Yahoo SEO Techniques
Regular, Fresh Content Is King
You’ve probably heard the saying that “content is king” and this is even truer when considering Yahoo optimization. The more content you provide the better. This may mean making regular additions to your site but it will generate the kind of results you are looking for. Blogs are also a very good way to continue adding relevant content to your site that Yahoo will smile down on.About this author
How to Optimize for Yahoo!
With a reported 22.1% of search traffic Yahoo is second only to Google’s 64.4% (src: Hitwise) for search user volume so it is extremely important not to forget that attaining a top ranking in Yahoo can be a big boon to the bottom line. As a result, I decided to write this update on how to attain superior rankings in Yahoo using today’s useful tools and tactics.
OVERVIEW: Optimizing for Yahoo!
Algorithmically Yahoo is Google’s much younger sibling. I say this because many of the requirements for a successful ranking mirror Google’s requirement about 4 years ago and they sum up to one distinct fact; optimize your content boldly on Yahoo and you will be rewarded. When I say “boldly” I do not mean use SPAM; by nature SPAM and optimization do not mix… they are two entirely separate concepts (black and white in fact).
The following are the current generalized specifications for achieving solid rankings in Yahoo.
WEB SITE OPTIMIZATION
SEO tactics have not changed a great deal over the past 10 years I have been an SEO. In general terms the only effect time has had on SEO is to vary the intensity of the optimization for particular page elements. That is the rub of course; some search engines appreciate the optimization of particular page elements over others. In the case of Yahoo, this old property with a relatively young algorithm tends to favour the following elements:
Title Tag: Keep your title tag as short as 5 small-medium sized words and include one complete incidence of your keyphrase. Yahoo! blatantly favours sites that include the keyphrase in the title tag. For an example check out “car sales” or for that matter any phrase. Within the top 10 results you will notice that the majority of sites listed will include at least one incidence of the keyphrase or a crucial portion of it (i.e. “cars”). The ones that do not include the keyphrase tend to be sites that have are extremely popular so even basic title tag optimization is not required to attain a top ranking.
Meta Description Tag: Start this tag with an incidence of your keyphrase and then produce a short 15 – 18 small-medium sized word sentence clearly describing your site. Include one more incidence of your keyphrase in the sentence. Keep in mind that the description tag is often utilized as the description for any rankings you achieve so it is best to make it alluring.
Meta Keyword Tag: Keyword tags have long been considered ineffective and no longer have any importance on Google; however Yahoo does still consider the keyword tag so it cannot hurt to include it. The keyword tag should start with the keyphrase and then all following words or phrases should be ordered according to their relevance to your website; place the most important ones up front. The max size of a keyword tag should be 250 characters – comma-delimited. Do not over repeat words; no more than 3 repetitions of a single word within the tag.
Keywords in URL: Create keyword-based filenames that closely represent the content within the file. Yahoo rewards keyword-based filenames a small amount – perhaps enough to push past your competition.
Headings: Heading 1 and 2 tags should be applied on every page where appropriate to embolden the relevance of the page. In other words, use the page’s keyphrase within a Heading 1 tag to further enhance the visibility of the keyphrase on the page.
Alt text for images: Don’t forget to provide appropriate ALT text for each image on your website. The ALT text must not provide information that is already written on the website. ALT text is supposed to provide a clear and concise description of what the image is. Fortunately this means that adding an incidence of the keyphrase or a portion of the keyphrase is totally appropriate which can add slightly more credibility to your page score when Yahoo’s crawler (Slurp) indexes the page.
Inline Links: In the midst of your page it is beneficial to include links to related pages from related content. These links will apply relevance to the linked page; which is optimized for the same keyphrase you linked from.
Site Structure: Site structure is a vital component to ranking success on Yahoo; especially in competitive marketplaces where every advantage is required to reach the top. One method that would be successful at Yahoo (and happens to work as well on the other major search engines) is a tried and true technique that revolves around the linear progression of related content throughout the website; it is commonly known as Themeing. The following example should shed some light on this subject:
Your site is a car sales site focused on Audi. In order to create a linear site structure you would focus each section of the site on an individual relevancy. Say you pick “Audi A5” as the relevant topic (see Figure 1.0). As you move deeper into the Audi A5 section you only see A5 relevant content. The search engine spider and your users will not be distracted by links to other vehicles – only information on the A5. This progresses as you proceed deeper into this arm of the website and because this section of the site is utterly focused on the subject “Audi A5” the odds of achieving a ranking for that term increase considerably.
LINKS
When building links for Yahoo concentrate on quality not quantity. Quality links would be one way links from sites that specialize in content directly relevant to the content on your own website. Building these links can be done by creating content and syndicating it to your own industry for link love and to build credibility. In addition, if your website is a worthwhile resource it is entirely reasonable to tell the world about your site in order to build links; hopefully they will link to you because they like your site so much.
Finally, there is another tactic that has mixed results; send out press releases once a month using PRWeb or an associated press release agency. A good press release can easily build the links you need in no time at all. Unfortunately the mixed results I noted occur when press releases inevitably become archived, at which point the link relevance will fade. As a result, link building with press releases is only useful as an ongoing practice and should be considered a small facet of a robust link building campaign.
SITE EXPLORER SETTINGS
Yahoo’s Site Explorer is a fantastic tool for monitoring your website(s) and running basic link reports. If you have not already done so you should create an account at Site Explorer and then validate your website (prove you own it) so that you can manage the information Yahoo has for your website. Once you have validated your website I have noted some Site Explorer functionality that may help your website perform on Yahoo:
> Make certain to create a sitemap and submit it to Yahoo:
If you haven’t already done so use a XML sitemap generator to create a sitemap for your website and then submit it to Yahoo using the “Add Feed” form within your website’s Site Explorer profile.
> Removing unnecessary dynamic content from your URLs with new add-on within Site Explorer:
Does your URLs content session ID’s or other dynamic content that is unnecessary within the URL? If so, this information can be indexed by the search engines and ultimately can cause havoc with your rankings. Thankfully Yahoo has implemented a new tool within the Site Explorer domain management section called “Dynamic URLs Beta”. Here are the instructions to use the Dynamic URLs tool.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
After reviewing our notes from current and previous Yahoo promotions and taking a look at a variety of top 10 results the following points appeared noteworthy:
> Ensure open indexing by using Robots.txt wisely
> A lot of our client’s older content appears to be sticking to top rankings with little or no monthly tweaking. As a result, I think it is fair to assume that fresh content is not currently gaining much weight in the Yahoo algorithm.
> In many cases top ranking sites have pushed the envelope and their sites border on SPAM. Considering the top ranking these sites have it appears Yahoo’s SPAM filters are far less sensitive than Google’s. I expect Yahoo will change this in the near future but then again I have been surprised how long this has been the status quo.
> One common claim throughout forums is that achieving a placement in the Yahoo Directory provides an instant boost to Yahoo rankings. Unfortunately we have not seen conclusive evidence that the annual $299 fee will increase rankings dramatically in the short term. That said, I strongly believe that a Yahoo Directory placement is a very reputable incoming link that does pay dividends in the long run at any search engine that weighs incoming links (the ones that count).
> Yahoo Search Submit was re-introduced back in February 2007 to significant criticism due to the potential favouritism to those who pay to get into the Yahoo index. Despite the negative feedback there appears to be some potential benefits to paying for submission. For one, in July I noted an interesting story where a website was banned from Yahoo and the webmaster got the site back into Yahoo’s index by paying for inclusion ([url=http://news.stepforth.com/blog/2007/07/banned-from-yahoo-just-pay-to-get-back.php]“Banned from Yahoo?”[url]). A second reason Search Submit may be worthwhile is the guarantee that your site will be indexed. Furthermore, the Yahoo’s Search Submit Pro service allows you to recommend your own title and description tags for each page submitted and to submit pages that may not normally be indexed by Slurp.
About this author
Ross Dunn is the founder and CEO of StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc. Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, StepForth has provided professional search engine placement and management services since 1997. Ross is a search engine optimization and placement expert with over 9 years of marketing experience and is a Certified Internet Marketing and Business Strategist (CIMBS). Blending his experience in the art of web design and search engine optimization, Ross offers a unique and informed perspective on obtaining top search engine placements. Ross can be reached at ross@stepforth.com
How to Optimize for MSN
Last week I discussed the best tactics for achieving rankings in Yahoo, the web’s number 2 most popular search engine. Now it is time to pick on the third most used search property – MSN, which has 6.6% of the search market (src: Hitwise) and is currently found at www.live.com. MSN’s ranking algorithm has its own nuances which will be noted in this article but in many cases the rules of optimization may be the same as Yahoo’s in which case I will occasionally duplicate information from my “How to Optimize for Yahoo” article or source it for more information.
WEB SITE OPTIMIZATION
Except for the following elements, optimizing for MSN is identical to optimizing for Yahoo.
Fresh Content is King: I suppose technically this is not an element of ‘optimization’, however, this article would not be worth its salt if I didn’t express how highly MSN regards fresh content. If your site is in a competitive marketplace and you are finding it difficult to get a leg up on your competitors in MSN then write original content in order to build up your site and reputation. MSN appears to elevate websites that regularly update their content and a blog is a great way to post this content for others to read and favour you with links. If you would like some information on how to get a blog up and running from start to finish then I suggest reading Blogs 101.
Themed structure: this topic is identical to that of my Yahoo article, however, it is vital enough to mention it again. Construct your website using a themed structure where core site topics (themes) have their own unique section of the website to themselves. When the search engine spiders index the content within this section they will be given absolute clarity as to what the section is about. For more information see the example within the Yahoo Optimization article.
Basic optimization principles hold true: take out your SEO basics handbook and follow the rules when optimizing for MSN and you have done the best you can. Specifically focus on inline links (links to pages within sentences) and the use of heading tags to fortify rankings at MSN.
Navigation: pages with text navigation which lends itself to simpler and more relevant indexing are performing well.
WEB SITE SUBMISSION
Unlike Google and Yahoo, MSN does not yet have a fully operational Webmaster Central for webmasters to submit sitemaps and to acquire insight into their website profile on MSN; it is currently in private beta so it is not available yet. That said I feel that submitting a website sitemap is extremely important. Fortunately there are two known ways to get your sitemap submitted to MSN:
Option 1) The best method for submitting your sitemap is by adding a sitemap reference in your Robots.txt file using the following format:
Sitemap: http://www.xyzname.com/sitemap.xml
Option 2) A back-door strategy can be used to submit your sitemap to MSN through the news aggregation service called Moreover. To submit your sitemap substitute the bolded text with your own information in the following URL:
http://api.moreover.com/ping?u=http://www.xyzname.com/sitemap.xml
LINK BUILDING
MSN places a great deal of weight on incoming links and does not appear to apply as many filters to the links that Google or Yahoo do. As a result, ethical or not, many link building strategies such as reciprocal link building and paid links appear to pay dividends.
It is also noteworthy that MSN’s spider is very active so any incoming links that you receive will often be spidered within a week. Furthermore, MSN’s link filtering systems are not as bogged down as the other search engines (less traffic perhaps?) so incoming links appear to affect rankings faster which tends to help when tweaking a campaign and measuring the value of links.
CONCLUSION
As you can see there is little to report on the intricacies of optimizing for MSN because, quite frankly, MSN is fairly predictable and by the book; write good original content, optimize it well using the techniques outlined in the Yahoo optimization tutorial and ensure to submit your sitemap to MSN. If you combine those elements with a solid link building campaign then you are sure to move into a ranking where you can continue to tweak your optimization until you reach the top.
About this author
Ross Dunn is the founder and CEO of StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc. Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, StepForth has provided professional search engine placement and management services since 1997. Ross is a search engine optimization and placement expert with over 9 years of marketing experience and is a Certified Internet Marketing and Business Strategist (CIMBS). Blending his experience in the art of web design and search engine optimization, Ross offers a unique and informed perspective on obtaining top search engine placements. Ross can be reached at ross@stepforth.com
13 Tips to Design Your Links
It is a fact that links have always been a vital part in the internet navigational process. Depending on the links and also on the content of the site that the link leads to, internet users decide on the worthiness of coming back to that site or not.
One cannot fail to notice the latest trends imposed by web 2.0 -- the emergence of a new writing genre designed to cater for the new needs and tastes of internet users and also the transformation process that search engines undergo.
Broadly speaking, users go from page to page selecting only the most important information or just the information that is easier to spot; they need to be able to make a quick assessment of the page content, get the information they are seeking and go to another page.
Usually, web authors employ hypertext links to create or reinforce concepts: a list of related links can serve as the focus of a site. The problem posed by links has little to do with the web but is rather related to the concept of hypertext. A collection of links does not have the same effect on the reader and is not as legible as conventional linear text.
In the case of linear text, readers have to work harder in seek of needed information. Links also become a technical problem, because most web pages have a certain rank on search engines due to links. Links are to be used as a reinforcement of, not a substitute for content.
What is worth mentioning when tackling the link issue is that designers are supposed to use relevant link labels, give consistent clickability cues and also differentiate links that have been clicked from those that haven't.
1. Use relevant link description
Users' confusion must be avoided at all costs. In this respect, they should be able to look at every link and be able to predict to some extent the destination or the website they are about to visit. A negative example in this case is using the label - Click here-, which is rather confusing and does not provide any kind of information about the link destination.
Another relevant case is that of embedded links -- when employing embedded links, the link text should accurately designate the link's direction. Users have a certain tendency towards ignoring the text surrounding embedded links; consequently, it is recommended that you should not create embedded links that use the surrounding text in order to provide hints about the link's destination.
2. Be aware that textual links do have certain main characteristics like: underlining and color.
The second trait is not as important as the first one, i.e. underline can be eliminated in some cases like the one when an area functionality is absolutely obvious - for instance, we could think of a site menu where everybody expects a content summary as a presentation.
Thus, you should provide users with sufficient clickability cues. Trying to put the cursor over different parts of the page is time consuming and not quite "affordable" with a view to gain more traffic. At the same time, it's worth keeping in mind that there area certain clickability expectancies regarding different regions of a web page; for instance, items on the center, left, right side have a high probability of being links.
3. Use different colors for visited and unvisited links
Links that were clicked must differentiate one way or another from the ones that were not; the best way of doing that is the color contrast; links are supposed to stand out on the computer screen as much as possible; in this respect, bright, vivid colors are preferable - links should differentiate from linear text in any case.
Conversely, links that were already clicked should employ a rather pale and "washed" color. The effect of using different colors but both at the same level of chromatic intensity might result in a failure to establish a concrete content relationship between those links, users won't be able to tell visited from non-visited links.
Even though some compromises would be acceptable (like using other colors), using blue for text is an exception. Blue is a color with the most notable perceived affordance of clickability.
4. Colors for text are to be avoided
It is recommended that colors should be used for hyperlinks only. Nevertheless, there are generally recognized and allowed colors for certain words such as red for "error" or green for "ok". Technically speaking, when referring to document colors, it is advisable that you specify all of the colors (BGCOLOR, TEXT, LINK, VLINK, ALINK), to ensure an enjoyable and legible composition. Find out more about choosing the right colors for your web site.
The main reason reinforcing this idea is that some users may have certain colors set as default, so if you don't specify all the colors of a document, they may end up with an illegible document. In addition, even when using a background image, you should still specify BGCOLOR, because the user may not have the image loading on.
5. Don't use "special effects" when the cursor hovers over a link
As previously clarified, underlined text is the most obvious hint that the user deals with a hyperlink. Still, there are some particular cases when you might not employ underlined text for hyperlinks without major loss in usability. For instance, you could indicate clickability only when the user hovers over a link - let's say that a text gets underlined only after being hovered, as a sign of clickability.
Nevertheless, using bold effects is not advisable due to the prospect that the text might realign. On the contrary, other effects like link titles could prove quite successful in creating a useful website (in terms of navigational usability). Not until recently, users had a lot of trouble because they weren't aware of the direction of certain links. In order to respond to the users' needs, some browsers included in their features a slight preview of the link direction. The effect of this inclusion was a notable reduction in users' disorientation. Therefore, you shouldn't miss them when providing a hyperlink; also, they are quite easy to add.
6. Ensure that the text is big enough and that the links are not too close together
Internet users should reach a certain destination voluntarily, not because of the fact that due to link size they missed to click on the link they wanted. This rule might be skipped in the case of legal information in which people are not so interested. At the same time, this advice should be given due consideration in case some of the people targeted belong to the third age.
7. Be sure to make important content accessible from more than one link.
Setting several ways to access the same information will certainly help users to find what they need. Different users might attempt different ways to find information, depending on their own interpretations of a problem and on the layout of a page. Some users find important links easily when they have a certain label, while others may recognize the link best with an alternative name. Read more about how can you gain site accessibility.
8. Employ text links rather than image links
By and large and as mentioned before, text links do have a greater perceived affordance of clickability. Text links usually have a faster download speed, are preferred by users, and should change colors after being selected.
Even judging from a technical point of view, it is usually easier to place a link's destination in text, rather than using an image. In many situations, users demonstrated considerable confusion concerning whether or not certain images were clickable.
9. Employ sensible link lengths
Hyperlinks should be long enough to be understood by users and short enough to minimize wrapping. Generally speaking, it is advisable that links do not have a grater length than one line. As far as this issue is concerned, studies showed that when users scan prose text, links of nine to ten words do have best performance.
10. Try to warn visitors in case they leave the page
It is best for internet users to be able to realize when they are going to leave the site and head for another. Generally, users expect, when given a link, to head for a new page that belongs to the same site. In case this does not happen, they will become confused. So, the bottom line is that, when building a site, people should take into consideration the prospect of giving visitors warnings when they would leave a certain site.
11. Provide links on your website to helpful information
It would improve navigation on your web site, if you were to give hyperlinks to further definitions, explanations or descriptions. So the main purpose of these links would be to clarify certain concepts so that less experienced users can successfully use the web site.
12. The problem posed by reserved characters
This is a rather technical problem: certain characters are reserved and need encoding in a hexadecimal format in order to be used as URLs. Some browsers may show these characters properly anyway, but this is not indicative of the fact that these characters should be used without encoding in any browser.
For instance, spaces are seen as special characters and consequently, they should be encoded. By and large, it is recommended that you should avoid the use of characters that may require encoding. At the same time, another problem that might cause some trouble is that of URL case sensitivity. It is recommended that you make them case sensitive from the beginning to avoid changing them when you move from one server to another.
13. Create a logical link order
Don't forget that this could turn into a major downside for your site if this rule is missed. You should keep in mind that grouping related links in a certain section is of vital importance.
It seems that when visiting a web page, most screen reader users expect at least the main site navigation menu presenting the main sections of the web page before the content of the page.
There is little evidence to support the idea that screen reader users would rather have the content presented first. It is highly desirable however, to present the content of the page before extraneous information, such as advertisements and related links, as well as the page footer.
10 Useful Tips To Attract People To Your Web Site
Combinations of two or more of the tips below are being used by many successful sites today. Use your imagination and see what you can do with them. Because there are so many web sites on the internet today visitors are spread quite thinly and web traffic is one of the scarcest commodities on the internet today. Without it your online business does not exist.
1. Give people a free subscription to your newsletter. Almost everyone is publishing a newsletter nowadays so it is important to give something extra with the free subscription. You need to set yourself apart from the other internet marketers out there. This might be done by offering a gift or free advertising when people subscribe.
2. Provide visitors with new and original content. Your content will be more attractive to your visitors if it is up-to-date or original. You could also offer people the option to reprint the content in their newsletter or web site. You will need to change your content frequently if you do this. But the benefits are worth the effort. The search engines will love your site and keep coming back. Your site will rank highly in their results and your visitors will keep coming back for the latest updates.
3. Use PPC directories. You can advertise in pay per click directories. With PPC you only pay when some one clicks on your link. If no one clicks you pay nothing. This method is very good if you are selling a product at your site. It is easy to assess the cost of each sale and measure you success.
There are lots of PPC sites out there now. Google and Yahoo! are not the only ones. You can often get a better deal at these other sites depending on the competition for the keyword you are using. Shop around. There is probably a site out there with your keyword going cheap. But, Make sure that it can deliver the traffic. You can do this by checking its Alexa rank. If it is not getting much traffic itself, how is it going to direct traffic to you?
4. Give visitors a free ebook. You could write your own and include an ad in the ebook linking to your site and allow other people to sell it or give it away. If you don't want to take the time to write one, you could ask other writers permission to use their articles and assemble an article eBook. Or commission an eBook. There are plenty of writers around willing to write a fresh eBook for you at a fair price.
5. Hold free online classes or seminars. They could be held in your web site's chat room. The idea of "live" information will entice people to visit your web site. You will become known as an expert on the topic.
6. Offer free consulting to your web site visitors. You could do this via e-mail or by telephone. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive. Use a separate business line if you use the phone or you will have calls coming in to your home phone around the clock as the world turns. If your site becomes known for this service you may need to employ people to help keep up. If this happens you can bring in a two tier system whereby you have a free service and a paid service offering something extra.
7. Give visitors a free entry into a contest. The prizes should be something of interest or value to your visitors or relevant to your site's topics. Most people who enter will continually revisit your web site to get the results. Do not be discouraged if the first one or two contests do not set the world on fire. The word has to get out. People will talk to their friends about this site that is running this great contest, and before too long your site will have a name for running contests. There are people out there who really go for that sort of thing and will visit your site regularly.
8. Let visitors download free software. It could be freeware, shareware, demos etc. You could even turn part of your site into a free software area and let other people sell it or give it away from this area. You do not need to produce the free software yourself. There are plenty of sources on the web. All you have to do is link to them. If you gather a significant amount of software of a type relevant to the topic of your site you will make your site a valuable resource for your visitors and they will keep coming back to get more.
9. Offer free online services or utilities. They could be search engine submitting, copy writing proofreading etc. The service or utility should be helpful to your target audience.
10. Give your visitors a free membership to an online club. People like to feel that they belong to something, why not your online club. You could also give away a free newsletter for club members only. The members will very likely want to contribute a large part of its content making it easy to source articles. If you offer them a link back to their own site your members will be queuing up to put content in your newsletter.
It goes without saying that all of the above should be relevant to the topic of your site in order to be of interest to your visitors. Do not keep changing the topic of your site. I see this happening all too often. The webmaster has a site for three months or so and becomes disheartened because his site not taken off as he hoped, so he decides to try a different topic.
Doing so he / she loses the regular visitors he / she had and has to start at the beginning again in the new topic. Also, the search engines will very likely be slow to change to the new topic, confusing everyone who visits from there. It may also affect the PR of the site as the new topic may initially be viewed as unrelated content.
10 reasons to hire a professional designer.
- A Web Site is Your Online Representative
- Would you build your brick and mortar shop and do all of the signs and interior decorating yourself? Most of us would not; we would hire professionals to give us the best image possible. Your web site acts as your business card and/or online shop. It acts as a direct representative of you and your business. If your web site doesn’t have the professional image you need, you are losing customers. If first impressions are so important, why would you want to scare your potential customers away in the first second?
- Professionalism
- When you hire a professional designer, not only do they know how to give you a beautiful image, but also how to give you the image that’s right for your business and industry. A skilled designer should know the ins and outs of marketing as well as creativity. An effective web site should be unique, be pleasant on the eye, have clear and easy navigation, load efficiently, and work properly in all the major browsers.
- Saving Time
- Hiring a professional web designer instead of making the web site yourself will save you a lot of time, energy, and frustration. There is a large learning curve in order to make effective web sites and there are many aspects to web development much beyond learning HTML which makes it a full time job. A professional web developers is skilled and up-to-date in several areas including Marketing, SEO, Communication, HTML, CSS, Photo Optimization, Search Engine Optimization, Java Script, and possibly several other languages like Flash, PHP and others.
- Getting Ahead of the Competition
- As you may well know, competition is as fierce in the internet as it is in the physical world. If your competitors have a web presence before you do, they are already a step ahead of you. But, if you launch a new web site that is more effective than theirs, you will have the extra edge. Not only does a well-built web site give a good first impression, it also will give your customers a reason to trust your business over that of your competitors.
- Uniqueness and Customization
- There are about 56,000,000 web sites on the internet as of November 2004 according to netscape.com. How are you going to make yours stand out? Buying a nice template can be a quick and cheap solution, but you may risk having your web site look like several others. Furthermore, many features that you may require for your web site including contact forms, galleries, forums, and other special scripts are simply not available with pre-made templates. If you have a web site built with a pre-made template and in the future you want to expand it, you may have to rebuild the whole site again to include the added features that you need.
- Communicating Your Message
- A professional web designer is experienced in knowing how to properly communicate your message. They are skilled at marketing and are concerned, above all, with how to effectively communicate your message by organizing your information in a digestible manner as well as communicating your message through the use of colors, fonts, shapes, layouts, and more to convey the message you want to represent for your business.
- Attention
- A nice web site designed by a professional designer will bring attention to your business. Not only does a nice web site attract new customers, it will also bring professional attention from your peers or potential advertisers that you may be in search of. Word-of-mouth and good referrals are some of the most powerful marketing tools there are.
- Search Engine Optimization
- One of the most important factors about a web site is its presence in the search engines. It is useless to have the nicest web site in the world if it doesn’t have a good presence in the search engine listings. Good search engine ranking are important because they are usually the number one way potential customers will find you on the internet. They also act as a free and effective advertising tool. A professional web designer will know how to develop your web site to make it fair decently in search engine listings by building it search engine-friendly from the bottom up. This is the most effective and ethical way to insure top rankings for your web site.
- Browser Compatibility
- Browser incompatibility occurs when a web site doesn’t show the same way or appears “broken” to site visitors on different browsers. The reason for this is that different browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Safari, etc.) have different standards for displaying web pages. What looks perfectly fine in one browser may show up as a jumbled mess in another. Professional web designers are skilled at knowing how to make web sites display properly on a variety of browsers. A good web designer will test and construct your web site across browsers, insuring that the majority of people on different browsers can see your web site the way it should be.
- Making the Difference between Personal and Commercial Web Sites
- There is a huge difference between a home page and a professional web site. It can take years of experience to learn how to build an effective commercial web site and it is something that is best left to an expert. Having a professional web site will provide you with a sense security in your business that no home-made web site can do. Your web site will be something that thousands of people around the world may view every day. Make sure your web site shows what you want the world to see; a high-quality, clean, accessible, professional, and top ranking business.
Career In Graphic Design
Creative Director
Lets start at the top and work down. Art directors, or Creative Directors are responsible for a creative team that may design work for magazines, television, advertising graphics, websites, or on packaging. A creative team can consist of layout artists, graphic designers, photographers, copywriters, and menial staff to do the work. An Art directors job is to make sure that each of these workers do not slack off down the pub and complete their work to a deadline and to the client's needs. Art directors also make major decisions along the lines of should the background be slate grey or cobalt blue, issuing dictates and changing their mind several days after a deadline has passed - leaving co-workers resolutely glum about their position in the grand scheme of things. Art directors will inevitably have come from some kind of marketing or sales background and need no prior graphic design knowledge or skill.
Senior Designer
A Senior Designer is mainly concerned with the visual aspects of a company and will probably have been promoted on the basis that she is fun and a 'great team player' (despite this being far from the case). A Senior Designer will usually insist on having a larger widescreen monitor than the rest of the team which will be decorated variously with fluffy pink bits marketing people send through on a daily basis. A Senior Designer will be involved in the elements of a company’s look such as business cards, stationery, packaging design, media advertising graphics, promotional design, and sticking up pictures of topless 'hunks'.
Graphic Designer
The job of a Graphic Designer is to provide a new and exciting way to express the key information of a company or product through a dynamic image or use of typography. Graphic Designers take the scant information given to them by the client and using the internet to scab some free clip art, fashion their own ripped off logo designs in order to fleece the client for all they are worth.
Layout Artists and Artworkers
The engine room of the design world. These scumbags have been buried away with their dusty Macs for decades, remorselessly churning out pages and layouts. Inevitably some clueless Muppet will send over a 100 page brochure laid out in Microsoft word and it will be the Artworkers thankless task to make it publishable. They will need to recognized a font at 50 yards, be able to colour correct the dreariest of images and take a good bollocking every now and again to keep them on their toes. The Artworker must have the ability to design magazines, design brochures, design flyers, design books and design posters. He harbors murder fantasies.
Illustrators
Illustrators generally speaking will have long graying hair and be influenced by prog rock. Working from home among the dungeon and dragon figurines and Manga comics they will attempt to put their own unique spin on whatever brief they are given. What you will be presented with is a semi clad girl with oversized boobs. You will have waited several weeks for this. You will never learn from previous mistakes.
Web Designers
Web designers create the pages, layout, and graphics for web pages, they will be technically minded to the point of absurdity. They will insist on using c++ coding language to impress other geeks and will beaver away doing whatever it is geeks do for hours on end. Web designers also design and develop the navigation tools of a site which will for design websites involve tiny text that makes your eyes bleed. Web designers are far too clever for their own good and should never be encouraged.
Mindtap Graphic Design Resources http://www.mindtap.co.uk is your single point entry into the UK creative industries. We are looking to create a unique site where you can access information on ">UK graphic design http://www.lunatrix.co.uk, UK logo design http://www.graphic-logo-design.co.uk, graphic design.
Career In Graphic Design Published on February 10, 2007 | http://www.designnewsnext.com/Article/5.html
Freelance design jobs – an efficient way to get things done
Web development is a field constantly evolving and offering hundreds of people an online job. Combined with freelancing, it provides a constant source of income obtained through independent work and a flexible schedule. Indeed, freelance jobs sound ideal for those who prefer working from their own computer, whenever their time allows them to. Web development involves web design, a type of work which requires creativity and imagination along with a lot of professionalism. This makes freelance design jobs even more attractive than other types of freelancing work.
To go online, any company has to have a website made. Depending on the type of business it conducts, the website has to have an appropriate look targeting a certain category of visitors. Freelance design jobs are perfect for those who can provide service buyers with the desired look for their website in a timely manner and for a reasonable price. By using freelance jobs, the independent contractors have more freedom in what they do and how they do it. Freelance design jobs allow them to work for a price they consider appropriate as remuneration for their work. If the results are satisfying, then they will earn not only money, but also a client which might come back to collaborate again.
New freelancers, who are just getting started on a website, don’t have feedback for past freelance design jobs. To receive some reviews and get proof of their skills, they initially work for free. After they become confident enough that they’ve earned enough experience to be paid for their work, they start adding to their price. Either way, those interested in getting some freelance jobs to work for, do get a chance if they simply put some effort into what they do.
Experienced service providers do however have to pay attention to details regarding freelance design jobs because the outcome of the projects may influence the way their business goes in the future. An unsatisfied client can lead to money and time loss. The best solution is to give everything you have to make the client happy. If your intention is to get something original and interesting well-done, then experience is a must. These freelance jobs cost more and the effort is worth every penny. You, as a provider, should communicate well, have examples of templates, logos and banners, have a plan well balanced describing exactly what you will do and how long it will take you to do it and you should also prove you have a past record of positive feedback. All this information is a guarantee that the freelance design jobs you accept won’t be superficially attended to. You will therefore become a reliable provider worth the entire attention of the buyer.
Web design is sometimes a matter of taste and you, the freelancer, assume you know what the client wants from you. Although your effort to make the website look good might be considerate, if the service buyer has a specific idea about how the website should look in the end and you don’t live up to the expectations, you might get in trouble. This is why it is wise to receive advice from the client from the beginning. This will get the freelance jobs done faster and without problems caused by misunderstandings.
Freelance design jobs are opportunities for both buyers and providers alike and, with the right approach on things, everyone can leave satisfied with their achievements. Communication is the one thing that makes freelancing work. It is the link between different people, situated perhaps miles away, with completely different ideas. Their goal keeps them united in their efforts to complete the freelance jobs they work on. The providers use all their skills to design something combining their talents and taste together with the buyer’s requests and receive in return well-earned money. The service buyer gets his freelance jobs done his way without wasting time and unnecessary money. Freelancing is a mutual benefit situation.
Freelance jobs are a modern and efficient method of earning money by working online independently. To find attractive freelance design jobs, please visit our website – a valuable online resource that you shouldn’t miss!
Published on April 26, 2007 | http://www.designnewsnext.com/Article/71.html
How to Make Professional Looking Business Brochures
A good business brochure gets attention most of the time. It has a maximum marketing power that when optimized your business brochures generate enough command for the right kind of attention to get you your aimed-for sales. A good business brochure contains text and information that makes your target readers asking for more.
One thing a good business brochure is not is boring. If you want your business brochures to bore the heck out of your target readers, then you can rave all you want about you and your business and you’ll definitely get a nod – a nod to never neverland, that is.
Your business brochures definitely gets on the top of the list of boring items when you focus more on your company’s name and image rather than what you have to offer in terms of your products and services.
Your business brochures are considered boring when you go on and on about your company’s story and abandon what is most important in your brochure printing project – how you can help ease the nagging problems that beset your target audience.
On the other hand, excellent business brochures are more about your target clients and their concerns, and how you can make this world a better place for them.
So how do you develop excellent business brochures that get your target readers’ attention?
You can have excellent business brochures when you know everything about your target market. When you write your brochure printing copy, include everything you know about your clients – What problems do they encounter on a regular basis? What frustrations do they have? What threats do they encounter that impede their business growth? What are their fears and desires?
You can have excellent business brochures when you have a stand out headline that grabs your target readers’ attention. A headline that addresses their innermost issues and helps them to confront their worst fears, that is what would drive them to get a better view of your business.
You can have excellent business brochures when your target clients see that you have addressed certain issues and concerns, which gets them to believe of your interest in really understanding their situation.
You can have excellent business brochures when you have concrete proof that you can solve a problem. This can be made possible by including a case study or testimonials to your business brochures.
Finally, you can have excellent business brochures when you can state clearly a specific, unique and memorable proposal that differentiates you from all the other dick-and-harry who have presented the same things you are now offering.
Get your desired outcome by providing your target market with business brochures that gets their attention. Looking at the things that will make your target clients the main focus of your business brochures can help you soar in ways that you have only dreamed about previously.
Published on September 15, 2007 | http://www.designnewsnext.com/Article/109.html
What is a Good Logo Design?
Everyone wants his company logo to be the best but how good is good? How do we define a good business logo? Is it necessary to be colorful or an exquisite piece of art? Can a simple design work as a good logo? We are often in a dilemma.
Now to define a good logo design we first need to understand the purpose of having a logo. A corporate logo is one of the most essential branding elements for your company. It should be instrumental in building your corporate identity and should successfully exude the company's attitude. The viewers must have some idea about the disposition, character, or fundamental values of your company through your logo. The functionality of a logo does not end here, I have not yet mentioned the most important function of a corporate logo. Your logo should be able to build a positive, strong and long lasting impression on existing and prospective customers. The very moment a person views your logo, even a part of it, he should think of your company.
Just think of some of the all time great logos, McDonalds', IBM, Nike— the moment you see their business logos, even if you see a part of it or may be in Black and White (there comes another important aspect!) are you able to think of anything else than the respective company? The answer is definitely NO! The first thing that comes to your mind is the name of the company. This shows how strong an impression their logo leaves in our mind. Isn't that, what all of us are looking for?
How do you get your logo to leave such a strong long lasting impression? The key to this question is to make it easy to remember. Companies often make the mistake of thinking that a complicated artistic design might work well for them, while the reverse is true, in most cases. The simpler your logo is, the easier it is to remember and so it leaves a stronger impression on the people.
You also need to think of all the possible mediums where you are going to use your logo. You are not going to use your logo in only one medium, you might use it on your business cards and stationery, you might use it in your website, you might also use it in the conventional media like newspaper classifieds and magazines. This is why it is most important to inform your logo designers about the possible mediums where you are going to use your logo. You should also check if your logo looks good in Black and White, because tomorrow if you need to get a document in black and white with your logo on it, it should be very easily compatible to that as well.
In the beginning of this article, I have mentioned, that your logo can successfully convey the character and nature of your business to its viewers. How do we do that? There are a host of factors that are considered before designing a logo. When you place an order for a logo design, as a client it is your responsibility to give a clear brief of your company profile, the industry you are in and the nature of logo that you are looking for, to the designers. If you are not sure about the nature of logo that suits your company, let the logo design firm decide on that. There are many logo design companies who are experienced and they will be much better equipped to suggest you the correct type of logos. Any good logo design firm would conduct a market research about the different types of logos used in your industry by your competitors and their impact on the people. Based on that they will deliver you a set of logos from which you can choose any one and then they will customize that to your perfection.
If you have any corporate colors, as we have red for McDonalds', it will be wise to suggest the designers to use that color in your logo-any good designer would anyhow do that.
One last word, as with any other industry, it is definitely beneficial to buy professional service than to go for any amateur designs just to save a few dollars. You might be the best in your industry but they know their job better than you, so if you want to get a good result, try to depend on your logo design company. I do understand that there are certain logo design companies that charge exorbitant rate to create a logo design but the industry is changing. These days there are companies that offer excellent company logos for nominal charges. So before you decide to place your order for your logo design, check the portfolio of the company and then check the price tag. You can definitely find some professional logo designs at affordable rates.
Ray Smith is a marketing Expert with years of experience in different industries and specialized knowledge on branding and internet marketing.
Published on February 10, 2007 | http://www.designnewsnext.com/Article/1.html
Logo - Graphics Which Drives Your Company
The bright red of Coca Cola, the bull head of Chicago Bulls, the big arched 'M' of Mac Donald’s - don’t you recognize them the moment you see? That’s the power of logo. Whether you're in a competitive industry or not, whether your business is small or big it doesn't matter! The fact is that your customers remember your business when they see your logo design, regardless of how hard you try to convince yourself otherwise. A good logo makes not just a first impression, but a lasting one as well.
The symbol, the color, the font, the text, the size, the precision etc all count towards bringing the attention of your potential customers towards your company, and creating your company’s image and finally its brand. Get a custom logo for your business that best reflects your company's spirit! It is very essential to choose what type of logo suits your company's business. Most of the large international companies have pretty simple logos because research says not to overload the consumers with too much information. And yes a lot of research goes into creating these simple logos. Each of these business logos has its own specific font and size, and exclusive color combinations that make them unique. Every single symbol and icon used together with the logo has a significant meaning.
But there are a few important things that should be kept in mind while selecting or making a logo for your company to create that recognition in the market. You have to create a unique and special icon together with your logo including your website or company name in that. A logo should have a peaceful combination of colors and not more than two or three colors should be used at a time. If you are hiring a logo design company then it is better to get it done by a professional logo design company with loads of experience. Before you take the final decision of launching your company logo you should test it once in a trusted circle. And last but not the least is to have a striking tagline to accompany the logo. The resultant logo should convey the right message to the people. You got to have an idea for the vision you want to create in the people's mind. The key to the success of a company's identity depends to what extent you can give your logo the recognizable look.
The graphics of your logo should be communicated purely in visual terms, to the right brain hemisphere of your customers. It should not depend on verbal or intellectual interpretation. If it is a word mark, it should be recognized by its form alone. For example, you don't have to 'read' Adidas's logo more than once, to recognize the famous brand. The three parallel stripes mark became the worldwide Adidas corporate logo design - a name that stands for competence in all sectors of sports throughout the globe. Think of the future and avoid being too trendy. A good logo will last your company 15 years and give your customers a chance to burn the image into their brains. Even with these tips, it's important for a company to get outside help unless it has in-house designers who have experience with logos as well as the time to devote to the project.
Logo designs form the energy, the feeling and the passion of a business. It's what makes us care. It is more than research and strategy. Good design is exciting - it shouts- it demands that you remember it.
Jennifer is an expert Internet marketing professional with years of experience in various industries such as: Business, Finance, Logo designs, Real Estate, Web-Design, Health & Medicine and many more.
Published on September 21, 2007 | http://www.designnewsnext.com/Article/115.html
Technologies And Design Elements To Improve Web-site Navigation
Technologies And Design Elements To Improve Web-site Navigation
As you browse the Web, you will find sites that implement just about every type of navigation scheme you can think of and then even some more! However, certain common factors do emerge. The use of menu bars, either horizontally or vertically oriented, are the most common way of allowing users to move through your site.
Sites with a great deal of content often implement dynamic menu bars that change to present the most relevant options on each page. Sites often use some kind of “feedback" or special effect to let users know where certain navigation elements are located, such as graphics that change colors when the users point their mouse at them.
You can use a variety of technologies and design elements to implement Web site navigation. As you consider different navigation techniques, keep the following seven basic comparison factors in mind:
Visual
Does the technique look and like a navigation element that users are accustomed to seeing? In other words, is it a button or a menu that users will recognize as a navigation element?
Feedback
Does the technique offer some form of feedback to indicate that a user has pointed at or clicked a particular navigation element? This type of feedback can be important because users often explore a site by moving their mouse around to see what happens. Navigation techniques that allow individual elements to respond to this activity make the overall navigation more likely to succeed.
Accessibility
How does the technique work when a visually impaired person attempts to use the site with a specially equipped Web browser? If this demographic is important to your company, pay special attention to this capability.
Overhead
Some techniques require the Web browser to server to transfer more data to the Web browser than is required by other techniques. If your customers will be accessing the site over slower connections, then using techniques with a high overhead will result in slow page loads, and possibly bored customers who will give up and move on to the competition.
Scalability
Does the technique offer any particular advantages to make growing the site easier? Some navigation designs may require you to redesign the entire site every time a new feature is added. Others may simply require a few minor modifications to add several new departments to a menu.
Space
Some techniques, combined with your site’s browsing philosophy, require considerable space on the screen. Other techniques allow you to present a wider array of navigation choices while using less screen space. Keep in mind that your navigation elements should never occupy the majority of the screen. It is the content that your customers came for, not the menu bars.
Compatibility
How well wills this technique work within the available range of Web browsers? If one of your objectives is to have your site usable by as many customers as possible, pay attention to the techniques that offer a broad range of compatibility, and steer away those that are limited to a smaller set of browsers.
Navigation Technologies
To implement Web site navigation, you can use one of four primary technologies. The oldest and simplest of these technologies is the basic, static HTML page. A step up from that is the static HTML page, which is dynamically generated on the Web server. Web pages can be given more interactive capabilities with Dynamic HTML (DHTML), whether programmed in VBScript or JavaScript. Java presents the opportunity to program a complete, standalone application to use as a navigation aid.
Static HTML
Static HTML links are the oldest and simplest form of navigation on the Web. They can be less exciting than their dynamic counterparts, but remain one of the most effective navigational techniques on the Web.
Dynamically Generated Static HTML
If your site is constantly growing and changing, static HTML will require a constant effort to keep the navigational elements in line with the site’s growth. A common solution to this problem has been to dynamically generate the navigation elements when the page displays. When using the DHTML, you don’t have to manually update elements as the site grows, because an automated process generates the navigation elements as necessary, based on the information in a database.
VBScript and JavaScript Dynamic HTML
DHTML is a technology that allows you to embed programming code in the Web pages that are sent to user’s computers. DHTML code actually executes within the users Web browser, and can change the appearance and content of the Web page in response to the user’s actions on the page.
In Finality
You can use a variety of technologies and design elements to implement Web site navigation. As you consider different navigation techniques, keep the above seven basic comparison factors in mind. Visitors are becoming rare and rare in this competitive globe of e-commerce. Retain those who visit to your site for longer period in order to convert them as customers. Site navigation techniques help you to do so.
About the author
David Davis, is the lead developer and project manager of RedflyStudios LTD. – Web Design Ireland. For more information visit http://www.redflystudios.com
How To Create Your Websites Look And Feel Easy Ways To Design A Great Website
When launching a website, one of the most important goals you must achieve is appealing to your target audience. At the same time, you must stand out from your competitors. However, in doing so, many times businesses go to far and make their site too busy. While they may think it looks great, they are really driving potential customers away. Here are a few tips to make sure your site is up to par with your competitors.
Nothing is worse than a webpage that is so colorful that you can hardly read it. For starters, use only two or three colors for your entire webpage. Also make sure the colors are complementary and are pleasing to the eye. It’s very hard to keep people at your site when they can’t read what’s on it.
Your site will look and feel its best when you use a consistent look throughout the site. While you don’t have to use a pre-designed template, you can create your very own template and use it throughout the webpage. Doing so will add to the look and feel of your site and also help customers navigate through it.
Another problem that many businesses run into when designing websites is using too many special effects. While at first they may seem flashy and great, too many, can take away from the website and untimely turn off potential clients. Also, special effects can cause increased download time for your site, which also hurts traffic to your site. Therefore, as a rule of thumb only use one or two special effects in your entire site so that the customers are not distracted and are able navigate your site quickly and easily. Remember, just like a brick and mortar store front, too much clutter will turn away potential customers. Keep your site simple, straight forward, and appeal to your clientele and you will be surprised at the all the new traffic to your site.
About the Author: Drew Johnson is a Public Relations intern for Kinetica Media, an Internet marketing company that works to harness the power of websites, email and search marketing to enable businesses of all sizes to get and keep more customers. Visit http://www.kineticamedia.com or call 866-526-4309 to see how their proven online marketing services can increase your customer loyalty and sales.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Drew_Johnson
Effective Web Page Design For E-Commerce
The widespread availability of high-speed Internet access has resulted in ever-greater numbers of consumers making online purchases. This means that business owners of all stripes - from individuals working from home to big box mass merchandisers - can reach more buyers and can generate exponentially greater revenue than ever before.
There are many theories about and tips for marketing and advertising your online store, and marketing and advertising is certainly a consideration. But in focusing so much attention on marketing, many business owners neglect a fundamental aspect of successful e-commerce: web page design.
If you don't have a professional webpage design, it doesn't matter how much traffic you generate to your site because those visitors won't convert to customers. It's crucial to have a website that is compelling and that makes visitors want to stay long enough to buy. Here, then, are six tips to help your web design transform visitors into customers:
1. Keep it Clean. A professional web page designer will tell you that to keep your virtual storefront clean and free of clutter. It should be immediately clear to the visitor the types of items you sell without overwhelming them with dozens of hyperlinks, fonts, and flashing buttons and words. You can certainly incorporate a flash introduction in your web design, but if you do, give the visitor control. He or she should be able to bypass or pause the flash so that the annoyance factor is kept to a minimum.
2. Intuitive Navigation. Your website designer should think like your customer and design a navigation system that easily takes your customer from your home page to the product or products of interest. The fewer number of clicks it takes to get from point A to point B, the more likely it is that your visitor will make a purchase.
3. Search Functionality. Customers need to be able to find what they need quickly and easily. Allowing customers to search by keyword or product number is a great start. Going one step further and allowing "fuzzy" searches that will also return matches for common misspellings is even better.
4. Seamless Shopping Cart. Many e-commerce sites lose customers at the critical juncture between selecting items and committing to buy them. An intuitive and easy-to-use shopping cart is essential to the online shopping experience. Again, your web page designer should think like your customer and utilize a shopping cart that makes checkout a breeze.
5. SSL Certificate. If you're an online merchant, there's simply no getting around the need for an SSL certificate. With the problems associated with identity theft, your customers need to have confidence that your website is secure.
6. Leave it to the Professionals. When it comes to web page design, don't succumb to the temptation to do it yourself. Even if you have a web design program, you should hire a business web page designer to create your web site. Professionals have a variety of tools that will help your business succeed online, and will act as your partner in developing e-commerce solutions that will encourage visitors to stick around and purchase your products.
Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about E-Commerce Web Page Design or Majon's Business and Entrepreneurs directory.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Robertson
Website Impressions - Be PositiveIt is said that you shouldn't be negative, so, "Get Rid of Negative Impressions," on your website. Portray the positi
It is said that you shouldn't be negative, so, "Get Rid of Negative Impressions," on your website. Portray the positive.
However, there are times that by examining the negative you are able to illustrate and make the positive much more effectual.
Your Website is a Reflection of Your Business.
Very often, when a company decides to prepare and publish a website they will hire a professional, which is good, and for the most part, the right way to do it. The bad part of this equation is that they depend entirely upon the web designer to do everything and generally accept, with minor changes, or, corrections, whatever is presented.
There could be any number of reasons for this, but, without elaborating on all of them, it really boils down to not having done your homework. In this instance, your homework should have been spending a lot of time on the internet examining as many different websites as possible. Dissecting each of the sights and listing what you like and dislike about each. By the way, this definitely does not mean copying someone else's website.
The following is a list of things to avoid, and, by expounding on these negatives we are, hopefully, creating a more powerful appearance and functionality for your website.
A Good Website – "Avoids".
Slow Uploads.
A slow website is probably the primary reason that viewer/surfers move on to the next site without even knowing what it is all about. It has been shown that the average viewer/surfer does not have the patience to wait.
The longer it takes your website to upload the more likely your are to lose that person. The internet works on speed, milliseconds, to be specific. The viewer/surfer has become acclimated to that speed; therefore, a website that takes more than 10 - 15 seconds, well if you really push it 20 seconds, to upload, is a slow website.
Keep the byte size of your pages as small as possible and definitely minimize the amount and size of graphics and flash.
Finally, become a viewer/surfer. What do you do when the site you just clicked on takes too long to upload? If you're like me, you move on.
Poor Navigation.
The ease of navigating your website keeps your viewer/surfer more interested in staying. Moving around and searching an easily navigable site becomes a pleasure. Navigating on a poorly designed website is a chore that the average viewer/surfer shy's away from. It's that simple.
Being organized and consistent throughout your site should be near the top of the list of "Must Do's." See our article Website Navigation How to Make or Break Your Website for an in-depth discussion.
Too Much Junk.
Have you ever looked at the entry page of a website and all you see are ads, graphics, flash, banners, etc., with nothing else about the site. Now don't misunderstand, I'm not opposed to having ads on your site. It can be and often is a big asset, but just like anything there is a limit.
If your site is just for ad marketing and nothing else, it's fine to have your pages filled with ads and links, that's your business and your lifeline to making money.
If, however, your business is, Architectural Engineering, a page full of ads and flash about Women's Lingerie, or, Motor Cycles, is not going to help you sell your services. They have come to you for specific information, not, unrelated ads. Having ads that complement your business, without advertising for a competitor, of course, sounds more logical to me.
Psychedelic Colors.
Have you ever been on a website when every other word or sentence is a different color, typeface and size? If you are trying to win a contest, about the greatest use of colors, or, typefaces in a single sentence, then, congratulations. Otherwise, I'm sorry, but, "very unprofessional", in my humble opinion, is an understatement.
It has been shown, that viewers prefer simplicity. For business and sales oriented websites, lighter backgrounds (it doesn't have to be pure white), a strong contrasting type color and a simple typeface. These are easy on the eyes and makes the viewer much more relaxed. For artistic or gallery type websites, there is a lot of leeway, so long as it's easy on the eyes, including a strong contrast between the background and content.
Need I say more!
We will continue our article on "Website Impressions – Be Positive" in Part 2.
Alex Armen's background is in marketing and design. He started Armen Graphic DesignCONTACT US FOR A FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION. Go to our website for more information and an understanding of how we work. ARMEN GRAPHIC DESIGN which is a relatively new company that specializes in marketing and design. The company’s foundation is based upon the premise of K.I.S.S., believing that simplicity in marketing effects the greatest returns.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alex_Armen
Web Site Design - Elementary Tips on how to Design a Site
Web site designing is an important part of any online business or any advertising endeavor that a business may have. As it is important, it is equated to having the process of designing a site an intricate and often times more complicated than the actual creation of the site. There are a hundred and one ways on how one can design a site but the fundamental and basic means on how to design a site is well written here. You may want to take a look at these tips and learn from them:
a. When designing a site, it is essential that you do not put too much banner advertisements on it. Too much banner ads on a web site basically flushes away potential clients from even getting into your site. Aside from the fact these are mere turn-offs to potential clients, having too much of these are just a sore in the eye.
b. In designing a website, you are supposed to lead your potential clients to a simple way to navigate thru your site. In which case, you need to make sure that there are simplified and straightforward navigational direction sets for your potential clients. Otherwise, when potential clients cannot just get enough of the intricacies of your directional instructions, they simply go away and leave your site.
c. Allow the user to know at which part he is getting into. This means that in every facet of the portal site, you need to tell them exactly where they are being brought upon. This is to make sure that they know where they are being lead into so they may know if they are leading the right way to the site.
d. In designing a website, it is essential that you refrain from putting audio files on your site. Audio files are at times becoming irritants to a lot of users. Besides, you do not have a way of knowing as to what audio files are pleasing to the ears of your potential clients.
Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘
Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published eBooks
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_R_Mize
The Benefit of Using Dreamweaver CS3 Templates
In the early days of the Internet, users were hot to design their own websites. While there are many methods of writing websites, the most ubiquitous was simply opening the notepad application and writing the website in pure HTML. While there were many programs that came along that made this HTML coding unnecessary, a lot of them were simply unusable or inefficient or otherwise had problems.
Many times, what appeared to be normal and working fine in the user's browser would begin acting up once it was published to the Internet. This detachment of HTML coding and actual content, in what is referred to as a WYSIWYG editor, led to problems later on, as users thinking that they had effectively built a perfect website found that once published to the web, the elements of their website would move around independently and break anchor text. This breakage of anchors and refusal to follow the rules of HTML was a necessary byproduct of the WYSIWYG HTML editors.
This lack of reliability among Web authoring software led to many problems, as users were either forced to use the HTML, a boring and trying experience at best, or they could continue to use the WYSIWYG editor, which was basically a luck of the draw situation, where users were hoping to get the best results and consistent use from a somewhat inferior product. The WYSIWYG editors never seemed to do their job exactly right, as there was always some element that would be in the wrong spot or willing simply pop out after extended use or extended viewings, without warning.
But eventually, a new product hit the market called Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver was able to do a great deal of things, and embraced the HTML right on the desktop, rather than hiding it all behind a WYSIWYG editor. For the first time, users could see the HTML right up close and see what effect it was having as they moved elements around in the WYSIWYG editor. It was a revolution in HTML editing software and users flocked to the software offering that would allow them to do so much with so little.
Using Dreamweaver CS3 templates, users can save a tremendous amount of time by simply whipping out their favorite template, choosing some colors and publishing. The elegant Dreamweaver CS3 templates include a version of a template for every possible combination of themes that any user could ask for. A wealth of these templates makes it a very simple task to publish a beautiful and stunning Web page in just a matter of minutes, with some help from the Dreamweaver templates and judicious editing.
JSBwebDesign offers great tips about Dreamweaver website templates. Get free web page templates and learn about our business website design services. Visit us at http://www.jsbwebtemplates.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ivan_A_Cuxeva
A Good Web Site Essentials
Anyone can make a website. Basic HTML will do. But let us all admit, some website really sucks. Some are poor in designs and layout, some are crappy in content and the list goes on. These details are commonly the pitfalls of a web site. Here are some basic fundamentals on creating a good website.
Title
It's your website so it's your call on whatever title you want for it. But do remember that you are not the only one browsing or visiting your site. Keep in mind that in this case, you should consider the viability of your website so always think for the benefit of your visitors or at least think from their perspective. Your page title should be short but descriptive for two reasons. One is that it is the same phrase that will appear on the top of your page which will remind your guest what site they are browsing. Second is that once your guest bookmarks your website then it will be more convenient for them not to edit it anymore since it is already descriptive enough.
Content
Most visitors visit a site for information that is why the content of your page should be beneficial and interesting enough for your guests to come back. Beautiful graphics can be seen in a blink of an eye so if your content is inadequate then chances are your visitor will leave your website and never come back again.
Grammar and Spelling
Never forget to proof read because it could ruin the web site's credibility. Check for grammar errors and spelling.
Images and Fonts
Here, the layout comes in a little. Bear in mind that each visitor have different browsers. And layouts comes out differently from each and every browser. But of course it depends if it was tested and programmed well to attain the layout goal. Also, not all fonts are available on all computers. So i suggest a commonly-used font.
Don't be overwhelmed in putting all the images in your resources. Keep it simple. Anyway, it will add up to you page load time especially if the image file is too large. Keep it pleasant to the eyes.
Page Length
Articles are different from web content. You can write a very long article but writing for a web content is completely different. A web content should be short and brief. Usually, if the content of a page, especially if its the index page, is long enough that the visitor will have to scroll down to read it then it will definitely bore them and wouldn't even bother to read all of that.
Links
Links should be more than “click here.” This is your chance yo use your keywords for a better ranking in search engines. The tool tip should also describe where the link is going to. Most importantly, the link should be relevant to your site to avoid being a link farm. Choose a quality link.
Contact us form
This is very helpful because you will never know if a visitor is encountering problems with your site. This way, not only you can get feed backs from your guests, but also you can correct the problem fast.
In doing a website remember that you are trying to please your target market and not just yourself. Step into their shoes and see if your website will catch the interest of your market.
RESOURCE: Author Methyl Vizcarra recommends Wicked Innovations – a web design firm based in the Philippines that specializes in ecommerce web site design and web development services.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Methyl_Vizcarra
