10 Important Web Design Tips- SEO Friendly Website

A website should firstly be searched out by visitors before talking about attracting or retaining those visitors. Nowadays, a “well designed website” does not only relate to a web site’s visual attractiveness but more importantly, how friendly it is with search engines.

Below are 10 SEO friendly website designing tips where web designers should pay attention to during the early stage of their web designing process.

1. Avoid creating menu on the left-hand side of a website. If unavoidable, an alternative way is to put some text with rich keywords at the top or above the left-hand menu so that this text will be the first thing to be read by search engines.

2. Headlines are rated more important than the rest of the web page by search engines. To take advantage of this, you should have your keywords in the page headline. Since the header tag (h1) is quite large, you should format it to make it smaller.

3. Every page should contain the “title” and “description” tags with good keywords to describe the page content.The number of words for the title should not exceed 9 and that for the description should not be more than 20 words in order to keep within the limits of most search engines.

4. Try not to use Flash when possible. Flash cannot be read by the search engines to date and will cause slow page loading time and make people run away. If you really have a reason to use flash, try to make it smaller (e.g. as a flash header) and leave other area of your website for keyword-rich content.

5. Think twice on how to use graphics. Make them relevant to your content and use an alt tag with relevant keywords for search engines to read as they cannot read graphics and also for your visitors so that they can have something to read when waiting for the graphics to load.

6. Do not only use images to link out. You should always use text links to link out to important content on your web site. Spiders can follow image links, but like text links more though.

7. Avoid using frames. Some search engines cannot spider web pages with frames at all. For the other search engines that can, they can have problems spidering it and sometimes they too cannot index the web page.

8. Avoid using too complex tables when laying out your page but to keep them simple for the spiders. There are some engines which find it difficult to navigate through to the other pages on your website if the navigation bar is too complicated.

9. Use external Cascading Style Sheets and Java Script files to reduce page size and make the download time much faster. It will allow the spider to index your web page faster and can help your ranking.

10. Use standard HTML. Software such as FrontPage, Dreamweaver or a WYSIWYG editor will often add unnecessary scripting codes that will make the page larger than is needed and make it harder to crawl. It will sometimes add codes that cannot be read by search engines, causing the spider not to index the page or even the whole website. If to use, you should use those web page creator software wisely with a good understanding of html so that you may manually avoid or even delete those unnecessary scripting codes.

Source: http://www.websition.com/

Published By: http://www.mach9.com/

Double Your Sales by Improving Your Existing Website

If your website has been online for a while and you have been marketing it either through ads or pay-per-click search engines, it is very likely that you already have some traffic coming to your website on a regular basis. I will tell you how to make more sales by simply improving your existing website. If done correctly you will see increase in sales within days. Please note that this article will not provide you with a "Get rich overnight" scheme, so if you are looking for something like that this article is not for you.

I like to tell my clients to think of their website as brick-and-mortar business. Imagine that you are owner of a store. Customer comes in looking for something that you have to offer. I bet you would know exactly what to do to make a sale. So why not apply the same tactics to your online store. What would bring a visitor to your store and persuade him/her to buy from you? Let's make a list.

• Availability of the product
  
• Price
  
• Location of the product in the store
  
• Customer support
  

Peace of mind that he/she is buying from a real company that will deliver the quality and support your visitor is looking for

Let's now transfer that onto a website. Let's assume that you have the best priced product/service in your industry. What's next?

Location of the product in the store
Just like a real store, you online store has to be easy to navigate and all your products should be easy to find. Make sure to have clear links to all your categories. It is also a good idea to place "what's in my cart" type of box on all pages so that your customer will know what he/she already added there at all times.

Customer Support
Customer support is extremely important for any online business. Because there are no sales people to help your customer, he/she should have access to as many ways of communicating to your company representative as possible. Place your company's phone number, live support button and any other contact information on the prominent spot on every page of your website or at least put a link to contact page.

Making sure customer feels safe buying from you
This aspect is also very important. Because your customer will be buying from a virtual store, he/she have no way of knowing if there is a real company behind the website or is this just a fraudulent store. Place links to about us, terms of service and privacy policy pages on all of your pages. Make sure to put company's mailing address on the contact page.

Sometimes it is a good idea to put pictures of your staff with couple of sentences about them. That way customer feels a personal touch and knows there are real people behind your website.

Notify your customers that your website is 100% secure and they don't have to worry when providing their credit card information during the checkout process. You might also consider to get verified by services like Better Business Bureau or VeriSign. Having their seals of approval on your website will provide confidence to your visitors.

Improving your website's design
Website's design plays a crucial role in deciding whether to buy from a website or not. Besides making sure your website looks professional and every product is easily accessible you should also consider the following aspects:

Browser compatibility
Make sure your website works with all popular browsers including Mozilla, Netscape and Firefox. Now more and more people are switching to alternative browsers and it would be a shame to loose potential customer simply because he/she can't open your website.

Resolution compatibility
Also make sure that your website can be viewed in all resolutions. Under low resolutions parts of your website might not be accessible without scrolling to the side, make sure your navigation does not disappear like that.

Loading Time
Lately it has become less of an issue because most users are using high-speed internet access to access the web. That does not mean however that you should disregard visitors who have slower internet connections. Make sure your website loads as quickly as possible.

Right about now you might say "I knew all of this!" and you might be right. The question is, did you implement it? For some unknown reason most people don't bother to implement these simple things into their websites and are loosing money every day.

Source: http://www.websition.com/

Published By: http://www.mach9.com/

Good Web Design Could Still Be Available to Beginners like You

Web sites have been in existence for more than a decade and the idea of web design has changed considerably during the years. In the nineties, you could find web pages with web design as simple as text for its entire body with a graphic or two strewn here and there. Such web design was perfectly acceptable then and frequently relied only on tools as simple as notepad to create. Nowadays, most web sites require considerably more advanced web design, often calling for entire teams of web content creators to make them. If you're new to the field of creating web sites, how do you learn to make web sites that you would truly like to visit?

First of all, you need to visit many web sites and be critical of them. Ask yourself what elements of their web design impressed you? What elements of their web design did not seem too functional or were just plain ugly? By knowing what it is that you want, you could be taking the first steps to becoming a really good web master.

Next, you just need to learn the basics. Much of web design coding during the nineties for these web sites still function as the basics for these new more colorful web sites. Yes, web design still relies on good old HTML. Visit any tutorial online and after an afternoon, you're sure to be acquainted enough with HTML to make your own site, albeit a very simple one.

Now, with this knowledge of the basics of HTML, you can revisit your favorite web sites and see how it is that they were created. Use the browser's ability to see the coding for these sites and you'll find out what web design tricks they employed. Did the site use fancy moving graphics that responded to your mouse's clicks? Then it might just have used flash in its web design. Did it have music embedded into it as mp3? Then find out just how the web master did this using your browser's view layout feature. Any of the best web sites' web design tools are always just there, ready for you to see how they were put to use.

After this, the next step would be to emulate the sites' features. It's not too difficult as you can just copy anything using copy and paste. Place these codes into the site you're trying to create. Don't be greedy and copy every feature from every site all at once. You need to start small with one feature at a time. That way, if a feature does not work, you'll know just where the problem is.

It's not all about using the web design features, though. You should only use web features that are useful for your sites' purposes. Are you building a site only for yourself? Then try to have web design that expresses your self. Are you building a site for your families' company? Then maybe you could keep it simple and straight to the point, just giving the company's details. After uploading your web site, give yourself a couple of days rest and look back at it. That way, you'll have a fresh take on your own web design; good luck.

Republished By: http://www.mach9.com/

7 Steps to Good Quality Website Design

What is quality website design? Before visual aesthetics, studies have shown that usability and utility are the most important aspects of website design that will determine a site’s longevity and popularity. After all, if a user can’t figure out how to get around your site or what it’s about, what’s the use? The following are some tips on how to construct effective, user-friendly web pages.

Step #1: Simplicity Comes First

It is of utmost importance that the navigation of your website is completely self-explanatory. In website design, your job is to reduce the amount of ambiguity in your web pages. Remove any misleading links, and keep all texts clear and succinct. A user should not have to spend time figuring out what a web page is about, or have to guess how to get from point A to B.

Step #2: Don’t Make Life Difficult

There’s nothing people hate more than filling out forms. The less the requirements for the user, the more likely he or she will take a minute to try out what you have to offer. Another useful technique in website design is to ask for personal information after the user has been given a chance to sample a particular product or service.

Step #3: Focus the User’s Attention

Focus attention to certain parts of your web page with the use of visual elements. Try to focus on the bigger picture first, such as what the web page is about, and focus on smaller details less. If you are using images, try to use images that are related or relevant to the theme of the web page. Users should understand immediately what you are trying to communicate with your images.

Step #4: Guide New Users Step by Step

Many web designers have experienced success with step-by-step type setups. These usually include large buttons that guide the user through the website without having to think. Utilizing this type of website design allows the user to comfortably navigate your site and sample all the major features and functions.

Step #5: Keep your Writing Simple

Studies have shown that a user’s attention span when browsing the net is very short. Usually, promotional writing is ignored, and long text blocks with no pictures or bold or italicized words are skipped. Good website design dictates that sentences should be short and concise, organized or bulleted, and written in conversational and objective language.

Step #6: Stick to Conventional Website Design

In the case of website, doing what everyone else does is not boring and uncreative, but efficient. Using conventional formats and naming links with conventional words or phrases greatly reduces the user’s learning curve.

Step #7: Test Early and Often

Statistics show that most mistakes in website design are not done in the implementation phase of a project, but in the design and planning phase. Typically, errors in the fundamental design of a website snowballs into bigger problems later. Therefore, it is crucial that you work all the major kinks in your design early in the game, and do it at regular intervals.

Effective website design will make browsing your web pages much more comfortable and enjoyable for users. Always remember to keep things simple and to the point. Following these 7 simple steps for effective website design will help you to create a clearer, easier to understand, and easier to navigate website.

Republished By: http://www.mach9.com/

Website: Designing Your Perfect Website?

With the launch of the site, you can now design a Personal site with a few pages or a corporate website bursting with content. And you won't need any special skills, not even a working knowledge of a coding language like HTML.

A good design is pivotal to your success. When the visitor lands on your website, arriving via a link on either a search engine or from mention of your website from another source, you have about 3 seconds to catch their attention. Remember, they're only one click away from the browser button. With a quick mouse reflex, they can disappear in a nanosecond. Once they hit the back button, they'll never be seen again. On the other hand, it is just as easy for them to bookmark your website, return to it again, and even recommend it.

What is the difference between losing a visitor and winning one over? Content, obviously. Content that holds their interest and that answers some core need. But content, no matter how brilliant, how articulate, how relevant, and how well-formatted is not enough. The frame that holds the content in place -- the design -- can be just as important in securing visitor loyalty.

Design does not have to be brilliant to win respect. It has to be highly functional.

Here's an analogy:
Grocery stores are never works of architectural magnificence, but they are popular. They offer people something they need in a way they can easily find. There is an efficient system of shopping carts, marked aisles, and check out counters. The minute the door swings open, people know how to shop. Rarely are these places ugly, dirty, or disorganized. Those that exhibit chaos soon go out of business. The better stores have an austere, utilitarian beauty.

Similarly, a user-friendly website is considered to have a good design.
Mind-boggling graphics seldom impress. Like any high quality store, your virtual establishment should be attractive in a utilitarian way, with form built around function.

Here are 7 ways to create a winning design.

1. Your pages should load fast. Statistics reveal that most people have slow internet connections and that their average patience level ranges from 10 to 15 seconds.

2. Your text should be easy to read. When it is too small, it makes the reader squint and start Searching for their eyeglasses. When it is too large, they wonder if the website was designed for children learning how to read. Usually, a black text against a White background is best. If you lust for a colored background, it should be a pale shade so that the letters still stand out.

3. Your website should be easy to navigate, with each link clearly identified as one because it's blue and underlined. Similarly, graphic navigation elements like buttons and tabs should be easy to recognize and use. While you may personally delight in high-tech special effects, like a mouse movement that leaves a trail of stars, these should be avoided. Keep navigation plain, simple, and easy-to-understand. If navigation is not intuitive, a visitor will simply navigate away from your website.

4. Your layout from one page to another should have a consistent theme. If the headers and navigational clues shift dramatically from one page to another, people may very well believe that they've drifted to another website. Use a stylistic theme to weave a sense of continuity from one page to another.

5. Avoid music! Frankly, most websites that greet the visitor with a loud burst of music instantly frighten them away. It does not matter how beautiful the music. You could be playing something as soothing as Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik Allegro and still offend the visitor.
The reason people use music is because it does work offline.
When you push open the door of a physical store and are greeted with pleasant music, it uplifts you, the customer, puts you in a better mood, and encourages you to linger and shop more.
But on a website, the visitors only response is to escape as fast as is technologically possible.

6. Make your design compatible with the most popular browsers. What may look great on Mozilla Firefox may look strange on Internet Explorer. If possible, view your website from Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

7. Design your Web site for all screen resolutions. While most people use 1240 x 1080, some still use 800 x 600, even 640 x 768! What looks perfect with high resolution may be unrecognizable when viewing in 800 x 600.

Good design, then, is subtle. It should be quietly running in the background allowing your visitor to focus on your content. Your purpose is to entice visitors with your products and services. In other words, content becomes foreground only when design elements become background. Since it is content that sells, a "loud" design will not improve your business. Flashy presentations may attract attention offline, but online subtle effects sell.

Article Source: http://neoarticle.com

Published By: http://www.mach9.com/

Start Up Website Design

Setting up a website for the first time is an extremely thrilling step to take. It is a signal that you are serious about your business. After all, the Internet is a very global community, not so, and YOUR website will be exposed to this community from the day that it goes live.

But we need to make it very clear here that acquiring your website is only the first step in a long journey. There are other costs involved in setting up a website apart from the design costs.

The following aspects are all costs that go into setting up and running of a business website:

1. Direct cost of creating the website. Whether you do it yourself, or whether you pay for it, you have to remember that your time is also worth money.

2. Direct cost of marketing your website. Your website will NOT just start generating traffic all on its own. You are going to have to first spend money on marketing your website before you are going to see any return on investment. Setting up a New Website with no promotion behind it is like setting up a shop in a dark alley with no advertising. There will be no feet visiting that shop! You need to get your website out of its dark alley and into the light and that will cost money!
Even if you do the majority of this work yourself, you once again have to consider the fact that your time is worth money, and you should think carefully whether you want to invest your time in this activity, or rather spend it on other aspects of your business.

3. Indirect or direct costs of updating your website with fresh content. It is absolutely essential to update your website with new and regular content. At the minimum you will have to update new contact information, prices and special offers. But it is far better to update your site with additional information about your company and industry to capture more visitors who might be looking for the very information that you are providing. A site filled with lots of information about your industry also establishes you as the expert in the field and builds trust in your visitors and potential customers.

So how much SHOULD you spend on your website? If you are a start-up business, it is very tempting to spend as little as possible on your site, since you probably do not have lots of cash to throw around.

That is understandable, but be careful of being penny-wise and pound-foolish. A badly designed website can be extremely harmful to the image of your company, and if the technology choices that you might inadvertently tie yourself into due to opting for a low cost, or cheap option, are the wrong choices, you will probably find it quite expensive to extricate yourself from these design decisions.

What do we mean by this?
I have often seen websites that have obviously been done ‘on the cheap’.

The detrimental effects of this are often that:

1. The website quality overall is low, with badly designed graphics, layout and functionality. This gives a bad impression of your company.

2. Often, inexperienced Web Designers design the site using frames or use javascript for navigation. This makes the site inaccessible for Search engines, thereby rendering the site completely useless from a search engine traffic perspective.

Websites can be very costly (quality takes time, and time equals money, it is as simple as that), so if you are just starting out with your first website and your company is cash strapped, by all means try and go for a lower cost option, but educate yourself first of all the options, and if you can, go for the best quality website that your money can buy – it will save you in the long term.

Article Source: http://neoarticle.com

Published By: http://www.mach9.com/

Create Your Own Family Tree (Genealogy) Website

Are you researching your family history? A great way of generating interest that may lead to further information is to create a web site of your family tree and family history information.
Many of the better Genealogy Software programs provide the opportunity to do this. Alternatively, submitting your GEDCOM file to the numerous (and free) genealogy sites gives your name and history a presence on the World Wide Web. Another alternative is to use a free hosting service, eg Yahoo GeoCities where you can create your own web site. However these free hosting sites often have restrictions on how much you can display and are often difficult for the first time user.

The best way to design, develop and publish your own personalized family tree website is to use a HTML Editor like FrontPage or one of the many (sometimes free) HTML editors available on the internet. You will need to purchase a domain name and web hosting.

The following tips will help you create a family tree web site:

Title. The correct title to your web page is critical. It helps search engines identify your page, and searchers to find your page. Something like “The History of the Jones Family in Alabama” or “The Ancestors and Family History of Robert Jones in Alabama” is far better than “My Family Tree”!.

Header. The first paragraph, or header, should contain the surnames of the principal families researched and displayed in your family tree. Again, not just a list of names, but proper sentences which include key words such as family, family tree, ancestors, genealogy and family history.

Content. Visitors and search engines are looking for quality content, particularly on the home page of your web site. Just a list of names being researched is not enough. Compose a few paragraphs briefly describing your family history, with links to your other pages for more detailed family information. Limit your images on the home page to perhaps to one family photograph, again with links to your other photographs.

Navigation. Good websites have good navigation which allows visitors and search engines to find theirway around the web site. Navigation buttons or text links must be on all pages. Particularly important is a Home link on each page.

Meta Tags. Meta Tags are essential on all web sites. Without Meta Tags web sites will be hard for searchers to find and will rank very lowly in many search engine listings. There is no point in having a web site that cannot be found. Do it soon to improve your ‘findability’ and search engine ranking. A later article on Meta tags will help further.

The Importance of Links. If you have a family tree web site, having other genealogy web sites linking to you is a proven way of generating traffic and improving your page rank in search engines. ‘Link Popularity’ is measured by the number if inward links you have to your sites. Inward links should be
from quality genealogy sites. A links page on your web site is essential. Links can be obtained by inviting webmasters from similar sites to exchange links with you, or by joining a link exchange site. Do not exchange links with inappropriate sites eg gaming and porn! On your links page invite other web
masters to contact you for an exchange. So that the search engines and visitors can find your links page, ensure that there is a link on your home page to the links page.

Contact Details. So that visitors can contact you it is important that you display your email address prominently. To avoid email harvesters and spammers show your email address as an image or use a free email
account, eg hotmail.

Observing the above tips will help you build a web site that proudly represents your family tree. Later articles will cover other issues relating to family tree web site design.

Article Source: http://www.familyhistoryarticles.com

Published By:http://www.mach9.com/