspected for problems. Whatever issues there might be, a skilled Tacoma Roofing contractor can examine them in detail and suggest the remedy.

In case your gutters tend to clog too often, or you will find leaks across the walls of your home, it may mean that there is debris piled-up on the roof. Loose branches, piles of leaves, along with other light objects which are swept onto your roof during a storm can all contribute towards damaging your roof, and these damages can be lasting. An educated Tacoma Roofing company will explain that birds, mice, and other kinds of rodents often build nest within the debris that collects on the roof. While these nests may look rather innocent, they are great at collecting moisture, be responsible for loose shingles, mold, and indoor leaks in your home. In addition, it may also cause vermin infestation. After a storm, your Tacoma Roofing company will claim that you inspect your homes roof for any signs of debris or damage.

Reverse Damages by using a Tacoma Roofer

However top quality the roof may be, it will eventually wear out with time. There are shingles that are referred to as "25 year" or "30 year" shingles, but those numbers are just related to warranty produced by the makers. They seldom last that long. Realistically speaking, "25 year" shingles will not last a lot more than a few years. Within an area that's prone to storms, shingles or the entire roof may need to be replaced every 10 years. With a Tacoma Roofing contractor, the price will be less than what you believe.

If there you lose any shingles, or there is some harm to them, a Tacoma Roofer will be able to assist you to. Damaged shingles can result in indoor leaks, as the substrate from the roof becomes subjected to the sun and rain. Shingles that are loose or broken can slip off and pose a potential hazard to people standing below. Missing shingles create a gap which allows rain, wind, ice, and debris to develop under the adjoining shingles, which results in a "domino effect" that affects other shingles plus they become loose or broken. A comprehensive investigation will be produced by the local Tacoma Roofer, if you call them up with your suspicions of loose or missing shingles.

Your Tacoma Roofer will be in a situation to tell you what the best option is perfect for your roof. In case your roof isn't inside a good condition, it is advised you have it replaced completely. The Tacoma Roofing company can take you thru the different roofing possibilities to you which will fit your requirements and your budget.

Tacoma Roofer: Enhancing your Home's Efficiency

Your homes roof shelters you against storms, sleet, and hail. By giving adequate ventilation, your homes roof protects your house from overheating, by holding in the heat, it keeps your house warm. That's why you need to ready your roof from indoors as well as outdoors for just about any kind of weather emergency. A Qualified Tacoma Roofer can offer assist in this situation.

To begin with, inspect your roof thoroughly for just about any and all sorts of type of damage, before the beginning of a year. The gutters ought to be clear, debris should not be piled on or trapped under shingles, there should be no homes of squirrels or birds in the eaves or attic, and also the roof ought to be structurally sound. For your last part, you'll need the assistance of your local Tacoma Roofer. It may be quite dangerous to climb to the roof of your property. This is where the contractor from Tacoma Roofing contractor comes in. He'll check out the strength and security of your roof and shingles, and do a general inspection of the entire roof structure, to make sure that it is in proper working order. They will be in a position to point to problems that you have to keep close track of and problems you may not have spotted.

You will need all of the assist you to can get from the Tacoma Roofing contractor. You can help your homes roof by installing a gutter guard or leaf cover to help prevent debris from forming inside your gutters. The extra weight of debris prevents the gutters from draining and may even tear them down. Look into the fasteners in your gutters and if they are loose, tighten them. Do something to alter worn screws and brackets. For those who have a chimney in your house, inspect the bricks and mortar signs and symptoms of wear. A reliable mason could be recommended by your Tacoma Roofing company, if you will find any repairs to be done.

Tacoma Roofing contractor: Someone You are able to Rely on
In the event that you realize or suspect that there's a problem, your Tacoma Roofing company ought to be contacted. They can use their knowledge and expertise to obtain your house back in ace condition simply by working on the roof. Your roof deserves attention. So call them today, so that they can get down to caring for your roof.

 

What is Difference Between Commercial Roofing Companies From Residential Roofing Companies

If you are hiring a roofing company to re roof your home or building then you can be wondering what are the differences are between residential roofing companies and commercial roofing companies. To begin with, the one big difference is that often times an industrial roofing company may have signed a contract with and be obligated to a roofing union in able to work on union commercial jobs.

If this sounds like the situation then their labor costs will prohibit them from working on non union residential jobs. Beyond that, if your commercial roofing company hasn't signed an agreement having a union they might be outfitted just for commercial jobs which of course means their workers and equipment might not be in line with smaller residential jobs.

Residential roofing contractors in general tend to run smaller companies and therefore, tend to be more in a position to bid competitively on residential jobs, which are usually small compared to comercial jobs. Actually, quite often residential roofing contractors will run one man operations, in which the contractor that you speak with could be the one which actually does the job on the building.

Also, liability insurance for commercial roofing is more epensive and a larger bond is required for a commercial roofing work which will make it not cost effective for a commercial roofer to do residential roofing jobs.

Still one more factor is the fact that commercial jobs can run on a tighter time period for just about any number of reasons, requiring a commercial contractor to train on a larger crew or crews which again makes smaller jobs not as profitable on their behalf.

 

Difference Between Commercial Roofing and Residential Roofing

Are you aware that the rooftop of the house or building includes a huge impact on the whole structure itself? Damage caused to roofs due to natural or other disasters causes a considerable lack of property everywhere. The kind of materials used to construct the rooftop which should be sturdy and long lasting, the manner in which the roof continues to be installed as well as its timely maintenance are extremely crucial. There's two kinds of roofs which are used on all of the buildings that we see around us: commercial and residential. Although it may seem that commercial roofing is performed only for businesses or offices and residential roofing is done for apartments and houses, in reality the differences are much more complex than that.

Residential roofing is usually completed just by one hired contractor but commercial roofing typically takes a whole team to complete the task. The reason being an industrial roof tends to be larger in terms of square feet than the usual residential roof.
Commercial roofs are necessary carefully keeping the character and reason for your building in mind. For example, if there is a restaurant within the building then external components like ventilation systems, smoke stacks and pipes will be required. Residential roofs usually do not have such components apart from a chimney or two at the 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 much more expensive than residential roofing due to the special tools, materials and safety equipment that are needed onsite. Often the patching or maintenance work is done in segments unlike for a residential roof in which the repair or replacement work can be carried out a short time. This is another reason why the equipment used for residential roofs is often smaller and less costly as well.
Commercial roof installations take a extended period to accomplish compared to residential roof installations and therefore are usually constructed in large sections. During this phase however, it is important to ensure that there are no leakages, cracks or other visible wear and tear signs as it can certainly cause considerable damage to the whole building.
You should install the right roof for a building depending on its purpose. Ensure that you hire a construction company that uses first class materials and it has the right equipment for the job or neglect the may turn out to be a huge loss later.

 

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

If a business is seeking to have work done on its roof, you should use commercial roofing contractors which have a keen knowledge of any special needs that the business might have. As an example, a roofing job can often be disruptive for that operation of economic as always. Because of this, it might be necessary for the company to become temporarily shut down, or the roofing to take place after business hours have ended. A roofer that understands these needs can work together with a business to make sure that these types of issues are minimized.

First of all , a business must do when it's trying to find commercial roofing contractors is to discover who other businesses in the region are working through. Obviously, this information will not be helpful whether it comes as an indicator from competitors, but there are circumstances by which it is not too hard to find this information from suppliers or retailers. Since roofing is not an industry-specific service, this information is readily available.

It's a wise decision for just about any business to obtain touching a minimum of three commercial roofing contractors to make bids about the price. In this way, the business could obtain a better price. It's also important to make sure that each one of the roofing contractors is licensed and bonded. These details are available by permitting in touch with the state contractor's board. This also makes it possible to determine if there has been any claims filed from the company previously.

When examining bids, it is just as vital to look at what services are being offered and which products will be used because it is to check out the overall cost. The costs can vary quite drastically, but as tempting as it can be to go for the lowest bid, this isn't always the best option. In many cases, more costs now means fewer costs over time due to an undesirable roofing job. To further investigate the caliber of the job, it's a wise decision to check on with the Better Business Bureau in order to find out if the company continues to be accredited, and when it has not, to at least see what its rating is.

 

Selecting a Commercial Roofing Contractor

When you're searching for a roofer for the commercial roofing project you have to find a contractor who understands the special needs of the commercial roofing project. For example it may be harder to work on the business during business hours so either the business has to be turn off for that repair or replacement or even the job needs to be done after conventional business hours. Is the roofer you are thinking about to do the job ready to work around your schedule constrictions that might involve working weekends or evenings?

When you start your research for a roofing contractor not only do you need to answer those questions however, you also want to find someone that will perform a top quality job without a great deal of time delays. Going about finding someone can seem as an obstacle by itself but there are some ways to make the search easier.

Ask friends and family for referrals and try to find at least three contractors to provide you with written bids on your job. Prior to going any further you have to make sure that the contractors you are thinking about are fully licensed and bonded. A simple search using the state contractor's board will verify if your roofer is licensed and when there are any past judgments or claims against their license.

Once you select 3 or 4 roofers to put bids, you should prepare yourself for that bids to become widely varied. Roofers may have brand preferences that will vary and may element in more or less than the next guy for a labor estimate. The more detailed a written bid may be the more helpful it will be to focus on in which the cost are going to be incurred. Don't, however, select a roofer based solely on the bid price. Any low ball bids might be tempting to take, but when they're low because of poor quality workman ship it might not be worthwhile in the end.

As they say, you generally get that which you purchase, so if you are able to afford a mid-priced bid it certainly is smart to increase within your budget rather than down. Additionally you ought to decide your roofer depending on how professional they were and just how comfortable you anticipate you will be dealing with them.

Finally your cost will be different based on what type of roofing material you select as well as the cost to haul your old roof to the landfill. Should you be looking for places to cut corners in your roof, rather than cutting labor set you back might want to ask about metallic roof option. Metal roofs could be cost effective and energy efficient making them overall money savers for the long run, and on commercial buildings they can be very low maintenance. Plus since they can be put along with a current roof, you don't have to possess the old one removed and hauled away, that make a large effect on your cost.

Choosing a comerical roofing company nearer your home, does not have to be a difficult task. To learn more, visit http://www.vancouverroofers.net

 

Seattle Roofing Companies - How to locate The Best

In the home of rain and sleet, commercial coffee and grunge, and the famous space needle, you'll find a home that will suit you. Seattle, Washington can be a good place to build a house, however, you need Seattle roofing contractors to assist you. Your roof is, in the end, the crowning glory of your home, and your strongest line of defense from the elements. You need to have something that isn't just built to last, but created to attract and make your home more beautiful

Harsh Weather

Why are roofing contractors essential within this part of the country? Because Seattle is often bombarded by rain and other harsh weather conditions, you need a roof that can withstand all the forces of nature. With this in mind, you'll need individuals who know the Seattle weather best, and who understand what materials can best get into your roof in order for it to last far longer in the area. In addition to all this, you need to blend with the rest of the houses inside 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 get the best bang for your buck without wondering if the contractor will suddenly try to escape with it and then leave you roof-less.

Why the Contractor Model Works

If you want to set up your homes roof on your own, you'll have to buy a whole lot of materials, secure permits and licenses, and obtain materials that are suited to help you stay safe against harsh extremes of Seattle weather. This means that if you are a DIY kind of guy or gal, you'll have to undergo a large amount of legwork in order to get the task done.

However, a Seattle roofer can perform all the jobs for you and provide you with a package that can save you money and time. Because contractors operate under licenses and buy materials in large quantities, they are able to get discounts on building materials that you'd not otherwise get should you be buying merely for your own home.

Roofing Associations

Most roofing contractors also belong to roofing organizations that are bound by strict guidelines and standards. If they do well on the roofing job, they can showcase their roofing contractors association; if they do poorly, they are able to ruin the reputation of their roofing contractors association and keep other contractors inside the association from receiving targeted roofing jobs. There is lots of pressure to do well, to help you be confident that prefer a roofing job completed in Seattle, you can get a contractor from a roofing association to assist you.

For example, Seattle Roof Brokers operates with over five hundred roofing contractors in the Puget Sound. This group has over half a century of roofing experience and experience dealing with Seattle roofing contractors, therefore it will know what type of roofing you want. The Roof Brokers group can hook you up using the contractor that you need so you do not have to look for contractors individually.

What In the event you Demand from Your Contractor?

Whenever you finally get a contractor in the Seattle area, you must do lots of background research on the roofing contractors themselves. Ask for a summary of previous companies or persons that the contractor caused in order to get a clear view of the roofing contractor's work ethics and roof quality. Your roofer should also possess the appropriate working licenses and city licenses needed by the Seattle city government.

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

You need guarantees and warranties in your roof, so look for a contractor that can meet your financial allowance and roofing needs. If you get touching good Seattle roofing contractors, you can be guaranteed a great roof along with a better house in this fantastic city.

Selecting the Right Roofing Contractor Company for Replacing Your homes roof

The shingles inside your roof degrade and you're simply minded to locate a roofing contractor to change the them. Perhaps you have already known as a few and therefore are evaluating which contractor for your upcoming roof repair. How do you choose the best contractor for caring for your roof? Listed here are a number of things you should look at when searching for the best roofer.

Where is the roofing contractor located? You should hire a roofer that's local. Chances are you will get the next step of service if the roofing company can be found near your home or comes with an office near your residence.
References. To look for the reliability of the contractor, references ought to be provided of the past clients who're willing to vouch that excellent service was received. This will not be the only real element in deciding upon your future roofer as some may claim they value the privacy of the clients and don't wish to bother them. If this sounds like 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 roofer company handle complaints? There's a large number of issues that can arise throughout the progress of the roofing replacement. Ask what their process is perfect for handling complaints when they arise. It's also a great idea to receive a past client reference who had a complaint that was resolved towards the satisfaction of the client.
The payment schemes. What are the terms of payment to do the job? What is the deposit and amount due upon completion? While it is certainly reasonable that the substantial payment be produced before a contractor begins focus on a project, it is strongly advised that full payment isn't made until after the entire job is completed.
Written contract. All the roofing replacement should be place in a written contract. No the main contracting job should rely on verbal assurances.
Bonding. There are stuff that will go wrong with roofing installations that end up costing a substantial amount of money to fix. If this happens in your roofing replacement, you will feel a great deal better understanding that your roofer is bonded. This can supply the funds to fix whatever mistakes were made. Find a roofing contractor that is bonded.
Manufacturer Warranty. Quality materials for roofing typically come with a warranty. You should verify that there's actually a warranty about the materials being installed. Request a duplicate from the warranty.
Length of Time in Business How long has got the company you are interviewing been in business? A short amount of time in business may reflect instability. When the contractor has been around business under three years, verify how long they've actually been in the market. A new contractor might have many years experience working on roofs before they form their own business. Seek a business that's been around for three years, or in which the contractor has already established a lot more years performing roofing replacements. This again shouldn't be the only factor, everyone has to start sometime. Balance this with referrals and the other points raised in this article.
Appropriate Permits. A Seattle roofer ought to know what permits are needed for repairing your roof. They should be aware of how to obtain these permits for you. Ask the contractor whether they will have the permits essential to repair the rooftop.
Liability. If a worker becomes injured, who is accountable for the workers comp? When the contractor's equipment damages your house, who's responsible for the repairs? A great contractor will give you certificates of insurance for liability and workers comp before they begin repairing your roof.
Subcontractors. Verify if the contractor will be using subcontractors. If that's the case, it is strongly advised that everything contained within this article for verifying whether the contractor is credible also needs to be relevant to subcontractors. You should get the names and license amounts of all subcontractors. You need to verify whether each subcontractor can also be insured which means you aren't held responsible for their accidents.
Pending Legal Actions. You should verify whether you will find any legal actions against the contractor. This is not merely essential for verifying if the roofing company is legitimate (credible roofing companies shouldn't have to defend themselves in the court), it is also important just because a lost lawsuit might lead to the contractor to go bankrupt. If you have designed a substantial deposit for services immediately before the company goes bankrupt, you could lose many thousands of dollars and not have your roofing completed.
Material Disposal. Who is responsible for disposing of the waste generated in the roof being replaced? Will your contractor handle all aspects of the? Is there an additional cost for disposing 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. Look for a roofer with a high standard of education regarding their trade.
Replacing your roof is really a significant investment. It makes good sense to inquire about serious questions before working with a roofer. Here are a few more tips that you ought to consider when selecting the best roofer for your upcoming roofing replacement.

Payment. Don't make a full payment for services unless all jobs are finished.
Inspection. Do not make a full payment without having done a final inspection of all services rendered.
Workers liens. Don't fully pay for the roofing replacement job until worker's lien releases happen to be obtained.
Oral Agreements. No agreement should be made verbally without backing up in writing. Every point which are important to you ought to be made in writing.

 

To your SEO needs, you can examine out Vancouver web design and Vancouver Seo agency

It is true how the internet is among the most biggest financial market nowadays. Practically everything is anchored on the net. To date, there are other than 182 million web sites in the internet but still counting. If each of these websites offers possibilities to generate income, think of the limitless opportunities that may be found in the internet. More importantly, using the emergence of web sites, the need for web hosting and Search| Engine Optimization is significantly defined.

Seo is basically the operation of helping the visibility of your site. As a result, if you'd like your web site to be visible to visitors, you need to search for Search engine optimization company. The optimization strategy considers how search spiders work and what people usually and what keywords they will use. The primary objective of SEO is making internet sites visible in search sites through the natural or organic way.

Search engines optimization or natural search engine marketing can be a expression used in describing unpaid, algorithm-driven outcomes of any particular engine. Put simply, organic SEO uses natural strategies in achieving search engine results ranking. While there are 2 camps with which search engine optimization companies may fall to, that would be the 'White Hat' and the 'Black Hat', organic SEO would never belong to the 'Black Hat' camp.

Organic search engine optimization can be a highly specialized and complex practice that may literally dictate the success or failure of your online business. Since search sites often modify their algorithms, organic SEO isn't super easy in any way. When search bots modify their algorithms, factors that permit your internet site to seem facing potential clients are decayed as well. Thus, so that you can cope up using these changes, SEO tactics and techniques must be employed.

It is usually ethical to utilize search engines engine optimization since search sites nowadays are becoming extremely advanced they can easily determine if an online site is attempting to control their search indexes. Thus it is empirical to use seo practices which are carried out wherein appear natural.

The approaches utilized by organic search engine optimization and artificial SEO are actually significantly different. Basically, organic SEO uses content compared to artificial SEO's technical loopholes. Moreover, natural seo provides attracting links as opposed to linking schemes utilized by artificial SEO. Natural SEO also creates valuable resource as opposed to artificial SEO's algorithm chasing. Effortlessly these, one can clearly see why search engines engine optimization is better than artificial search engine marketing. Although the latter may be harder and complicated, it produces favorable results which are beneficial for any site. Fortunately, there are a lot of Vancouver SEO companies today that provide the organic method in affordable rates and packages.

Search engine marketing Appears to the picture

Once when search engine optimization was actually not essential.

Even while late being a decade ago, should you developed a Website anywhere, Google indexed it and also you gained visibility in the search engine results. Your page might have been with a free "estates" where anybody could give a page and Google didn't mind. It might also have been a pure affiliate page with no original content and Google still indexed it.

Situations are unrecognizably different now.

Affiliate pages with "cookie-cutter" content duplicated everywhere might never make it to the Google index; the same fate is probable for anyone pages you add in on the free-for-all website. As well as "proper" websites with your personal website name didn't achieve visibility on the list of proliferating sites in millions.

These wouldn't have mattered, with the exception of a very important factor. It absolutely was Google that provided the bread and butter for the countless small enterprises which could not afford expensive marketing campaigns. In case your site was one of the top few sites the appeared before a searcher's eyes when that person searched for your product or service, you got hundreds and also thousands of visitors, lots of whom even bought your product or service.

Search engine marketing (SEO) entered the scene. Search engine specialists "reverse-engineered" to identify the standards that Google consider for showing websites at the top of its search results pages. These factors were then consciously included in your internet pages with the aspiration that Google will show your website among the first ten results it showed around the first page.

As more and more of one's competitors adopted search engine optimization practices, things became difficult again. Your role started to slip if the competitors did the SEO better. SEO battles became serious fights with every dirty trick being employed.

There was "black hat" SEO practitioners who showed one page to find engines and another to human visitors. As search engines like google were not bothered with readability, you could fill the "search engine" page with pure gibberish, but gibberish written in a way that the engine dutifully indexed high.

A war of wits followed between unscrupulous SEO practitioners and search engines. Google changed its ranking algorithms regularly to be effective around practices that allowed low value content to seem at the top of its serp's. After all, Google's success been dependent on providing value to searchers, not merchants. And SEO practitioners created new tricks.

We'll look at search engine marketing in the group of articles, starting having an look and feel at on-line or Web marketing.

 

To your SEO needs, you should check out vancouver web design and Vancouver Seo agency.

 

Cedar Roofing: Advantages

Cedar shakes are simply concerning the most great looking shakes currently available. Frequently designed from red-colored cedar around the coniferous forests of northwestern Usa, they're just the best roofs materials for proprietors preferring supplying their roofs a natural look.

Unique cedar shingles are naturally resistance against sun and rain, that's the key answer why cedar shingles are widely-used generally throughout various climatic conditions. They're generally obtainable in several specific qualities. One or more will be the shingle crafted from red cedar as the other is produced out from the white colored variety. Red cedar shakes are designed from tight-grained particles which can be previously saturated with tannic acidity that experts say is an all-natural additive. Red cedar shingles that will be drizzled with creosote in order to avoid corrosion and therefore are desirable to homeowners simply because give a rich and unique look to one's property or home.

It's important to note that red cedars usually change dark-colored if exposed continuously to seaside weather. As a result, sea side homes need to have white cedar shakes. Red cedar shingles are generally a lot more expensive compared to white cedar types, despite the fact that cost factor doesn't diminish its reputation in anyhow. They may be preferably perfect for classic Northeastern houses while white cedar shingles seem to be image ideal for bungalows and bungalows which have been built in Nantucket design.

Through the years, classic cedar shakes have mislaid out in a point to synthetic shingles that emulate the cedar appear. Superior systems are utilized in order to make these kinds of shingles have a for an extended period life-span when compared with unique cedar shingles. Most include advanced UV inhibitors and have about 5 decades of steady guarantee. These shingles are often great insulators and lots of superior ones offer a chilly inside during summer months and 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. Needed initial treatment solution in front of installation. White cedar shakes for instance, might be addressed with bleaching oil which needs to be done almost every six to seven years to boost their durability.

Cedar shakes and cedar shingles are generally CCA treated or otherwise CCA treated. CCA stands for chromated copper arsenate. CCA can be a chemical that stops the increase of mold, mold and fungus so that it helps maintain insects from eating away your personal wonderful cedar roof. CCA cedar might make your homes roof go longer, but CCA is NOT A fireplace TREAMENT. Cedar that's been fire treated can be obtained, however your roofing company must special order it. CCA treated cedar shingles cost 15 - 20% greater than non-CCA cedar. Most cedar roofs are usually not CCA treated.

Cedar shakes and cedar shingles are fantastic, and they are also a good purchase. Information of terms such as CCA, advanced quality, Number one, blue label and black label will allow you to select the right cedar roof for your personal home.

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

You can learn more about cedar shingles, and obtain 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's among the oldest roofing products which has always been constantly being used within the hundreds of years. Just as much as new roofing materials carry on being developed, cedar shakes still endear themselves to a lot of. Below can be a comparison analysis of the cedar roof versus an asphalt roof.

Pros of Cedar Roofing shingles

Cedar shakes give rise to much better air flow inside the entire home. The shingles let the home to breathe well without trapping moisture around. It will help to maintain the dwelling of the house in good shape longer. Cedar Shakes are durable and strong. They like a higher resistance to 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 a lot more desirable. A cedar roof adds a definite charm to your residence. Cedar is instantly accessible in lumber yards and demand a large amount of expertise or specialized tools to install.

Cons of Cedar Shakes

If rot begins, choosing compelled to change the entire lot. It is sometimes complicated extracting only the affected pieces. They could happen to be nailed down in a manner that each elimination proves difficult. Cedar Shingles don't last well to constant wetting. If you live within an area where rainfall is heavy or frequent, cedar shingles aren't a great choice. Frequent wetting causes mold or mildew setting in. Replacement and repair might be a costly business. Your better protection against constant wetting is always to use wide overhangs. Also, in case your house is shaded by many trees or nearby buildings, cedar shingles tend to develop mold. You will be compelled to replace them prior to you planned. Cedar Shingles will be more flammable than asphalt shingles. Many areas possess a building code in position that restricts cedar shingles to minimize the risk of fire. To create a cedar shake roof, you must have your financial allowance in regards to the higher side. Frequent maintenance may also be important to maintain the roof who is fit. Mildew and rot are ever-constant threats with a cedar roof.

Pros of Asphalt Shingle Roof

An asphalt roof is probably the most affordable to get and install. They are available in various designs and colours, ranging from a typical, flat turn to a 3-dimensional look. Asphalt shingles have a high effectiveness fires unlike cedar roofing. An asphalt roof can in fact lessen the risk of fires brought on by flying embers. Asphalt roofs are easier and cheaper to install than cedar. Also, they are low maintenance roofs.

Cons of Asphalt Shingle Roof

Algae is more susceptible to grow on asphalt roofing than cedar shingles. It causes the top to develop somewhat from the stain which spoils the look. You can get an anti-algae coating done in your asphalt shingles but this increases the cost. In terms of stability, an asphalt roof is more apt to be blown off by strong winds when compared to a cedar roof.

Discover more about cedar roof shingles, and obtain more articles and resources about cedar roofing shakes at cedar roofing materials and shakes website.