The Main Aim of Any Website Design is to Make Money online. There are many ways you can use your internet site to make money. Does your site make money online?
Website Promotion Ideas: 10 Tips On How To Use Your Picture Effectively To Increase Your Sales
Seeing is believing.One trick to increase your visibility as well as your credibility is to use your photo at your website.
Choose & Use the Best Colors, The Psychology of Color
Are you using the best colors for your web site? Many web designers often overlook the issues of color in web design. When choosing colors for your web site there are three main areas that should be addressed.
Why You Should Use CSS
It seems more and more webmasters are using CSS for the design and layout of their sites rather than depending on tables and HTML mark up. As well as being more efficient in terms of page size and reusing CSS templates many webmasters believe that it also contributes towards search engine friendliness.
5 Powerful Ways To Get Zero Sales From Your Website
I want you to imagine a lemon. In your mind's eye, see its yellow skin. Differences between XP Icons and MAC Icons
The icons in an application are the soul of the application; they give it the modern and dynamic look the application has. Also, if the icons are intuitive - the end user will easily remember the task behind the icon - easy to memorize then the end users will definitely choose the respective application against one with clogged and strange icons.
Creating a Favicon
Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic in the URL address box) for this Web site, but never did finish the work until now. I used a free program that allowed me to copy and paste an image to create an icon, but I believe it has spyware so I won't share its name.
The Best Simple Software For The Busy Webmaster
Here are a few programs I can't do without. They're free, and make being a webmaster much easier.
Building Your First Web Site?
Before doing anything on the technical side, you need some kind of basic idea to work with. I suggest first getting some paper and a pencil.
How To Boost Your Sales Dramatically Using Dynamic Back-end Strategies
Getting a customer is not easy.Getting a visitor to decide that he or she wants to buy the product or service you're offering, getting out their credit card and giving you their hard-earned money is not a piece of cake.
Website Design: Redecorate Your Web Site To Increase Sales
Getting traffic to your website is not the only factor that affects your sales.Your website has to be powerful enough to convert these traffic and visitors to buyers.
Give Your Web Site Visitors What They Really Want - Information!
Surfing the internet is basically an information-fest! From intellectual discussions to the bizarre..
Website Design Firm
Website design firms come in all shapes and sizes.When choosing which firm you would like to build your website, there are many factors which you need to take into consideration.
Web Page Building for Beginners 2
A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your web pages and places a certain amount of importance on what the content says, but not quite like a human does. A human will place the words together in their head and try to decipher the relevancy to them personally and decide within a few seconds whether they will continue reading or click to another site, whereas a robot counts words and places all relevancy in the numbers it finds.
Bad Design Characteristics For A Website
Making a poorly designed website is one of the easiest things you can do as a webmaster! You barely need to try! If you want to run a successful high traffic website there are many different elements of design that you need to implement, and ones you need to avoid.This article will describe some of the major design flaws in many new websites.
Successful Websites Don't Set Out To Sell
What are websites? Are they sales tools for vendors and service providers, or are they electronic guidance for potential customers? Put simply, are you selling or are you helping?Your answer to this question may determine the success of your website. So think carefully?How we define what a website is all depends on which side of the fence we're on.
Pop-Ups Still Work. At Least For The Time Being
Do you remember playing with the jack-in-the-box toy as a child? You knew that if you kept winding it up, eventually jack was going to burst out of the top and startle you!Many of you found old jack-in-the-box an annoying toy and confined it to the toy box..
How? Well, while I don't know your particular situation, I can provide you with some thought-provoking ideas that you can take back to your web designer for more input.
Reduce your support costs.
It is often cheaper, easier, and more effective to support customers over the Internet than through more traditional methods such as telephone and direct mail. Services such as instant messaging and Get1on1 (www.get1on1.com) provide immediate chat facilities to current and potential customers.
Corporations can support their employees and business partners over their corporate intranets, keeping them informed and soliciting their feedback. Providing documentation for perusal saves time and reduces labor on your email server.
Websites are more than just marketing tools, out there in Cyber-Land effortlessly promoting you and your products. While that's great, why not use that same website to save yourself some money?
Providing a map to your location can save your receptionist valuable minutes on the phone explaining turns and streets, freeing her up for more important tasks.
Including a forum on your site can bring people of a common industry or interest together to discuss upcoming events, current problems, and other interesting ideas and thoughts. These forums can grow very large very quickly. And, in the meantime, your website traffic increases. Stick an ad on the forum and bring in more sales from people that you already know have expressed interest in your industry.
RELATED ARTICLES
Website Promotion Ideas: 10 Tips On How To Use Your Picture Effectively To Increase Your Sales
Seeing is believing.One trick to increase your visibility as well as your credibility is to use your photo at your website.
Choose & Use the Best Colors, The Psychology of Color
Are you using the best colors for your web site? Many web designers often overlook the issues of color in web design. When choosing colors for your web site there are three main areas that should be addressed.
Why You Should Use CSS
It seems more and more webmasters are using CSS for the design and layout of their sites rather than depending on tables and HTML mark up. As well as being more efficient in terms of page size and reusing CSS templates many webmasters believe that it also contributes towards search engine friendliness.
5 Powerful Ways To Get Zero Sales From Your Website
I want you to imagine a lemon. In your mind's eye, see its yellow skin. Differences between XP Icons and MAC Icons
The icons in an application are the soul of the application; they give it the modern and dynamic look the application has. Also, if the icons are intuitive - the end user will easily remember the task behind the icon - easy to memorize then the end users will definitely choose the respective application against one with clogged and strange icons.
Creating a Favicon
Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic in the URL address box) for this Web site, but never did finish the work until now. I used a free program that allowed me to copy and paste an image to create an icon, but I believe it has spyware so I won't share its name.
The Best Simple Software For The Busy Webmaster
Here are a few programs I can't do without. They're free, and make being a webmaster much easier.
Building Your First Web Site?
Before doing anything on the technical side, you need some kind of basic idea to work with. I suggest first getting some paper and a pencil.
How To Boost Your Sales Dramatically Using Dynamic Back-end Strategies
Getting a customer is not easy.Getting a visitor to decide that he or she wants to buy the product or service you're offering, getting out their credit card and giving you their hard-earned money is not a piece of cake.
Website Design: Redecorate Your Web Site To Increase Sales
Getting traffic to your website is not the only factor that affects your sales.Your website has to be powerful enough to convert these traffic and visitors to buyers.
Give Your Web Site Visitors What They Really Want - Information!
Surfing the internet is basically an information-fest! From intellectual discussions to the bizarre..
Website Design Firm
Website design firms come in all shapes and sizes.When choosing which firm you would like to build your website, there are many factors which you need to take into consideration.
Web Page Building for Beginners 2
A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your web pages and places a certain amount of importance on what the content says, but not quite like a human does. A human will place the words together in their head and try to decipher the relevancy to them personally and decide within a few seconds whether they will continue reading or click to another site, whereas a robot counts words and places all relevancy in the numbers it finds.
Bad Design Characteristics For A Website
Making a poorly designed website is one of the easiest things you can do as a webmaster! You barely need to try! If you want to run a successful high traffic website there are many different elements of design that you need to implement, and ones you need to avoid.This article will describe some of the major design flaws in many new websites.
Successful Websites Don't Set Out To Sell
What are websites? Are they sales tools for vendors and service providers, or are they electronic guidance for potential customers? Put simply, are you selling or are you helping?Your answer to this question may determine the success of your website. So think carefully?How we define what a website is all depends on which side of the fence we're on.
Pop-Ups Still Work. At Least For The Time Being
Do you remember playing with the jack-in-the-box toy as a child? You knew that if you kept winding it up, eventually jack was going to burst out of the top and startle you!Many of you found old jack-in-the-box an annoying toy and confined it to the toy box..
Website Polls For You And Your Visitors
Setting up a survey on your site is extremely simple and many times just as beneficial, for two main reasons. One, they let you create a more interactive website for your visitor.
How to Create A Homepage That Works
Want to know what the worst thing to say on a homepage is?"Welcome to our homepage." And yet, time after time, we all come across such homepages on the Internet. Should You Bother Learning HTML to Build Webpages?
The most popular method to build webpages today is to use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) software. Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver are prime examples of WYSIWYG software.
Alternative to Web Site Templates and Design Software
Before I discovered the concept of Web site templates, I felt woefully inadequate to build my own site. It was the old "catch-22" where I didn't have the money to pay to have a site built, I needed a site to make the money to have a professional site, and without the knowledge of how to build a site, I had no hope of getting a site.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
10 Design Mistake you Avoid if You wish to be Professional Designer
10 Design Mistakes to quash
10 Design Mistake you Avoid if You wish to be Professional Designer
Avert these errors and your web site will be footprints ahead of your competitor.
1. Not designing your site
Prior to you even have a internet site, you essential have an theme, a focus. Why do you wish a internet site? What are your architectural plan* and destinations for the internet site? Sit down and depict out a map of potential pages and estimates for your internet site. Include your internet site aim --whether it is to sell more merchandise or make the common more aware of your issue -- whatever it could be. Build your internet site from it's firm foundation (your destinations) and you'll have a best, more substantial site.
2. Failing to put contact selective information in a manifestly seen placement.
This could be fateful. If a customer doesn't see this data, they can't contact you. You ought conceive a 'Contact Us' button or link from your Home page. Even best, make a colligate to your email destination in your heading or footnote, somewhere that will demo up on every foliate. Even if no one always contacts you this way, barely the comportment of this information comforts jumpy customers.
3. Broken Links
Do you love clicking on a explore result only to get a Page Not Found computer error? No one likes them. Assure your internet site statistics at lowest once a month (if not more) to make certain you do not have bad or broken connexions.
4. Obsolete Information
A certain turn-off to a possible customer is the comportment of old information. If it is July and your internet site is announcing the 'new' merchandises available in February, your site just confused major believability. Make for sure your information is up-to-date. Conceive adding a 'Whats New' button or a Business Blog.
5. Excessively Many Font flairs and Colors
This is a vast pet-peeve of my company. I have had people ask me to review their internet site and the first matter I discover is 4 different fonts. It looks immoral, unorganized and unattractive. Different colors might attract the center for a abruptly time, but invariant flashing or differently bright fonts (and graphics!) Suit bothering. Beware, this is a successful way to scare people aside from your internet site!
6. Parentless Pages
Every internet site has a heirarchy, a sort of tree diagram that diversifies from the Home Page. Although most of your visitors visit you through your home page, there are times when a page foster down interests somebody, and they may copy that link and send it to a friend. This is where you need to pay care. That friend may like what you have to offer, but they can not find out how to contact you, or how to come back to your Home Page. That's an parentless page. Every page on your site should, at a minimal, have a link back to your Home page. I would advise adding a contact link at minimal.
7. Frames
Frames at once were the talk of the industry. They were the original articles Management System (CMS) for your site. Nowadays they are few and far between. If you are planning a site, don't use borders. Newer applied science* such as server-side includes are much more common and acceptable. Your pages look cleaner and those silly bars do not deliver the way.
8. Disabling the backward button and overweening Pop-Ups
Have you been to a website and decided that it wasn't the information you were looking for? When you clicked the BACK button, did you all of a sudden get a barrage of windows (or, pop-ups) to your dismay? These things rarely actually work, and worse off, the reason you hit the BACK button is since you DIDN'T want any more info from that site. Don't break the BACK button. On that point are other methods to get your user's attention.
9. Slow loading pages
Although personal and hobby internet site* may normally be slow, there should be no reason for your business or other professional website to be slow loading. Today's Internet surfer will not wait abundant for information from your land site - there are excessively many others with the cookie-cutter thing! Make sure your pages load promptly. If the server is slow, consider a different host. If your webpages are full of applets or large graphics, consider a page/site redesign.
10. Applying Leading-Edge Technology
While the cyberspace is all about new and fantasy stuff, do not be the first to do it. Although it may 'look cool' to you, you finally need to decide if it actually enhances your user's experience. Do the flashy animated cartoon* make your customer more apt to purchase from you? Likely not. How many of your buyers have to install a Plug-In just to see your page right? Do they have to advance their web browser to contact you? Not good. Hold back until the technology is either more of a standard or gone - you'll save face with potential and future customers.
MORE RESOURCES:
RELATED ARTICLES
User Experience and Search Engines: If Your Home Page Could Only Talk
Dear web site visitor.I can't tell you how glad I am that you found my website.
Custom Website Design - 3 Must Have Tools
Creating your own website can be fun and easy, as long as you have the right tools. Fortunately, all the tools you need are available at your fingertips and all you need to know are which tools will allow you to design the best website possible.
Questions to Ask When Designing a Website for Clients
Questions to ask when designing a Web Site for your client (s)."Excerpt from the book: Graphic Artists Guild, Handbook Pricing & Ethical guidelines Written by: Brent ParkerThese questions are a great tool to use when trying to develop your clients website.
Why Long Web Pages are Better than Short Ones
Many Internet sites that try to sell you something have very long pages. Why is that do you think? Well, it appears that long, scrolling, web pages lead to more sales than short pages.
Do You Own Your Web Site Design?
Your web site has been up for a few months and you are making money hand over foot. While surfing sites one evening, you are shocked to find a competitor using your design.
Integrating Advertising into Your Web Design
If you are going to be placing ads on your website, you'll want to put some thought into how you'll integrate them. Poor integration of ads into your website will cause visitors to click away fast.
Cheap Website Design In Birmingham
Due to the large number of people offering website design services in Birmingham, there is always a bargain to be found.Web design companies in Birmingham are in a very competitive market and some offer some great deals at various times of the year.
You Too Can Have Fun With Sepia Images!
If you are one of those who wonder how people come up with the cool looking sepia tone prints that you admire so much. If you are doubling up with jealousy over a sepia tone, here, we will give you tips on how you could achieve this sepia tone, too.
Why Not To Use Web Design Templates For Your Website
In today's age of fast food and high-speed Internet, a business may be tempted to take the "more convenient" route in launching a website - buying a template and customising it.Website design templates are like off-the-shelf websites and are targeted at people who believe that launching their own, unique and differentiated website is costly and time consuming, which need not be the case.
What You Should Ask a Web Designer Before You Hire Him
You've thought about it and you're ready to go. You're ready to give your business an online presence.
Why You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site
Congratulations! You've got a brand new site and it's doing pretty well. You check your statistics every day and the hits and page views keep climbing, your links are all in order and everything looks very good.
How to Double Your Online Sales Without Spending Another Dime on Advertising
Learning how to convert visitors to your web site into buyers, is the single most important factor affecting the success of your online business. If you don't have paying customers, your business will fail.
Hiring The Right Webmaster
The Questions You Should Be Asking ? The Answers You Should Be ReceivingWhen interviewing webmasters, don't let price be your deciding factor. Among webmasters there is a split between those who are skilled in the fine art of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and those who are not.
Web Design for Ecommerce
Your website is your tool for showing the online community an image of your Drop Ship retail business. Whether or not your business succeeds depends heavily on your website.
Learn the Truth about Your Web Design Company by Its Portfolio
When you start building your online business and search for a web design company that will implement all your needs for the web site you must understand that it is a very serious step because you are entrusting your business along with its reputation and future.That's why it's very important to make the right choice.
Website Conversion Secrets Revealed
In my last article entitled, Maximizing The True Value Of Your Traffic (found at http://tinyurl.com/2cf84), you discovered the importance of generating positive responses from all your visitors.
Discover 7 Proven Shopping Cart Enhancements to Increase Your Sales
For online businesses with their main goal of selling products, shopping cart abandonment can mean the difference between profitability and loss. But since recent surveys suggest that less than 50% of retailers know their shopping cart abandonment rate, let's review what it is and why it is important to know.
Why You Should Use CSS
It seems more and more webmasters are using CSS for the design and layout of their sites rather than depending on tables and HTML mark up. As well as being more efficient in terms of page size and reusing CSS templates many webmasters believe that it also contributes towards search engine friendliness.
Designing Beautiful Artist Websites - 12 Tips To Showcase Your Art
1. Who needs an artists website?Not everyone! If you are currently exhibiting in multiple high-end galleries and making a handsome income, a website may not be for you.
How To Create A Professional Website In Less Than A Week
Here's a really simple way..
10 Design Mistake you Avoid if You wish to be Professional Designer
Avert these errors and your web site will be footprints ahead of your competitor.
1. Not designing your site
Prior to you even have a internet site, you essential have an theme, a focus. Why do you wish a internet site? What are your architectural plan* and destinations for the internet site? Sit down and depict out a map of potential pages and estimates for your internet site. Include your internet site aim --whether it is to sell more merchandise or make the common more aware of your issue -- whatever it could be. Build your internet site from it's firm foundation (your destinations) and you'll have a best, more substantial site.
2. Failing to put contact selective information in a manifestly seen placement.
This could be fateful. If a customer doesn't see this data, they can't contact you. You ought conceive a 'Contact Us' button or link from your Home page. Even best, make a colligate to your email destination in your heading or footnote, somewhere that will demo up on every foliate. Even if no one always contacts you this way, barely the comportment of this information comforts jumpy customers.
3. Broken Links
Do you love clicking on a explore result only to get a Page Not Found computer error? No one likes them. Assure your internet site statistics at lowest once a month (if not more) to make certain you do not have bad or broken connexions.
4. Obsolete Information
A certain turn-off to a possible customer is the comportment of old information. If it is July and your internet site is announcing the 'new' merchandises available in February, your site just confused major believability. Make for sure your information is up-to-date. Conceive adding a 'Whats New' button or a Business Blog.
5. Excessively Many Font flairs and Colors
This is a vast pet-peeve of my company. I have had people ask me to review their internet site and the first matter I discover is 4 different fonts. It looks immoral, unorganized and unattractive. Different colors might attract the center for a abruptly time, but invariant flashing or differently bright fonts (and graphics!) Suit bothering. Beware, this is a successful way to scare people aside from your internet site!
6. Parentless Pages
Every internet site has a heirarchy, a sort of tree diagram that diversifies from the Home Page. Although most of your visitors visit you through your home page, there are times when a page foster down interests somebody, and they may copy that link and send it to a friend. This is where you need to pay care. That friend may like what you have to offer, but they can not find out how to contact you, or how to come back to your Home Page. That's an parentless page. Every page on your site should, at a minimal, have a link back to your Home page. I would advise adding a contact link at minimal.
7. Frames
Frames at once were the talk of the industry. They were the original articles Management System (CMS) for your site. Nowadays they are few and far between. If you are planning a site, don't use borders. Newer applied science* such as server-side includes are much more common and acceptable. Your pages look cleaner and those silly bars do not deliver the way.
8. Disabling the backward button and overweening Pop-Ups
Have you been to a website and decided that it wasn't the information you were looking for? When you clicked the BACK button, did you all of a sudden get a barrage of windows (or, pop-ups) to your dismay? These things rarely actually work, and worse off, the reason you hit the BACK button is since you DIDN'T want any more info from that site. Don't break the BACK button. On that point are other methods to get your user's attention.
9. Slow loading pages
Although personal and hobby internet site* may normally be slow, there should be no reason for your business or other professional website to be slow loading. Today's Internet surfer will not wait abundant for information from your land site - there are excessively many others with the cookie-cutter thing! Make sure your pages load promptly. If the server is slow, consider a different host. If your webpages are full of applets or large graphics, consider a page/site redesign.
10. Applying Leading-Edge Technology
While the cyberspace is all about new and fantasy stuff, do not be the first to do it. Although it may 'look cool' to you, you finally need to decide if it actually enhances your user's experience. Do the flashy animated cartoon* make your customer more apt to purchase from you? Likely not. How many of your buyers have to install a Plug-In just to see your page right? Do they have to advance their web browser to contact you? Not good. Hold back until the technology is either more of a standard or gone - you'll save face with potential and future customers.
MORE RESOURCES:
RELATED ARTICLES
User Experience and Search Engines: If Your Home Page Could Only Talk
Dear web site visitor.I can't tell you how glad I am that you found my website.
Custom Website Design - 3 Must Have Tools
Creating your own website can be fun and easy, as long as you have the right tools. Fortunately, all the tools you need are available at your fingertips and all you need to know are which tools will allow you to design the best website possible.
Questions to Ask When Designing a Website for Clients
Questions to ask when designing a Web Site for your client (s)."Excerpt from the book: Graphic Artists Guild, Handbook Pricing & Ethical guidelines Written by: Brent ParkerThese questions are a great tool to use when trying to develop your clients website.
Why Long Web Pages are Better than Short Ones
Many Internet sites that try to sell you something have very long pages. Why is that do you think? Well, it appears that long, scrolling, web pages lead to more sales than short pages.
Do You Own Your Web Site Design?
Your web site has been up for a few months and you are making money hand over foot. While surfing sites one evening, you are shocked to find a competitor using your design.
Integrating Advertising into Your Web Design
If you are going to be placing ads on your website, you'll want to put some thought into how you'll integrate them. Poor integration of ads into your website will cause visitors to click away fast.
Cheap Website Design In Birmingham
Due to the large number of people offering website design services in Birmingham, there is always a bargain to be found.Web design companies in Birmingham are in a very competitive market and some offer some great deals at various times of the year.
You Too Can Have Fun With Sepia Images!
If you are one of those who wonder how people come up with the cool looking sepia tone prints that you admire so much. If you are doubling up with jealousy over a sepia tone, here, we will give you tips on how you could achieve this sepia tone, too.
Why Not To Use Web Design Templates For Your Website
In today's age of fast food and high-speed Internet, a business may be tempted to take the "more convenient" route in launching a website - buying a template and customising it.Website design templates are like off-the-shelf websites and are targeted at people who believe that launching their own, unique and differentiated website is costly and time consuming, which need not be the case.
What You Should Ask a Web Designer Before You Hire Him
You've thought about it and you're ready to go. You're ready to give your business an online presence.
Why You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site
Congratulations! You've got a brand new site and it's doing pretty well. You check your statistics every day and the hits and page views keep climbing, your links are all in order and everything looks very good.
How to Double Your Online Sales Without Spending Another Dime on Advertising
Learning how to convert visitors to your web site into buyers, is the single most important factor affecting the success of your online business. If you don't have paying customers, your business will fail.
Hiring The Right Webmaster
The Questions You Should Be Asking ? The Answers You Should Be ReceivingWhen interviewing webmasters, don't let price be your deciding factor. Among webmasters there is a split between those who are skilled in the fine art of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and those who are not.
Web Design for Ecommerce
Your website is your tool for showing the online community an image of your Drop Ship retail business. Whether or not your business succeeds depends heavily on your website.
Learn the Truth about Your Web Design Company by Its Portfolio
When you start building your online business and search for a web design company that will implement all your needs for the web site you must understand that it is a very serious step because you are entrusting your business along with its reputation and future.That's why it's very important to make the right choice.
Website Conversion Secrets Revealed
In my last article entitled, Maximizing The True Value Of Your Traffic (found at http://tinyurl.com/2cf84), you discovered the importance of generating positive responses from all your visitors.
Discover 7 Proven Shopping Cart Enhancements to Increase Your Sales
For online businesses with their main goal of selling products, shopping cart abandonment can mean the difference between profitability and loss. But since recent surveys suggest that less than 50% of retailers know their shopping cart abandonment rate, let's review what it is and why it is important to know.
Why You Should Use CSS
It seems more and more webmasters are using CSS for the design and layout of their sites rather than depending on tables and HTML mark up. As well as being more efficient in terms of page size and reusing CSS templates many webmasters believe that it also contributes towards search engine friendliness.
Designing Beautiful Artist Websites - 12 Tips To Showcase Your Art
1. Who needs an artists website?Not everyone! If you are currently exhibiting in multiple high-end galleries and making a handsome income, a website may not be for you.
How To Create A Professional Website In Less Than A Week
Here's a really simple way..
10 Design Mistake you Avi
10 Design Mistakes to quash
avert these errors and your web site will be footprints ahead of your competitor.
1. Not designing your site
Prior to you even have a internet site, you essential have an theme, a focus. Why do you wish a internet site? What are your architectural plan* and destinations for the internet site? Sit down and depict out a map of potential pages and estimates for your internet site. Include your internet site aim --whether it is to sell more merchandise or make the common more aware of your issue -- whatever it could be. Build your internet site from it's firm foundation (your destinations) and you'll have a best, more substantial site.
2. Failing to put contact selective information in a manifestly seen placement.
This could be fateful. If a customer doesn't see this data, they can't contact you. You ought conceive a 'Contact Us' button or link from your Home page. Even best, make a colligate to your email destination in your heading or footnote, somewhere that will demo up on every foliate. Even if no one always contacts you this way, barely the comportment of this information comforts jumpy customers.
3. Broken Links
Do you love clicking on a explore result only to get a Page Not Found computer error? No one likes them. Assure your internet site statistics at lowest once a month (if not more) to make certain you do not have bad or broken connexions.
4. Obsolete Information
A certain turn-off to a possible customer is the comportment of old information. If it is July and your internet site is announcing the 'new' merchandises available in February, your site just confused major believability. Make for sure your information is up-to-date. Conceive adding a 'Whats New' button or a Business Blog.
5. Excessively Many Font flairs and Colors
This is a vast pet-peeve of my company. I have had people ask me to review their internet site and the first matter I discover is 4 different fonts. It looks immoral, unorganized and unattractive. Different colors might attract the center for a abruptly time, but invariant flashing or differently bright fonts (and graphics!) Suit bothering. Beware, this is a successful way to scare people aside from your internet site!
6. Parentless Pages
Every internet site has a heirarchy, a sort of tree diagram that diversifies from the Home Page. Although most of your visitors visit you through your home page, there are times when a page foster down interests somebody, and they may copy that link and send it to a friend. This is where you need to pay care. That friend may like what you have to offer, but they can not find out how to contact you, or how to come back to your Home Page. That's an parentless page. Every page on your site should, at a minimal, have a link back to your Home page. I would advise adding a contact link at minimal.
7. Frames
Frames at once were the talk of the industry. They were the original articles Management System (CMS) for your site. Nowadays they are few and far between. If you are planning a site, don't use borders. Newer applied science* such as server-side includes are much more common and acceptable. Your pages look cleaner and those silly bars do not deliver the way.
8. Disabling the backward button and overweening Pop-Ups
Have you been to a website and decided that it wasn't the information you were looking for? When you clicked the BACK button, did you all of a sudden get a barrage of windows (or, pop-ups) to your dismay? These things rarely actually work, and worse off, the reason you hit the BACK button is since you DIDN'T want any more info from that site. Don't break the BACK button. On that point are other methods to get your user's attention.
9. Slow loading pages
Although personal and hobby internet site* may normally be slow, there should be no reason for your business or other professional website to be slow loading. Today's Internet surfer will not wait abundant for information from your land site - there are excessively many others with the cookie-cutter thing! Make sure your pages load promptly. If the server is slow, consider a different host. If your webpages are full of applets or large graphics, consider a page/site redesign.
10. Applying Leading-Edge Technology
While the cyberspace is all about new and fantasy stuff, do not be the first to do it. Although it may 'look cool' to you, you finally need to decide if it actually enhances your user's experience. Do the flashy animated cartoon* make your customer more apt to purchase from you? Likely not. How many of your buyers have to install a Plug-In just to see your page right? Do they have to advance their web browser to contact you? Not good. Hold back until the technology is either more of a standard or gone - you'll save face with potential and future customers.
About the Author
Will Hanke is a self-proclaimed geek who owns and operates Lighthouse Technologies (www.techlh.com), a web development and hosting company based in ArnoldMissouri. For questions or comments, email him at will@techlh.com. And buy yourself a good virus program so he doesn't have to fight your emails with anti-virus spray.
MORE RESOURCES:
RELATED ARTICLES
User Experience and Search Engines: If Your Home Page Could Only Talk
Dear web site visitor.I can't tell you how glad I am that you found my website.
Custom Website Design - 3 Must Have Tools
Creating your own website can be fun and easy, as long as you have the right tools. Fortunately, all the tools you need are available at your fingertips and all you need to know are which tools will allow you to design the best website possible.
Questions to Ask When Designing a Website for Clients
Questions to ask when designing a Web Site for your client (s)."Excerpt from the book: Graphic Artists Guild, Handbook Pricing & Ethical guidelines Written by: Brent ParkerThese questions are a great tool to use when trying to develop your clients website.
Why Long Web Pages are Better than Short Ones
Many Internet sites that try to sell you something have very long pages. Why is that do you think? Well, it appears that long, scrolling, web pages lead to more sales than short pages.
Do You Own Your Web Site Design?
Your web site has been up for a few months and you are making money hand over foot. While surfing sites one evening, you are shocked to find a competitor using your design.
Integrating Advertising into Your Web Design
If you are going to be placing ads on your website, you'll want to put some thought into how you'll integrate them. Poor integration of ads into your website will cause visitors to click away fast.
Cheap Website Design In Birmingham
Due to the large number of people offering website design services in Birmingham, there is always a bargain to be found.Web design companies in Birmingham are in a very competitive market and some offer some great deals at various times of the year.
You Too Can Have Fun With Sepia Images!
If you are one of those who wonder how people come up with the cool looking sepia tone prints that you admire so much. If you are doubling up with jealousy over a sepia tone, here, we will give you tips on how you could achieve this sepia tone, too.
Why Not To Use Web Design Templates For Your Website
In today's age of fast food and high-speed Internet, a business may be tempted to take the "more convenient" route in launching a website - buying a template and customising it.Website design templates are like off-the-shelf websites and are targeted at people who believe that launching their own, unique and differentiated website is costly and time consuming, which need not be the case.
What You Should Ask a Web Designer Before You Hire Him
You've thought about it and you're ready to go. You're ready to give your business an online presence.
Why You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site
Congratulations! You've got a brand new site and it's doing pretty well. You check your statistics every day and the hits and page views keep climbing, your links are all in order and everything looks very good.
How to Double Your Online Sales Without Spending Another Dime on Advertising
Learning how to convert visitors to your web site into buyers, is the single most important factor affecting the success of your online business. If you don't have paying customers, your business will fail.
Hiring The Right Webmaster
The Questions You Should Be Asking ? The Answers You Should Be ReceivingWhen interviewing webmasters, don't let price be your deciding factor. Among webmasters there is a split between those who are skilled in the fine art of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and those who are not.
Web Design for Ecommerce
Your website is your tool for showing the online community an image of your Drop Ship retail business. Whether or not your business succeeds depends heavily on your website.
Learn the Truth about Your Web Design Company by Its Portfolio
When you start building your online business and search for a web design company that will implement all your needs for the web site you must understand that it is a very serious step because you are entrusting your business along with its reputation and future.That's why it's very important to make the right choice.
Website Conversion Secrets Revealed
In my last article entitled, Maximizing The True Value Of Your Traffic (found at http://tinyurl.com/2cf84), you discovered the importance of generating positive responses from all your visitors.
Discover 7 Proven Shopping Cart Enhancements to Increase Your Sales
For online businesses with their main goal of selling products, shopping cart abandonment can mean the difference between profitability and loss. But since recent surveys suggest that less than 50% of retailers know their shopping cart abandonment rate, let's review what it is and why it is important to know.
Why You Should Use CSS
It seems more and more webmasters are using CSS for the design and layout of their sites rather than depending on tables and HTML mark up. As well as being more efficient in terms of page size and reusing CSS templates many webmasters believe that it also contributes towards search engine friendliness.
Designing Beautiful Artist Websites - 12 Tips To Showcase Your Art
1. Who needs an artists website?Not everyone! If you are currently exhibiting in multiple high-end galleries and making a handsome income, a website may not be for you.
How To Create A Professional Website In Less Than A Week
Here's a really simple way..
avert these errors and your web site will be footprints ahead of your competitor.
1. Not designing your site
Prior to you even have a internet site, you essential have an theme, a focus. Why do you wish a internet site? What are your architectural plan* and destinations for the internet site? Sit down and depict out a map of potential pages and estimates for your internet site. Include your internet site aim --whether it is to sell more merchandise or make the common more aware of your issue -- whatever it could be. Build your internet site from it's firm foundation (your destinations) and you'll have a best, more substantial site.
2. Failing to put contact selective information in a manifestly seen placement.
This could be fateful. If a customer doesn't see this data, they can't contact you. You ought conceive a 'Contact Us' button or link from your Home page. Even best, make a colligate to your email destination in your heading or footnote, somewhere that will demo up on every foliate. Even if no one always contacts you this way, barely the comportment of this information comforts jumpy customers.
3. Broken Links
Do you love clicking on a explore result only to get a Page Not Found computer error? No one likes them. Assure your internet site statistics at lowest once a month (if not more) to make certain you do not have bad or broken connexions.
4. Obsolete Information
A certain turn-off to a possible customer is the comportment of old information. If it is July and your internet site is announcing the 'new' merchandises available in February, your site just confused major believability. Make for sure your information is up-to-date. Conceive adding a 'Whats New' button or a Business Blog.
5. Excessively Many Font flairs and Colors
This is a vast pet-peeve of my company. I have had people ask me to review their internet site and the first matter I discover is 4 different fonts. It looks immoral, unorganized and unattractive. Different colors might attract the center for a abruptly time, but invariant flashing or differently bright fonts (and graphics!) Suit bothering. Beware, this is a successful way to scare people aside from your internet site!
6. Parentless Pages
Every internet site has a heirarchy, a sort of tree diagram that diversifies from the Home Page. Although most of your visitors visit you through your home page, there are times when a page foster down interests somebody, and they may copy that link and send it to a friend. This is where you need to pay care. That friend may like what you have to offer, but they can not find out how to contact you, or how to come back to your Home Page. That's an parentless page. Every page on your site should, at a minimal, have a link back to your Home page. I would advise adding a contact link at minimal.
7. Frames
Frames at once were the talk of the industry. They were the original articles Management System (CMS) for your site. Nowadays they are few and far between. If you are planning a site, don't use borders. Newer applied science* such as server-side includes are much more common and acceptable. Your pages look cleaner and those silly bars do not deliver the way.
8. Disabling the backward button and overweening Pop-Ups
Have you been to a website and decided that it wasn't the information you were looking for? When you clicked the BACK button, did you all of a sudden get a barrage of windows (or, pop-ups) to your dismay? These things rarely actually work, and worse off, the reason you hit the BACK button is since you DIDN'T want any more info from that site. Don't break the BACK button. On that point are other methods to get your user's attention.
9. Slow loading pages
Although personal and hobby internet site* may normally be slow, there should be no reason for your business or other professional website to be slow loading. Today's Internet surfer will not wait abundant for information from your land site - there are excessively many others with the cookie-cutter thing! Make sure your pages load promptly. If the server is slow, consider a different host. If your webpages are full of applets or large graphics, consider a page/site redesign.
10. Applying Leading-Edge Technology
While the cyberspace is all about new and fantasy stuff, do not be the first to do it. Although it may 'look cool' to you, you finally need to decide if it actually enhances your user's experience. Do the flashy animated cartoon* make your customer more apt to purchase from you? Likely not. How many of your buyers have to install a Plug-In just to see your page right? Do they have to advance their web browser to contact you? Not good. Hold back until the technology is either more of a standard or gone - you'll save face with potential and future customers.
About the Author
Will Hanke is a self-proclaimed geek who owns and operates Lighthouse Technologies (www.techlh.com), a web development and hosting company based in ArnoldMissouri. For questions or comments, email him at will@techlh.com. And buy yourself a good virus program so he doesn't have to fight your emails with anti-virus spray.
MORE RESOURCES:
RELATED ARTICLES
User Experience and Search Engines: If Your Home Page Could Only Talk
Dear web site visitor.I can't tell you how glad I am that you found my website.
Custom Website Design - 3 Must Have Tools
Creating your own website can be fun and easy, as long as you have the right tools. Fortunately, all the tools you need are available at your fingertips and all you need to know are which tools will allow you to design the best website possible.
Questions to Ask When Designing a Website for Clients
Questions to ask when designing a Web Site for your client (s)."Excerpt from the book: Graphic Artists Guild, Handbook Pricing & Ethical guidelines Written by: Brent ParkerThese questions are a great tool to use when trying to develop your clients website.
Why Long Web Pages are Better than Short Ones
Many Internet sites that try to sell you something have very long pages. Why is that do you think? Well, it appears that long, scrolling, web pages lead to more sales than short pages.
Do You Own Your Web Site Design?
Your web site has been up for a few months and you are making money hand over foot. While surfing sites one evening, you are shocked to find a competitor using your design.
Integrating Advertising into Your Web Design
If you are going to be placing ads on your website, you'll want to put some thought into how you'll integrate them. Poor integration of ads into your website will cause visitors to click away fast.
Cheap Website Design In Birmingham
Due to the large number of people offering website design services in Birmingham, there is always a bargain to be found.Web design companies in Birmingham are in a very competitive market and some offer some great deals at various times of the year.
You Too Can Have Fun With Sepia Images!
If you are one of those who wonder how people come up with the cool looking sepia tone prints that you admire so much. If you are doubling up with jealousy over a sepia tone, here, we will give you tips on how you could achieve this sepia tone, too.
Why Not To Use Web Design Templates For Your Website
In today's age of fast food and high-speed Internet, a business may be tempted to take the "more convenient" route in launching a website - buying a template and customising it.Website design templates are like off-the-shelf websites and are targeted at people who believe that launching their own, unique and differentiated website is costly and time consuming, which need not be the case.
What You Should Ask a Web Designer Before You Hire Him
You've thought about it and you're ready to go. You're ready to give your business an online presence.
Why You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site
Congratulations! You've got a brand new site and it's doing pretty well. You check your statistics every day and the hits and page views keep climbing, your links are all in order and everything looks very good.
How to Double Your Online Sales Without Spending Another Dime on Advertising
Learning how to convert visitors to your web site into buyers, is the single most important factor affecting the success of your online business. If you don't have paying customers, your business will fail.
Hiring The Right Webmaster
The Questions You Should Be Asking ? The Answers You Should Be ReceivingWhen interviewing webmasters, don't let price be your deciding factor. Among webmasters there is a split between those who are skilled in the fine art of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and those who are not.
Web Design for Ecommerce
Your website is your tool for showing the online community an image of your Drop Ship retail business. Whether or not your business succeeds depends heavily on your website.
Learn the Truth about Your Web Design Company by Its Portfolio
When you start building your online business and search for a web design company that will implement all your needs for the web site you must understand that it is a very serious step because you are entrusting your business along with its reputation and future.That's why it's very important to make the right choice.
Website Conversion Secrets Revealed
In my last article entitled, Maximizing The True Value Of Your Traffic (found at http://tinyurl.com/2cf84), you discovered the importance of generating positive responses from all your visitors.
Discover 7 Proven Shopping Cart Enhancements to Increase Your Sales
For online businesses with their main goal of selling products, shopping cart abandonment can mean the difference between profitability and loss. But since recent surveys suggest that less than 50% of retailers know their shopping cart abandonment rate, let's review what it is and why it is important to know.
Why You Should Use CSS
It seems more and more webmasters are using CSS for the design and layout of their sites rather than depending on tables and HTML mark up. As well as being more efficient in terms of page size and reusing CSS templates many webmasters believe that it also contributes towards search engine friendliness.
Designing Beautiful Artist Websites - 12 Tips To Showcase Your Art
1. Who needs an artists website?Not everyone! If you are currently exhibiting in multiple high-end galleries and making a handsome income, a website may not be for you.
How To Create A Professional Website In Less Than A Week
Here's a really simple way..
Your Internet Site will Save You Networth
Building Your Internet Site Save s You Networth
Does your internet site make you some revenue? Does it preserve you any income?
internet site* are more than just merchandising tools, out there in Cyber-Land effortlessly advertizing you and your products. Although that's great, why not use that same internet site to save yourself more or less income?
How? Good, while I do not acknowledge your particular billet, I can furnish you with some challenging ideas that you can acquire back to your web architect for more stimulus.
abridge your digest costs.
they are often cheaper, gentler, and more efficient to back up buyers over the cyberspace than through more tradiditonal formulas such as telephony and direct mail. Services such as instant electronic messaging and Get1on1 (www.get1on1.com) provide fast chat facilities to stream and potential clients.
Corporations could support their employees and business collaborators over their corporate intranets, keeping them abreast of and courting their feedback. Furnishing documentation for perusing saves time and cuts labor on your email host.
Providing a map to your emplacement can save your receptionist worthful arcminutes on the phone explaining bends and streets, freeing her up for more crucial tasks.
admitting a forum on your internet site could bring folks of a common diligence or interest together to talk over upcoming consequences, current jobs, and other interesting thoughts and opinions. These discussion board* could grow very boastfully very rapidly. And, in the meanwhile, your internet site traffic growths. Stick an advertisement on the forum and bestow in more gross revenue from folks that you already know have conveyed interest in your diligence.
Interested in learning more methods to increase your sales and save net worth?
Visit http://techlh.com/why_web.htm and read our full story, WOW!
MORE RESOURCES:
RELATED ARTICLES
Website Polls For You And Your Visitors
Setting up a survey on your site is extremely simple and many times just as beneficial, for two main reasons. One, they let you create a more interactive website for your visitor.
How to Create A Homepage That Works
Want to know what the worst thing to say on a homepage is?"Welcome to our homepage." And yet, time after time, we all come across such homepages on the Internet.
Should You Bother Learning HTML to Build Webpages?
The most popular method to build webpages today is to use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) software. Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver are prime examples of WYSIWYG software.
Alternative to Web Site Templates and Design Software
Before I discovered the concept of Web site templates, I felt woefully inadequate to build my own site. It was the old "catch-22" where I didn't have the money to pay to have a site built, I needed a site to make the money to have a professional site, and without the knowledge of how to build a site, I had no hope of getting a site.
Website Promotion Ideas: 10 Tips On How To Use Your Picture Effectively To Increase Your Sales
Seeing is believing.One trick to increase your visibility as well as your credibility is to use your photo at your website.
Choose & Use the Best Colors, The Psychology of Color
Are you using the best colors for your web site? Many web designers often overlook the issues of color in web design. When choosing colors for your web site there are three main areas that should be addressed.
Why You Should Use CSS
It seems more and more webmasters are using CSS for the design and layout of their sites rather than depending on tables and HTML mark up. As well as being more efficient in terms of page size and reusing CSS templates many webmasters believe that it also contributes towards search engine friendliness.
5 Powerful Ways To Get Zero Sales From Your Website
I want you to imagine a lemon. In your mind's eye, see its yellow skin.
Differences between XP Icons and MAC Icons
The icons in an application are the soul of the application; they give it the modern and dynamic look the application has. Also, if the icons are intuitive - the end user will easily remember the task behind the icon - easy to memorize then the end users will definitely choose the respective application against one with clogged and strange icons.
Creating a Favicon
Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic in the URL address box) for this Web site, but never did finish the work until now. I used a free program that allowed me to copy and paste an image to create an icon, but I believe it has spyware so I won't share its name.
The Best Simple Software For The Busy Webmaster
Here are a few programs I can't do without. They're free, and make being a webmaster much easier.
Building Your First Web Site?
Before doing anything on the technical side, you need some kind of basic idea to work with. I suggest first getting some paper and a pencil.
How To Boost Your Sales Dramatically Using Dynamic Back-end Strategies
Getting a customer is not easy.Getting a visitor to decide that he or she wants to buy the product or service you're offering, getting out their credit card and giving you their hard-earned money is not a piece of cake.
Website Design: Redecorate Your Web Site To Increase Sales
Getting traffic to your website is not the only factor that affects your sales.Your website has to be powerful enough to convert these traffic and visitors to buyers.
Give Your Web Wite Visitors What They Really Want - Information!
Surfing the internet is basically an information-fest! From intellectual discussions to the bizarre..
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Website design firms come in all shapes and sizes.When choosing which firm you would like to build your website, there are many factors which you need to take into consideration.
Web Page Building for Beginners 2
A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your web pages and places a certain amount of importance on what the content says, but not quite like a human does. A human will place the words together in their head and try to decipher the relevancy to them personally and decide within a few seconds whether they will continue reading or click to another site, whereas a robot counts words and places all relevancy in the numbers it finds.
Bad Design Characteristics For A Website
Making a poorly designed website is one of the easiest things you can do as a webmaster! You barely need to try! If you want to run a successful high traffic website there are many different elements of design that you need to implement, and ones you need to avoid.This article will describe some of the major design flaws in many new websites.
Successful Websites Don't Set Out To Sell
What are websites? Are they sales tools for vendors and service providers, or are they electronic guidance for potential customers? Put simply, are you selling or are you helping?Your answer to this question may determine the success of your website. So think carefully?How we define what a website is all depends on which side of the fence we're on.
Pop-Ups Still Work. At Least For The Time Being
Do you remember playing with the jack-in-the-box toy as a child? You knew that if you kept winding it up, eventually jack was going to burst out of the top and startle you!Many of you found old jack-in-the-box an annoying toy and confined it to the toy box..
Does your internet site make you some revenue? Does it preserve you any income?
internet site* are more than just merchandising tools, out there in Cyber-Land effortlessly advertizing you and your products. Although that's great, why not use that same internet site to save yourself more or less income?
How? Good, while I do not acknowledge your particular billet, I can furnish you with some challenging ideas that you can acquire back to your web architect for more stimulus.
abridge your digest costs.
they are often cheaper, gentler, and more efficient to back up buyers over the cyberspace than through more tradiditonal formulas such as telephony and direct mail. Services such as instant electronic messaging and Get1on1 (www.get1on1.com) provide fast chat facilities to stream and potential clients.
Corporations could support their employees and business collaborators over their corporate intranets, keeping them abreast of and courting their feedback. Furnishing documentation for perusing saves time and cuts labor on your email host.
Providing a map to your emplacement can save your receptionist worthful arcminutes on the phone explaining bends and streets, freeing her up for more crucial tasks.
admitting a forum on your internet site could bring folks of a common diligence or interest together to talk over upcoming consequences, current jobs, and other interesting thoughts and opinions. These discussion board* could grow very boastfully very rapidly. And, in the meanwhile, your internet site traffic growths. Stick an advertisement on the forum and bestow in more gross revenue from folks that you already know have conveyed interest in your diligence.
Interested in learning more methods to increase your sales and save net worth?
Visit http://techlh.com/why_web.htm and read our full story, WOW!
MORE RESOURCES:
RELATED ARTICLES
Website Polls For You And Your Visitors
Setting up a survey on your site is extremely simple and many times just as beneficial, for two main reasons. One, they let you create a more interactive website for your visitor.
How to Create A Homepage That Works
Want to know what the worst thing to say on a homepage is?"Welcome to our homepage." And yet, time after time, we all come across such homepages on the Internet.
Should You Bother Learning HTML to Build Webpages?
The most popular method to build webpages today is to use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) software. Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver are prime examples of WYSIWYG software.
Alternative to Web Site Templates and Design Software
Before I discovered the concept of Web site templates, I felt woefully inadequate to build my own site. It was the old "catch-22" where I didn't have the money to pay to have a site built, I needed a site to make the money to have a professional site, and without the knowledge of how to build a site, I had no hope of getting a site.
Website Promotion Ideas: 10 Tips On How To Use Your Picture Effectively To Increase Your Sales
Seeing is believing.One trick to increase your visibility as well as your credibility is to use your photo at your website.
Choose & Use the Best Colors, The Psychology of Color
Are you using the best colors for your web site? Many web designers often overlook the issues of color in web design. When choosing colors for your web site there are three main areas that should be addressed.
Why You Should Use CSS
It seems more and more webmasters are using CSS for the design and layout of their sites rather than depending on tables and HTML mark up. As well as being more efficient in terms of page size and reusing CSS templates many webmasters believe that it also contributes towards search engine friendliness.
5 Powerful Ways To Get Zero Sales From Your Website
I want you to imagine a lemon. In your mind's eye, see its yellow skin.
Differences between XP Icons and MAC Icons
The icons in an application are the soul of the application; they give it the modern and dynamic look the application has. Also, if the icons are intuitive - the end user will easily remember the task behind the icon - easy to memorize then the end users will definitely choose the respective application against one with clogged and strange icons.
Creating a Favicon
Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic in the URL address box) for this Web site, but never did finish the work until now. I used a free program that allowed me to copy and paste an image to create an icon, but I believe it has spyware so I won't share its name.
The Best Simple Software For The Busy Webmaster
Here are a few programs I can't do without. They're free, and make being a webmaster much easier.
Building Your First Web Site?
Before doing anything on the technical side, you need some kind of basic idea to work with. I suggest first getting some paper and a pencil.
How To Boost Your Sales Dramatically Using Dynamic Back-end Strategies
Getting a customer is not easy.Getting a visitor to decide that he or she wants to buy the product or service you're offering, getting out their credit card and giving you their hard-earned money is not a piece of cake.
Website Design: Redecorate Your Web Site To Increase Sales
Getting traffic to your website is not the only factor that affects your sales.Your website has to be powerful enough to convert these traffic and visitors to buyers.
Give Your Web Wite Visitors What They Really Want - Information!
Surfing the internet is basically an information-fest! From intellectual discussions to the bizarre..
Website Design Firm
Website design firms come in all shapes and sizes.When choosing which firm you would like to build your website, there are many factors which you need to take into consideration.
Web Page Building for Beginners 2
A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your web pages and places a certain amount of importance on what the content says, but not quite like a human does. A human will place the words together in their head and try to decipher the relevancy to them personally and decide within a few seconds whether they will continue reading or click to another site, whereas a robot counts words and places all relevancy in the numbers it finds.
Bad Design Characteristics For A Website
Making a poorly designed website is one of the easiest things you can do as a webmaster! You barely need to try! If you want to run a successful high traffic website there are many different elements of design that you need to implement, and ones you need to avoid.This article will describe some of the major design flaws in many new websites.
Successful Websites Don't Set Out To Sell
What are websites? Are they sales tools for vendors and service providers, or are they electronic guidance for potential customers? Put simply, are you selling or are you helping?Your answer to this question may determine the success of your website. So think carefully?How we define what a website is all depends on which side of the fence we're on.
Pop-Ups Still Work. At Least For The Time Being
Do you remember playing with the jack-in-the-box toy as a child? You knew that if you kept winding it up, eventually jack was going to burst out of the top and startle you!Many of you found old jack-in-the-box an annoying toy and confined it to the toy box..
Basics of Website Designs
Website Basics
The Basics
You have a flourishing business - everything is in its place. You just miss one important piece of marketing: an Internet Presence a website. Like everything in business, getting a website needs planning. Getting an effective website needs even more planning.
Here are some basic things to know and plan:
The WWW
What is the www or the internet? Basically a network of websites from all over the world you can access via your computer for which you need an internet connection and a browser. Internet connections are available from ISPs, and most of the popular browsers are free downloads from the internet. Just like writing/typing an address on a postal envelope, you type the website address in the browser beginning with http://www. and ending with either .com, .net, .org, .biz, .nz, .uk, etc. So if you want to access the microsoft website, you would type http://www.microsoft.com in the browser and hey, presto! You get all the information about microsoft and its products on your browser. Just click on the available links and you are on your way.
Your Website
Your website will be a bunch of pages all linked together via hyperlinks. You can ofcourse have a one-page website or as many pages as you like - depending on the amount of information you want to share with your visitors. Hyperlinks are text or images pointing to another page, just like the heading of this article points to my website.
Your Audience
As the web has grown, so has the types of people who access it and how they access it. As we say, it is impossible to please everybody. It is very difficult to design a website which will be accessible to all. Carefully choose your content and design, keeping in mind who your target audience is and what type of equipment they use. Equipment here means the computer and other hardware and also includes the software used for connecting to the internet and browsing it.
The best way to reach more people is to use pure HTML, and keep the use of scripting languages like JavaScript, Java, and other plug-ins to the minimum. While this may not make your site flashy,stylish or trendy, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that your site is accessible to most of the people. Afterall, that is the whole point of this exercise, right?
Designing your website means knowing your audience and their requirements.
Content is the King
Now that introductions are over, lets get down to the core of your website: Content. The most important aspect of any website, content is the one thing that will keep your visitors at your site and keep bringing them back. The content should depend on what you want to let your visitors know - about the company, the products, the services. Keep the content interesting, updating it often for repeat visitors. Often this can mean providing more details about different aspects in your business, like seasonal discounts, etc. Your visitors will visit your site again and again if the content is relevant, and there is something new everytime they visit.
Layout
A well laid out website will be a successful one. Whether you design the site yourself, or outsource the task to a webdesigner like us, first layout your ideas on paper. Choose text, color and graphics carefully, they all contribute to the page load time. Starting with your Home Page, keep it fast-loading, with a good navigational structure. Try to follow the same layout for the whole website. Change the layout only for different sections and not different pages. If the navigation bar is at the top on your HomePage, keep it at the top in all the other main pages. Consistency in layout is very, very important.
These are just some of the basics about building a website. There are many more, some requiring a article all about themselves. Keep visiting, as I plan to write about as many as I can. Ofcourse, you are welcome to email me your suggestions/comments about what you would like to read about in webdevelopment.
D.zigns dzignerwebs
Tasneem Rangoonwala is the Web Development Co-ordinator in D.zigns Enterprise Solutions, offering web design and related services as a freelancer.
MORE RESOURCES:
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A Beginners Guide to Web Page Design
Designing your own successful web page can seem difficult and nearly impossible if you do not do a little research first. The reason you need to know the basics of web page design is because the design of your website will actually influence whether or not people continue to visit your site and ultimately, whether they will buy from you or not.
Meta Tags - An Introduction
A long, long time ago? In a galaxy far, far away?meta tags were the key component to search engine rankings. Okay, it was about 2 years ago, but that's a long time in the Internet galaxy.
Creating a Basic Web Design Template
A "template" is simply a design format which you can apply to all (or most) of the pages in your web site. The first advantage of using a "template" system is that it allows you to make your most important design decisions at the beginning, and then just focus on content.
How To Create A Professional Website In Less Than A Week
Here's a really simple way..
Business Opportunity for Graphic Designers
As a graphic designer, you are sitting on a gold mine. You have a skill other people do not have, and you can use that skill to earn a good living.
Can Your Visitors Contact You From Your Website
Argh, where's the contact button?! Believe it or not, some websites just DON'T WANT any visitors (even customers) to CONTACT them. There's no email address, no contact form, no NOTHING!What if a potential customer wants to BUY something from your website but have a few questions or doubts that he/she needs to ask you first? If you have a FAQ page, that's the first place he/she will definitely seek answers.
How To Start An Internet Business - Designing For Usefulness
The first step to starting any Internet business is conducting keyword research to determine if there is any interest in your idea. Once you identify a need, it's time to consider what your site should look like.
Winning Websites
Customers will form an opinion of your business as soon as they look at your website. Therefore the same basic rules apply that you use in the production of your brochure and your business card - It needs to grab attention, be easy to read, have a benefit statement, be friendly and make a statement about your business.
Website Design: Color Me Blue
Chris, a new consulting client, asked me to help him increase sales on his affiliate marketing site.As he was describing his site and the problem, I thought, "This is going to be a quick fix.
Has Your Design Firm Run Amuck With Your Web Site?
What's happening to good web site design? Somehow we creative types at interactive and traditional ad agencies have run amuck - we're building web sites that may dazzle the senses, but don't really communicate much about our client's business or products and services!1. Somehow I don't think anyone has a burning desire to spend 30-60 seconds on the Index page of a web site while another fancy Flash animation loads, complete with snazzy graphics, audio, and way cool cutting edge graphics - not!! People want to get real information, not razzle-dazzle graphics showing how great a developer is using the latest whiz bang technology!2.
Website Re-Design?
My site is working fine. The links work.
What Your Website REALLY Says About You And Why It Matters
Everything you say and do says something about you. This has never been more true than in a text based environment like the Internet.
My Top Ten List Of Extremely Annoying Web Page Design Elements!
Easy navigation and usability are one of the most important aspects of creating a "user friendly" website. However, there are still a "plethora" of web-sites out there that are, to be politically correct, "functionally challenged.
Tips For An Effective Website
A successful website is something that everyone venturing into the new arena of Internet marketing and communications wants to have. Your website will often be a potential client's first impression of you and your business.
5 Powerful Ways To Get Zero Sales From Your Website
I want you to imagine a lemon. In your mind's eye, see its yellow skin.
Do You Hate Your Website? Web Site Sales To Hit $316 Billion Over The Next 6 Years
What dollar amount does your web site contribute to this $316 billion dollar trend?Have you spent thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands on your web site only to discover that it attracts more flies than customers?Do you hate your web site, your web developer or your entire IT department?Do not despair! You are not alone!A great web site is crucial in order to effectively communicate to a business's target audience. It is important for Chief Executives and small business owners to pay close attention to the effect that their web site has on their business.
Web Copywriting: The Psychology Of Scarcity, Less Is More If You Want Faster Sales
Countdown to Armageddon - at least you'd think so judging from some of the garish copy and blaring headlines screaming at you from so many websites.At the opposite extreme though, you've some sites which don't even have a single decent headline anywhere that captures visitors attention, let alone leads them into captivating copywriting that'll get them a sale.
Simple Lines and Shapes for Your Logo Design
Geometric designs come in all shapes and sizes? and lines. You can create your logo design or customize your illustration by using simple lines and shapes to create your very own unique image.
How To Use Unsafe Web Colors With Minimum And Safety And Maximum And Profit
Do you want to use unsafe web colors without offending anyone? You can and you can do it by using JavaScript. It will determine which style tag the user uses by looking at whether it can use unsafe colors.
Web Page Building for Beginners 2
A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your web pages and places a certain amount of importance on what the content says, but not quite like a human does. A human will place the words together in their head and try to decipher the relevancy to them personally and decide within a few seconds whether they will continue reading or click to another site, whereas a robot counts words and places all relevancy in the numbers it finds.
The Basics
You have a flourishing business - everything is in its place. You just miss one important piece of marketing: an Internet Presence a website. Like everything in business, getting a website needs planning. Getting an effective website needs even more planning.
Here are some basic things to know and plan:
The WWW
What is the www or the internet? Basically a network of websites from all over the world you can access via your computer for which you need an internet connection and a browser. Internet connections are available from ISPs, and most of the popular browsers are free downloads from the internet. Just like writing/typing an address on a postal envelope, you type the website address in the browser beginning with http://www. and ending with either .com, .net, .org, .biz, .nz, .uk, etc. So if you want to access the microsoft website, you would type http://www.microsoft.com in the browser and hey, presto! You get all the information about microsoft and its products on your browser. Just click on the available links and you are on your way.
Your Website
Your website will be a bunch of pages all linked together via hyperlinks. You can ofcourse have a one-page website or as many pages as you like - depending on the amount of information you want to share with your visitors. Hyperlinks are text or images pointing to another page, just like the heading of this article points to my website.
Your Audience
As the web has grown, so has the types of people who access it and how they access it. As we say, it is impossible to please everybody. It is very difficult to design a website which will be accessible to all. Carefully choose your content and design, keeping in mind who your target audience is and what type of equipment they use. Equipment here means the computer and other hardware and also includes the software used for connecting to the internet and browsing it.
The best way to reach more people is to use pure HTML, and keep the use of scripting languages like JavaScript, Java, and other plug-ins to the minimum. While this may not make your site flashy,stylish or trendy, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that your site is accessible to most of the people. Afterall, that is the whole point of this exercise, right?
Designing your website means knowing your audience and their requirements.
Content is the King
Now that introductions are over, lets get down to the core of your website: Content. The most important aspect of any website, content is the one thing that will keep your visitors at your site and keep bringing them back. The content should depend on what you want to let your visitors know - about the company, the products, the services. Keep the content interesting, updating it often for repeat visitors. Often this can mean providing more details about different aspects in your business, like seasonal discounts, etc. Your visitors will visit your site again and again if the content is relevant, and there is something new everytime they visit.
Layout
A well laid out website will be a successful one. Whether you design the site yourself, or outsource the task to a webdesigner like us, first layout your ideas on paper. Choose text, color and graphics carefully, they all contribute to the page load time. Starting with your Home Page, keep it fast-loading, with a good navigational structure. Try to follow the same layout for the whole website. Change the layout only for different sections and not different pages. If the navigation bar is at the top on your HomePage, keep it at the top in all the other main pages. Consistency in layout is very, very important.
These are just some of the basics about building a website. There are many more, some requiring a article all about themselves. Keep visiting, as I plan to write about as many as I can. Ofcourse, you are welcome to email me your suggestions/comments about what you would like to read about in webdevelopment.
D.zigns dzignerwebs
Tasneem Rangoonwala is the Web Development Co-ordinator in D.zigns Enterprise Solutions, offering web design and related services as a freelancer.
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A Beginners Guide to Web Page Design
Designing your own successful web page can seem difficult and nearly impossible if you do not do a little research first. The reason you need to know the basics of web page design is because the design of your website will actually influence whether or not people continue to visit your site and ultimately, whether they will buy from you or not.
Meta Tags - An Introduction
A long, long time ago? In a galaxy far, far away?meta tags were the key component to search engine rankings. Okay, it was about 2 years ago, but that's a long time in the Internet galaxy.
Creating a Basic Web Design Template
A "template" is simply a design format which you can apply to all (or most) of the pages in your web site. The first advantage of using a "template" system is that it allows you to make your most important design decisions at the beginning, and then just focus on content.
How To Create A Professional Website In Less Than A Week
Here's a really simple way..
Business Opportunity for Graphic Designers
As a graphic designer, you are sitting on a gold mine. You have a skill other people do not have, and you can use that skill to earn a good living.
Can Your Visitors Contact You From Your Website
Argh, where's the contact button?! Believe it or not, some websites just DON'T WANT any visitors (even customers) to CONTACT them. There's no email address, no contact form, no NOTHING!What if a potential customer wants to BUY something from your website but have a few questions or doubts that he/she needs to ask you first? If you have a FAQ page, that's the first place he/she will definitely seek answers.
How To Start An Internet Business - Designing For Usefulness
The first step to starting any Internet business is conducting keyword research to determine if there is any interest in your idea. Once you identify a need, it's time to consider what your site should look like.
Winning Websites
Customers will form an opinion of your business as soon as they look at your website. Therefore the same basic rules apply that you use in the production of your brochure and your business card - It needs to grab attention, be easy to read, have a benefit statement, be friendly and make a statement about your business.
Website Design: Color Me Blue
Chris, a new consulting client, asked me to help him increase sales on his affiliate marketing site.As he was describing his site and the problem, I thought, "This is going to be a quick fix.
Has Your Design Firm Run Amuck With Your Web Site?
What's happening to good web site design? Somehow we creative types at interactive and traditional ad agencies have run amuck - we're building web sites that may dazzle the senses, but don't really communicate much about our client's business or products and services!1. Somehow I don't think anyone has a burning desire to spend 30-60 seconds on the Index page of a web site while another fancy Flash animation loads, complete with snazzy graphics, audio, and way cool cutting edge graphics - not!! People want to get real information, not razzle-dazzle graphics showing how great a developer is using the latest whiz bang technology!2.
Website Re-Design?
My site is working fine. The links work.
What Your Website REALLY Says About You And Why It Matters
Everything you say and do says something about you. This has never been more true than in a text based environment like the Internet.
My Top Ten List Of Extremely Annoying Web Page Design Elements!
Easy navigation and usability are one of the most important aspects of creating a "user friendly" website. However, there are still a "plethora" of web-sites out there that are, to be politically correct, "functionally challenged.
Tips For An Effective Website
A successful website is something that everyone venturing into the new arena of Internet marketing and communications wants to have. Your website will often be a potential client's first impression of you and your business.
5 Powerful Ways To Get Zero Sales From Your Website
I want you to imagine a lemon. In your mind's eye, see its yellow skin.
Do You Hate Your Website? Web Site Sales To Hit $316 Billion Over The Next 6 Years
What dollar amount does your web site contribute to this $316 billion dollar trend?Have you spent thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands on your web site only to discover that it attracts more flies than customers?Do you hate your web site, your web developer or your entire IT department?Do not despair! You are not alone!A great web site is crucial in order to effectively communicate to a business's target audience. It is important for Chief Executives and small business owners to pay close attention to the effect that their web site has on their business.
Web Copywriting: The Psychology Of Scarcity, Less Is More If You Want Faster Sales
Countdown to Armageddon - at least you'd think so judging from some of the garish copy and blaring headlines screaming at you from so many websites.At the opposite extreme though, you've some sites which don't even have a single decent headline anywhere that captures visitors attention, let alone leads them into captivating copywriting that'll get them a sale.
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Web Page Building for Beginners 2
A search engine robot actually reads the wording on your web pages and places a certain amount of importance on what the content says, but not quite like a human does. A human will place the words together in their head and try to decipher the relevancy to them personally and decide within a few seconds whether they will continue reading or click to another site, whereas a robot counts words and places all relevancy in the numbers it finds.
Monday, 9 March 2009
All About Webdesign Information
Web Design Information
Looking for a Web Design Company? Use a Web Design Directory
Your business website tells a lot about your company. A poorly designed website will have your visitors questioning the quality of your business.
Create A Web Site That Builds Trust
If someone doesn't know you personally, will they trust you enough to do business with you just by visiting your web site?Most people view organizations - and web sites - they don't know with great skepticism. Given all the identity theft and viruses running around, people are understandably cautious and somewhat skeptical when they go to a new web site.
Do Your Website Yourself - 4 Simple Steps to Get Your Dreams on the Web
Many people hire professional web site designers for as much as a thousand plus USD! You can, and very easily, make a web site for almost one hundredth of that price, and probably in half the time. Here are 4 easy steps to get you started.
Be Friendly to Search Engines
The object of search engines is to give their visitors a list of web pages relevant to the search words, in the order of relevance to the search words. So what do they want from websites?Relevance to a search:
The frequency of the search word on a web page is an indicator of its relevance.
Web Design Advice And Information
Most of us at times need advice on different aspects of life and the thought of obtaining a website can be quite a daunting task for many people. There are so many people offering cheap web design services, therefore how do you know who to choose and what to look for.
Learn the Truth about Your Web Design Company by Its Portfolio
When you start building your online business and search for a web design company that will implement all your needs for the web site you must understand that it is a very serious step because you are entrusting your business along with its reputation and future.That's why it's very important to make the right choice.
Quality Website Design At An Affordable Price
I always have people asking me if I know of anybody who can build them a website which is affordable but also professional looking. They want the website to be search engine friendly, there is no point in having a website if no one can see it, and fully optimised.
Creating a Favicon
Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic in the URL address box) for this Web site, but never did finish the work until now. I used a free program that allowed me to copy and paste an image to create an icon, but I believe it has spyware so I won't share its name.
Creating Your First Website? Your Options
Creating your own website is great fun! But how is it done? Well, there are five main
options, read this carefully and choose which one you think is best for you!Use software you already have:You may not know this, but you can actually use Microsoft Word to create
webpages! This is great, since you can save yourself the cost of buying expensive
new software. Just create your document as you would do normally, and then just
select "Save As" from the File menu.
Web Publishing Guide for the Beginning Entrepreneur (Part 1)
The best things don't come easy. - QuotedThe finished web pages in your hands could be likened to a painting by Michelangelo without the Sistine Chapel.
How Not To Get Web Design Work
I get the occasional web design lead from my website. I wanted to find a company I could pass these onto.
The Best Simple Software For The Busy Webmaster
Here are a few programs I can't do without. They're free, and make being a webmaster much easier.
Fast Web Design For The Skint Webmaster
About two years ago, I had a go at commercial web site design. I put a medium-sized ad in a London classified ad paper.
Tableless Web Designs: Why I Switched
Since I made the switch 6 months ago to a tableless design on my main site, I've noticed some interesting things:
My search engine rankings have dramatically improved
My bandwidth usage has dropped about 50-75%
I can now make changes to the look and feel of my site easily by just changing the one file, the stylesheet.
Let's look at why my search engine rankings improved.
Why is a Logo so Important to Your Business?
Well, a logo for your business. Why is it important? Does it matter what it looks like? Is Yours Professional?These are some good questions to ask when you are considering to get a logo design or already have a logo for your business.
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How to Create an Enjoyable Web Page Design
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Colors convey emotions and emotions heavily influence the decision-making process. Your choice of colors for your website should mirror the message and feeling you to hope to communicate to the viewer.
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Bad Design Characteristics For A Website
Making a poorly designed website is one of the easiest things you can do as a webmaster! You barely need to try! If you want to run a successful high traffic website there are many different elements of design that you need to implement, and ones you need to avoid.This article will describe some of the major design flaws in many new websites.
Event Planning Must Include An Event Website
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Web Design: How To Get Your Visitors To Stay
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Why a Website Design Speaks Volumes About Your Company?
Whether a business has just got off the ground or has been established for years, start-up and long running companies are looking to the internet to expand their sales as well as service to customers. Many new websites are going up and with so many people opting to go with the cheapest route or the quickest design process, sometimes the quality of a website gets left behind.
Tips on How to Design a Great Site
Have you ever walked pass a shop that, for some reason, you just felt that you had to go in? Maybe it was the décor, or the window display, or the pretty girl, or a combination of all those but something in the shop called out to you, "Come in" and you just had to obey.In the online world, won't it be nice to have a site that buyers just had to buy from, despite themselves? Surfers will be drawn to the "Add to Cart" button that squealed, "Click me!" to them.
Offshore Web Design and Development - Use Great Opportunities
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Web Design is a very subjective process. Your idea of what looks good may differ from the next person's.
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10 Steps to a Winning Homepage!
Ten Steps to a Winning Home Page
There's no doubt about it - the first page your site visitors see is the most important page of your website. If your home page isn't appealing, chances are the rest of your pages will never even be seen by your visitors. It helps to think of your home page as the "front door" to your online business. Will it invite people to come in and look around, or persuade them to take their dollars elsewhere? Here are ten tips for making your home page a winner:
1) Don't keep them waiting. Obey the "Eight Second Rule" (the one that says your Web page should load in eight seconds or less even over slower modems). Otherwise the viewer will probably lose patience and click the "stop" button.
2) Identify yourself. The first order of business is to identify your company and products or services. Let the viewer know they've arrived at the right destination and give them an idea of what you have to offer.
3) Make a good first impression. Your color scheme, design, graphics, and text should all contribute to a favorable first impression and convey the right corporate image. Your site visitors will probably decide within 5 to 10 seconds whether to stay and look around, so you've got to keep them interested.
4) Provide a preview. Use links, text and graphics to give the viewer an idea of your website's contents and encourage them to explore the rest of your site.
5) Don't make a splash. Don't make your first page a "splash page" (meaning a large graphic containing little or no text that's designed to act as a gateway to the rest of your site). Your visitors won't be impressed and neither will the search engines.
6) Lead the way. Provide obvious ways for your visitors to move to the various sections of your website (links, a site map, site search feature, etc.). You want them to come in and look around, so make it easy for them to find their way.
7) Don't waste the space. A monitor screen doesn't give you a lot of space, so use the available space for content with the maximum impact for your home page -your product line, main benefits, competitive advantage, etc.
8) Don't link away. You work hard to get people to visit your home page, so don't lose them right off the bat by giving them the opportunity to link away to another site. Put reciprocal links, ads, etc. on other pages deeper within your site.
9) Start selling. From the moment a visitor arrives at your home page, you should begin leading them toward the sale. Write concise but powerful copy that goes beyond telling to selling and emphasizes benefits to the user. Consider posting a special offer on your opening page.
10) Be kind to search engines. Including accurate title, description, and keyword meta tags in your HTML code, plus relevant content, will go a long way toward getting your site indexed properly by search engines, and that will lead visitors to your virtual doorstep. Remember that many search engines use "spiders" to explore your website automatically, so your home page must include links to the other sections of your website.
Jane McLain is a Web developer and SEO specialist and the webmaster of EClaunchsite.com, an online resource center for netrepreneurs with tools and information to help you plan, build, launch and grow your e-business.
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The Newbie's Guide to Small Business Web Design
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Why You Should Hire a Professional Website Designer
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I am constantly bombarded with all sorts of advertisements, single-page sites, and sites offering very little real content but some wonderful new "product" or "service" for sale that purports to make its customers wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.For the purposes of this article, let's refer to Amazing Formula (http://www.
Do You Make These Common (But Deadly) Website Design Mistakes?
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Ten Steps to a Winning Home Page
There's no doubt about it - the first page your site visitors see is the most important page of your website. If your home page isn't appealing, chances are the rest of your pages will never even be seen by your visitors. It helps to think of your home page as the "front door" to your online business. Will it invite people to come in and look around, or persuade them to take their dollars elsewhere? Here are ten tips for making your home page a winner:
1) Don't keep them waiting. Obey the "Eight Second Rule" (the one that says your Web page should load in eight seconds or less even over slower modems). Otherwise the viewer will probably lose patience and click the "stop" button.
2) Identify yourself. The first order of business is to identify your company and products or services. Let the viewer know they've arrived at the right destination and give them an idea of what you have to offer.
3) Make a good first impression. Your color scheme, design, graphics, and text should all contribute to a favorable first impression and convey the right corporate image. Your site visitors will probably decide within 5 to 10 seconds whether to stay and look around, so you've got to keep them interested.
4) Provide a preview. Use links, text and graphics to give the viewer an idea of your website's contents and encourage them to explore the rest of your site.
5) Don't make a splash. Don't make your first page a "splash page" (meaning a large graphic containing little or no text that's designed to act as a gateway to the rest of your site). Your visitors won't be impressed and neither will the search engines.
6) Lead the way. Provide obvious ways for your visitors to move to the various sections of your website (links, a site map, site search feature, etc.). You want them to come in and look around, so make it easy for them to find their way.
7) Don't waste the space. A monitor screen doesn't give you a lot of space, so use the available space for content with the maximum impact for your home page -your product line, main benefits, competitive advantage, etc.
8) Don't link away. You work hard to get people to visit your home page, so don't lose them right off the bat by giving them the opportunity to link away to another site. Put reciprocal links, ads, etc. on other pages deeper within your site.
9) Start selling. From the moment a visitor arrives at your home page, you should begin leading them toward the sale. Write concise but powerful copy that goes beyond telling to selling and emphasizes benefits to the user. Consider posting a special offer on your opening page.
10) Be kind to search engines. Including accurate title, description, and keyword meta tags in your HTML code, plus relevant content, will go a long way toward getting your site indexed properly by search engines, and that will lead visitors to your virtual doorstep. Remember that many search engines use "spiders" to explore your website automatically, so your home page must include links to the other sections of your website.
Jane McLain is a Web developer and SEO specialist and the webmaster of EClaunchsite.com, an online resource center for netrepreneurs with tools and information to help you plan, build, launch and grow your e-business.
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A Website Checklist
If you've just finished building your new website (or revamping your old one), how can you be sure it's "ready for prime time"? Or maybe your site's been around for awhile and you think it may be due for a makeover. Because Web technologies, techniques and standards change so rapidly, even a website that seems "cutting edge" when it's built can look obsolete a year later. Or maybe you started out with a barebones website and finally have the time and/or money to take it to the next level. If you'd to give your website the once over, here are ten aspects you should consider:
Compatibility: Will your website display correctly for most people regardless of their computer hardware, operating system, browser and monitor resolution? Make sure your site renders properly for as many users as possible. If any features of your website require certain browser plug-ins, provide a download link. Remember that not everyone will have Javascript enabled and that graphics can be turned off by the user; make sure your site will still work without them.
Completeness: None of your website should be "Under Construction". Websites tend to evolve over time and are never truly "finished", but that's no reason for your website look like a construction zone. If you must include pages that aren't completed, at least put some informative content on the page to motivate people to check back later. Otherwise leave out the section altogether until it's ready for prime time.
Content: Do you need to update the text on your site? Have you added services, expanded your product line, targeted new markets, or changed your business strategy? Is your website's description of your company current and accurate, including your contact information? Could the content be written more clearly, convincingly, or succinctly? Could your website be more informative, helpful, interesting or relevant? Would customer testimonials or an FAQ section strengthen your sales message? Check all of your site content for incorrect grammar, spelling errors and typos.
Graphics: Do your graphics contribute to or detract from your website? A website with no graphics would be uninteresting, but a site with too many graphics, animations, and different fonts is overwhelming and distracts from your sales message. The trick is to find the right balance. Use animations sparingly, especially those that "loop" (play over and over). They can easily become annoying and distract from your sales message. Remember that banner ads count as graphics, too, and one or two per page is plenty.
Interactivity: You might consider making your site interactive by adding a mailing list, message board, poll, ezine or guest book. A contest or trivia quiz can attract visitors and bring them back more often. Rotating content like a joke, quote, or tip of the day keeps your website interesting. Don't feel obliged to add all the latest bells and whistles just because you can, but ask yourself whether some advanced features might give your website the edge. If you don't want to provide the content yourself, check into content available from syndicators (just keep it relevant to your target market and your other site content).
Links: Are all the links on your website working? First make sure any links between pages on your site are directing site visitors to the correct page. Check all of your links to other websites, too; the webmaster may have renamed the page or removed it altogether, and those dead links will make your site look unprofessional and frustrate your site visitors. If you've removed some of the pages from your own site, set up a custom 404 page that redirects your visitors to your home page (or a search page) when they try to access a page that no longer exists.
Speed: Does your site load quickly enough in the viewer's browser? The "Eight Second Rule" is a good rule of thumb, meaning no site visitor should have to wait longer than eight seconds to view the opening page of your website. After eight seconds have elapsed, chances are good the viewer will give up and go elsewhere. If you have graphics or animations that take awhile to download, provide some engaging content to hold their interest while they wait. Adding graphic elements always comes at a cost in terms of slower loading times, so only include graphics if they really contribute to visual impact of your website and strengthen your sales message.
Navigation: Is it easy to find information on your site? The opening page should tell visitors, at a glance, who you are, what you do, and how to find what they're looking for. From there your visitors should be able to follow a logical path to learn more about various aspects of your business. If you list products or services on your site, organize them in a logical way. If you decide to use graphic icons instead of text, make sure their meaning is obvious. Make it easy for your site visitors to find what they came for.
Search engine optimization: Is your website optimized to rank for important keywords in the most popular search engines? Double check your page titles and meta tag keywords and descriptions to make sure they are accurate and descriptive. Did you work your keywords into the actual page content as well (including variations)? Is your website focused on a specific theme, and do you have plenty of informative content related to that theme? Is your website spider-friendly (meaning search engine spiders can access every page and read the most important content from the source code)?
Style: Is your website's style consistent with your business goals? Ask yourself what you want your business image to be, and make sure your website enhances that image. Is your company's style polished? Friendly? Trendy? High tech? The look and feel of your site should reflect that style. Does your website still compare favorably with those of your competitors? Your website should reflect favorably on your business and help you to build your corporate image. If yours doesn't, maybe it's due for a makeover.
Usability: Usability refers to how easily site visitors can use your site. The best measure of usability is feedback from users -the people who visit and try to navigate the site. If you have received complaints, comments, questions, or suggestions from site visitors, change your site accordingly. Of course, dissatisfied customers won't always let you know. That's why you should also analyze your Web logs to see whether visitors quickly abandon certain pages or don't visit some of your pages at all. Think in terms of building pathways through your site that visitors can follow. A well-designed website leads visitors deeper into the site without frustrating or confusing them and doesn't lose them along the way.
Jane McLain is a Web developer and SEO specialist and the webmaster of EClaunchsite.com, an online resource center for netrepreneurs with tools and information to help you plan, build, launch and grow your e-business.
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Compatibility: Will your website display correctly for most people regardless of their computer hardware, operating system, browser and monitor resolution? Make sure your site renders properly for as many users as possible. If any features of your website require certain browser plug-ins, provide a download link. Remember that not everyone will have Javascript enabled and that graphics can be turned off by the user; make sure your site will still work without them.
Completeness: None of your website should be "Under Construction". Websites tend to evolve over time and are never truly "finished", but that's no reason for your website look like a construction zone. If you must include pages that aren't completed, at least put some informative content on the page to motivate people to check back later. Otherwise leave out the section altogether until it's ready for prime time.
Content: Do you need to update the text on your site? Have you added services, expanded your product line, targeted new markets, or changed your business strategy? Is your website's description of your company current and accurate, including your contact information? Could the content be written more clearly, convincingly, or succinctly? Could your website be more informative, helpful, interesting or relevant? Would customer testimonials or an FAQ section strengthen your sales message? Check all of your site content for incorrect grammar, spelling errors and typos.
Graphics: Do your graphics contribute to or detract from your website? A website with no graphics would be uninteresting, but a site with too many graphics, animations, and different fonts is overwhelming and distracts from your sales message. The trick is to find the right balance. Use animations sparingly, especially those that "loop" (play over and over). They can easily become annoying and distract from your sales message. Remember that banner ads count as graphics, too, and one or two per page is plenty.
Interactivity: You might consider making your site interactive by adding a mailing list, message board, poll, ezine or guest book. A contest or trivia quiz can attract visitors and bring them back more often. Rotating content like a joke, quote, or tip of the day keeps your website interesting. Don't feel obliged to add all the latest bells and whistles just because you can, but ask yourself whether some advanced features might give your website the edge. If you don't want to provide the content yourself, check into content available from syndicators (just keep it relevant to your target market and your other site content).
Links: Are all the links on your website working? First make sure any links between pages on your site are directing site visitors to the correct page. Check all of your links to other websites, too; the webmaster may have renamed the page or removed it altogether, and those dead links will make your site look unprofessional and frustrate your site visitors. If you've removed some of the pages from your own site, set up a custom 404 page that redirects your visitors to your home page (or a search page) when they try to access a page that no longer exists.
Speed: Does your site load quickly enough in the viewer's browser? The "Eight Second Rule" is a good rule of thumb, meaning no site visitor should have to wait longer than eight seconds to view the opening page of your website. After eight seconds have elapsed, chances are good the viewer will give up and go elsewhere. If you have graphics or animations that take awhile to download, provide some engaging content to hold their interest while they wait. Adding graphic elements always comes at a cost in terms of slower loading times, so only include graphics if they really contribute to visual impact of your website and strengthen your sales message.
Navigation: Is it easy to find information on your site? The opening page should tell visitors, at a glance, who you are, what you do, and how to find what they're looking for. From there your visitors should be able to follow a logical path to learn more about various aspects of your business. If you list products or services on your site, organize them in a logical way. If you decide to use graphic icons instead of text, make sure their meaning is obvious. Make it easy for your site visitors to find what they came for.
Search engine optimization: Is your website optimized to rank for important keywords in the most popular search engines? Double check your page titles and meta tag keywords and descriptions to make sure they are accurate and descriptive. Did you work your keywords into the actual page content as well (including variations)? Is your website focused on a specific theme, and do you have plenty of informative content related to that theme? Is your website spider-friendly (meaning search engine spiders can access every page and read the most important content from the source code)?
Style: Is your website's style consistent with your business goals? Ask yourself what you want your business image to be, and make sure your website enhances that image. Is your company's style polished? Friendly? Trendy? High tech? The look and feel of your site should reflect that style. Does your website still compare favorably with those of your competitors? Your website should reflect favorably on your business and help you to build your corporate image. If yours doesn't, maybe it's due for a makeover.
Usability: Usability refers to how easily site visitors can use your site. The best measure of usability is feedback from users -the people who visit and try to navigate the site. If you have received complaints, comments, questions, or suggestions from site visitors, change your site accordingly. Of course, dissatisfied customers won't always let you know. That's why you should also analyze your Web logs to see whether visitors quickly abandon certain pages or don't visit some of your pages at all. Think in terms of building pathways through your site that visitors can follow. A well-designed website leads visitors deeper into the site without frustrating or confusing them and doesn't lose them along the way.
Jane McLain is a Web developer and SEO specialist and the webmaster of EClaunchsite.com, an online resource center for netrepreneurs with tools and information to help you plan, build, launch and grow your e-business.
MORE RESOURCES:
RELATED ARTICLES
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Don't mess with those links! When you're designing your site, you should leave your text links in their natural state--blue and underlined. We all want to be creative and not do the bland, expected, normal thing.
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Designing a website is hard job, and requires you to think out a plan of action, and put in a lot of work to make it successful. There are many different kinds of websites on the Internet, but if you look at all the top performers with high traffic, you will notice that they all have similar design characteristics which place them as the best in the world.
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Did you know that many folks make "buying decisions" when they are moved emotionally? Other traditional medias have made the most of these principles and taken advantage of them for many years, whether it be a TV commercial or an ad in a magazine. People are emotional beings and people make decisions (either good or bad) when they are emotional.
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Before you take a road trip it is usually a good idea to know where you are going. It is the same when you are building a business, creating a marketing plan or building your web site.
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The internet continues to grow and has become the default point of call for businesses and individuals searching for goods, services or information. For businesses wishing to get that competitive advantage, a multilingual website now presents one of the most high impact means of expanding a client base and securing greater sales volumes.
Web Design for Ecommerce
Your website is your tool for showing the online community an image of your Drop Ship retail business. Whether or not your business succeeds depends heavily on your website.
How Do You Make A Website?
No, that's not the real question. The real question is "How in the Heck Do You Make a Website???"You do not have to buy software.
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Your website design may be affecting your sales in ways that you may not believe.Here are a few website design tips to help you improve your website and ad copy for greater profitability:1.
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The icons in an application are the soul of the application; they give it the modern and dynamic look the application has. Also, if the icons are intuitive - the end user will easily remember the task behind the icon - easy to memorize then the end users will definitely choose the respective application against one with clogged and strange icons.
Small Business Website Design - How to Get Professional Results on a Shoestring Budget
Just because you are a small business with an even smaller website design budget, does not mean that you cannot have a professional looking website and presence on the web. All it means is you will have to do some of the work yourself instead of paying some design firm to do it for you.
Simplify Your Web Site for Clarity and Ease of Use
There are plenty of web sites out there in which basic elements of design are ignored. The viewer may experience overkill and frustration, instead of gently receiving the message or information.
Creating a Compelling Headline for Your Private Practice Website
Your home page is the most important page of your website. It is the one that will determine what your potential client or customer does after they arrive (i.
Why You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site
Congratulations! You've got a brand new site and it's doing pretty well. You check your statistics every day and the hits and page views keep climbing, your links are all in order and everything looks very good.
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