Tips for Online Business

SEO web design is a concept which emphasizes great architectural design principles based on how the search engines determine relevance and site information. The design should be able to give out the information that the user is seeking and at the same time be easily navigable. This is part of search engine optimization because the SEO web design should also be able to satisfy robotic crawlers and spiders in their quest for information regarding the website and other data.

SEO Web Design and Site Optimization

Search engine optimization is more than just a trend nowadays. It is used and applied by almost all sites on the internet that aim to make money and reach online popularity. Among the many strategies of optimizing a web site, SEO web design is one of the topmost priorities.

The impact of the design of the site on search engine robotic crawlers or spiders can help raise the ranking of the site. This is where SEO web design comes in. There are many ways to make the web site more attractive to robotic visitors and human visitors alike. Actually, spiders and crawlers from search engines do not mind the overall aesthetic value of the site. All these robotic crawlers need is the information it can get from the site. The tricky part is how to put relevant information in the site in order for the crawlers to properly index the site due to its relevance. SEO companies who specialize in optimizing web sites must also know how to put a site in front of others in order to bring it to the attention of the Internet users. The search optimizers who will handle your site must be able to know the right strategies to place the web site ahead of others in its field through accepted methods of optimization.

SEO web design is a competitive area where web designers, or what I prefer to call website architects, work hard to come up with ideas and designs that are aesthetically appealing and relevant at the same time. There has to be consideration for ease of getting around the website, being appealing to a wide range of visitors and finding the right place for the website. Making a a basic, visually appealing site is easy with the many technologic advances available today, the problem with these advances are that they are sometimes quite tricky to use thus making your website difficult to navigate in. SEO web design should be easy to use and friendly to both human and robotic browsers.

Easy navigational access can be done by making the pages of the site easy to navigate to and having easy to understand and use button or labels to click on. The pictures and images on your SEO web design should be just the right size and scale to enable users to see them promptly after clicking instead of taking a very long time to download. Waiting for images and other graphics to load can be off putting for most visitors and will eventually lead them to another site which is more optimized and easy to view. Even spiders and crawlers will give up on a site which is not easy to navigate and get into.

The overall appeal of the SEO web design should not only be focused mainly on the niche that it is targeted on but also for Internet users who might have stumbled onto the site. SEO web design should have a universal appeal even for the most specialized type of sites on the Internet. Some webmasters or website owners could opt for specialized SEO web designs and these can also be done with the targeted audience in mind. It will also benefit the site if it is indexed as it should be. You might want to have a specific SEO web design which is built around the entire concept of your site and this can add to the ranking if you are quite specific with what you aim to sell or market. If you are marketing a specific product or information, SEO experts can focus on this product or information and build the SEO web design around it.

Another aspect of SEO web design that needs to be considered is what your competition is doing. The saying, “know your enemy” is the key here. You do not want to have the same boring marketing strategies as the competition. Why? Because it is a good idea to keep abreast with what they are doing and how well they are doing in this field. There are many site optimization tools that can help analyze and determine what is needed for the site. Hence, in regard to SEO web design process, content is one of the prime needs and tools of making the site rank high during searches. Finding out or identifying the right keywords to integrate into the site can be crucial in making the site among the top ranking ones. Keyword search tools and having keyword rich content and titles can help to optimize a site efficiently.

SEO web design experts should also bear in mind that there are web strategies that may be unacceptable for search engines. Using these underhand or black hat tricks to perpetuate a site in rank can cause the search engines to ban the site and also the SEO web design company that did the search engine optimization work for it no matter how well the SEO web design is.

The basic elements and principles involved in web design are true for all other types of design. These principles will show you the most effective way to put together the various design elements to come up with a good and effective site. A good web design company emphasizes the fact that web design is not simply about slapping all those HTML tags on the page, but it involves the use of web design principles to build a pleasing and useful web design. Your web design company will need you to make the most aesthetically attractive and effective web design, so make sure you keep these elements in mind:

Web Design Balance

Web design Balance is the equal distribution of the heavy and light elements on a singly page. Balance in your web design is concentrated in your page layout. You must achieve visual balance in your web design all throughout the page, not only in the initial view. You web design company might commonly suggest you to center the text and all the other elements on your page. It is also very common to set your page on an invisible grid system to create the balance that you need. There are three types of balance that can be achieved when designing a page.

 Symmetrical. This is achieved by placing all the elements in an even fashion - a heavy element on the left is matched with another on the right. Be careful with symmetrical balances as you do not want your site to look flat or plain boring.

 Asymmetrical. These are more challenging to build, but there are strategies to achieve this which can include the varying texture, color and image positioning and size to arrive at a pleasant looking page.

 Discordant. Web sites that are off-balance suggest action or motion, so you can create a discordant design on purpose. This type of designs make viewers uncomfortable or uneasy, so they are best used for sites that are intended to make people think.

Web Design Contrast

Web design contrast is more than just about colors and black or white, but also involves contrasting shapes, sizes and even textures. You can take full advantage of contrast by changing font size, weight and family to provide textual contrast and varying sizes of images and elements. However, be careful not to blast your readers or scare them off with contrasting colors which are way too loud. The links on your content should be contrasted well to draw most attention.

Web Design Emphasis

Web design emphasis involves the main points where the eye is drawn into in a design. One of the mistakes that your web design company may warn you not to make is to have everything in the design stand out. Keep in mind that if everything in the design has equal emphasis, the entire page will tend to appear too busy for comfort and may end up unappealing. What you should focus on instead is to create a visual hierarchy in the web design - to put emphasis only on the right elements. You can use semantic markup to provide emphasis even without the use of styles; change the font size of image size in order to emphasis or lessen emphasis on them; or you can use contrast in colors for added emphasis.

Web Design Rhythm

Web design rhythm, also known as repetition, brings the much needed internal consistency into your web site designs. Almost all elements in your design can be repeated in order to create pleasing rhythm into your design. For instance, you can repeat your headline a few times for more emphasis, repeat the same image across the page, create a background that is tiled and patterned with repetitive elements, or repeat a particular style to provide site design consistency. It is also a good idea to repeat the navigation elements in your site design across the pages of your web site.

Web Design Unity

Web design unity, also regarded as a site's proximity, is the what keeps all the similar elements in the site alike and those diverse further apart, and pulls everything together into one integrated whole. Unity when it comes to web site design is mainly achieved through the proper placement in your layout. You can implement this in many ways. You can, for example, adjust the layout of your elements to put them close or far away from each other. In the body of your page, you can change the spacing around the text in your page contents. You can further achieve unity by playing around the box properties and change the margins and paddings.

A good web design company keeps in mind all the basic design elements with each and every page they design and collaborate with. This way, you and your web design company will come up with web sites that are pleasant looking, effective and attractive. As the web designer, it is important that you keep these elements in mind and apply them appropriately to your page web design.

When someone sees a beautiful web design, he or she can’t help but fall in love with it and wonder how it was done. However, designing a web would take more than just your knowledge in color, texts and images. It involves codes. But you can learn those in no time so there’s nothing to worry about. Moreover, there is a science behind web design and the following could help you be more scientific with your designs

Usability Testing

The secret here is to let someone who is not familiar with your site have a look at it. As much as possible, be in the room while they are testing your site. Take note of the things that they click on and the things that they ignore so you will know what to improve.

Browser Testing

Do not make the mistake of thinking that your web page will look good at any other browser because it looks good on your favorite one. Remember that the same browser could be used on another operating system and it may not look the same. What you need to do now is to check your page on every possible combination of OS and browser.

Use Log Files

Including log files can be very tiresome, however, it can also be very useful. It helps you know where viewers go from your homepage, what they mostly click on and what pages are least visited. Using log files can help you gather information that can help you modify your site and eventually lead your viewers to the page where you want them to go.

Don’t be afraid to recreate

One of the biggest advantages in web designing is the freedom to change web pages and layouts. Don’t be afraid to change designs that don’t work. Designing a web can be a lot of fun and involving science and structure into your designs will surely attract your viewers.

Use accurate titles for every section

Web browsers tend to scan pages and sections so make sure that your page or section titles are consistent and accurate. In this way, they can be sure that they are being led to the right section of the site.

Avoid ‘Click Here’

Links are very important in web pages. However, avoid using the text ‘click here’ when leading your viewers to another page. Instead use a descriptive and more appropriate text .

Improve Readability

Now is not the time to show off your collection of fonts. What’s important is for your customers to be able to read what is written on your site. Therefore, use attractive but readable texts to attract readers and customers of your site.

Proofread

Even the most excellent writer makes grammatical and spelling errors. You wouldn’t want your site viewers to think you’re an amateur, would you? What you have to do in order to increase trustworthiness is to proofread everything that is written in your site. Remember, less mistakes or lack of errors can add to your reliability points.

In web designing, design is more than just using HTML tags on a web page. The principles outlined below will help you create a more useful and effective website.

Balance

One of the most basic principles in web designing is balance. It is the distribution of the light and heavy elements on a page. It shows one to layout web pages so that they will work effectively. It is also a visual interpretation of design gravity. Remember that darker and larger objects appear heavier than lighter and smaller objects.

Balancing designs can be done in three ways:

Symmetrical Balance – done by placing elements in an even manner

Asymmetrical Balance – more challenging to design because they don’t have elements that match across the designs centerline

Discordant or off-balance – designs that suggest more action and motion

Contrast

When people encounter the word contrast, color is the first thing that comes to mind. However, contrast is more than just a difference in color. There can be contrasts in shapes, sizes and even textures. It is an accentuation of element differences in a design. When you apply contrast in a web design, think beyond or more than just colors. Think about how you can attract your readers in terms of contrasting font sizes, shapes, images and text styles.

Moreover, contrast in web design can be done in four ways. It can be done by

Changing of fonts
Providing links
Using different sizes of images and elements
Using contrasting colors

Emphasis

The eye is drawn to what is emphasized in a design. Though it is very tempting to give emphasis on everything in your website, as a designer you should determine element hierarchy and apply emphasis accordingly based on the hierarchy.

With emphasis, you make the most important element stand out in your design. To include emphasis or dominance in your design, try doing the following ways:

Use semantic mark up that will provide some emphasis even when there are no styles
Changing of fonts or images
Use of contrasting colors

Rhythm

Rhythm is also called repetition. It allows the design to build an internal consistency which helps the viewers to understand it easily. It is said that the whole design can only be understood once the brain has recognized the pattern in the rhythm. Furthermore, rhythm instills a sense of order in the design because it seldom occurs on its own. Due to this, viewers become attracted and therefore tend to investigate further.

To include rhythm in your web design, you can repeat actual HTML texts, add images several times, use background-repeat property and repeat navigation elements of your design.

Unity

In design, unity is also termed as proximity. It is the method of keeping same elements together and keeping different elements apart. It provides cohesiveness to designs and is said to pull elements together. It is primarily achieved through layout placement but can also be accomplished with the use of padding and margining of the elements.

Unity can be implemented through adjusting the layout of elements, changing the text spacing and playing with the box properties to influence the padding and margins.

When designing something, a designer should first go through the basics of designing. Whether he is designing a print design or web design, he must know the dos and do not's. The following items will help you know the basics of web designing as well as some techniques that are specific to coming out with the best web layout.

1. Create a design that seems friendly.

There are actually a lot of web designs that scare people away and not attract them. If you want people to return to your website, make it soothing and light. Keep your site as friendly as possible.

2. Create a great homepage

When designing your website, you should keep in mind to conceptualize a homepage that would attract your viewers. Remember that the first page that your customers see can also be the last. So learn to create a page that will attract your visitor’s attention and then draw them deeper into your site.

3. Keep in mind the principles in designing web sites

Remember to apply your design principles such as balance, contrast, emphasis, rhythm and unity. This will serve as your guide and will help you conceptualize a good web design.

4. Think small in terms of graphics

Slow pages can be really very annoying. Whether you like it or not, one cause of slowing the pages is large graphics. To avoid such problem think of using images with a size of 10-12 kb.

5. Use graphics that fit the content

Just because you have a wonderful picture of you and your boyfriend doesn’t mean that you should include it on your website. Use images that are appropriate and that connect with your site’s content.

6. Don’t use blinking images

There have been studies proving that blinking images actually annoy people. If you want to use them, though, use them sparingly. You wouldn’t want your site viewers to leave your page just because of an annoying blinking image.

7. Stay with standard layouts

Try to use a layout that is simple as possible. The 3-column layout might sound corny and boring but it helps to keep your readers stay where they are and keep reading your site’s contents. Keep in mind that readers and site viewers stick with things that are simple and easy to understand.

8. Use standard fonts and limit the number of different fonts

Use standard fonts such as Arial, Verdana, Geneva, and Helvetica. They might seem too familiar but they look better on most browsers. Now, you don’t have to worry whether your fonts will work or not.

9. Don’t be greedy

Though ads help you make money by posting them on your site, keep in mind that people visit your site because of their perceived content and not because of the ads that you put in it. For all you know, these ads may drive your viewers away, if they are too many, and could possibly make you lose money.

10. Remember your readers

Understand that, unless you’re writing a site for yourself, your site’s content should include topics that your viewers might want to read.

Different issues can’t be avoided even in web designing. Due to conflicts between differing goals and web design methods, conflicts arise. Some of them are listed below.

Liquid vs. Fixed Layouts

Web designers do not have control over everything when designing a web site. Some of the factors that they do not have control over are browser window (the web browser used), used input devices (such as mouse, touch screen, voice command, and text) and the size and characteristics of fonts available.

However, some designers choose to control the element’s appearance on screen with the use of specific width designations. This may be done with the use of HTML table-based design or CSS. Fixed width design happens when images, texts and design layouts do not change as the browser changes. Supporter of this design prefer to control the look and feel of the site as well as the placement of objects on the page. However, other designers use liquid design, as in Wikipedia. In liquid design, the design moves so that the content will flow on the whole screen or a portion of it. The supporters of this design wishes to use all the available spaces on the web.

CSS versus tables

During the days where Netscape Navigator 4 was the most popular browser, Web designers use tables to layout pages on the web. This was considered as the practical solution then. However, popular as it is, it requires dozens of nested tables even for simple designs.

With the emergence of dominant browsers such as Internet Explorer (which became more compliant to W3C), designers started to turn their attention in using CSS. Proponents of CSS say that tables should only be used for tabular data and not for page layout. In CSS, on the other hand, HTML returns to a semantic set-up. With this, search engines are able to understand what is happening in a web page. But one major downfall of CSS is the fact that control is essentially abandoned because each browser has its own trait which leads the page to have a different display.

So to avoid this stand off, you have to decide firsthand on the approach you will take when designing that webpage, here are some of the key elements you have to bear in mind:

Website Planning

It is important to plan on the kind of website that you would be establishing. Keep in mind the audience or your target market, as well as the purpose for creating the site and lastly, its contents.

Audience

The key step to website planning process is defining your target market or audience. Your audience is the group of people you visualize as the ones who would most likely visit your website. These people will be visiting your website for a purpose so it is beneficial to know the things they are looking for. To help you decide on this, you should clearly define the goal of the site and also understand what people want to feel or do when visiting your website.

Looks vs. Function

Some designers pay more attention on how the site looks rather than on how it works. Some even rely on advertisements, so that clients will find their website, instead of search engines. On the other hand, SEO’s or Search Engine Optimization consultants are concerned with how a web site works, textually and technically. As a result, designers and SEO’s end up having fights because of the differences of their concerns.

Fact 1: We can’t deny the fact that when browsers enter a site, they look for something that is relevant to their needs. If they ended in a particular site through advertisements, then they would expect to see something related to that ad.

Fact 2: On the other hand, when a search engine scans a site’s contents, it looks for contents which are useful enough for other sites to reference. It expects to locate a content that is consistent with the keywords.

Fact 3: Moreover, visitors who go to a shopping cart would expect to find photos with high quality, a variety of applicable views and lastly, a concise and clear description and costs. They also expect that the cart should work in all types of browsers.

But sad to say, some viewers do not find what they need in a website or sometimes they have a hard time going around the site. The following things should make you aware on the things why web sites fail.

One fact that web designers must know is that people wouldn’t enter your site unless they know their way around it.

Due to this concern, web designers must take into consideration that they need to conceptualize user friendly and easy to understand websites. For most customers or viewers, very extravagant design won’t matter as long as they don’t get lost in your site.

Your competitors are just a click away

When designing your web site, think very carefully on things that could give you a plus over your competitors. Think of the things that you can offer your customers in order for them to stay on your site and choose you above all else.

People hate slow websites

Designers must understand that searchers can be very impatient when surfing through sites in the Internet. Therefore, designers must find a way to minimize the slowness of websites and at the same time offer viewers with quality contents.

Searchers look for relevant information

Dr. Jim Jansen of Penn State’s School of Information Sciences and Technology said, “A web site has to be relevant to a searchers needs. Otherwise, by the time three minutes have elapsed, 40 percent of searchers will have moved on. While some may have found what they wanted, others may simply have given up and move to a different site." When designing web pages, designers can’t help but become graphic artists with the aim to make your site look great but sometimes lacking in information. Therefore, remember that while it is important to make your site attractive, it is equally important to place in your site the information that visitors need.

Sites should have clear abstracts

The first thing that appears on the result page as an answer to a search engine query is the site’s abstract. The abstract explains everything about your site. According to a study done by Penn State, more users or searchers can be drawn to a site with the use of an abstract. That is if the abstract is informative enough and gives relevant and enticing information about the site. Dr. Jim Jansen said, "For site developers, if you want to be looked at, it is absolutely critical that the abstract be crystal clear about the purpose of your Web site."

Before we share some of the necessary steps used to create a professional web design and website, the following question must be addressed: What constitutes a "professional web design"? More often than not, a web designer or web design company claims to offer professional web design services for their clients. However, should they be promoting "web design services" rather than "professional web design services"? When measuring the professionalism of a web design and website, one must take into consideration a number of factors/steps:


Multi-stage web design process
Project collaboration tools (if project has more than one person involved)
High-quality design
Attention to detail
Current web design technology (CSS)
Well written, interesting, grammatically-correct content
Usability
XHTML and CSS validation (clean code)
Standards-compliant
Optimization
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly
Abuse of Flash, Javascript, and sound effects


To put it simply, what separates professional web design from web design is whether or not a designer or web design company takes into consideration the above items when designing and building a website. Other than paying for a respected companies name and reputation, the items listed above are why professional web design services tend to cost more than regular web design services - you're getting a lot more than a website - you're getting the total package of web design professionalism that will surely shine through once the website is completed and released to the public.

The good news is, you don't need to hire a professional web design company or professional web designer if you want a professional web design and website. Although there is a great deal of work involved, if you'd like to attempt to do the heavy lifting on your own, then the following professional web design tips will help you create a professional web design and website.

Note: You might be wondering why a professional web design company would give away their process and professional web design "checklist" for free. The answer is quite simple: there is only so much time in the day, and unfortunately we can't professionally design every website in the world. The more high-quality, professional websites there are in cyberspace, the happier we as professional web designers and lovers of websites will be. To be blunt, there is just way too much junk out there. Lets get started.


Step 1: Multi-stage web design process

We've already written an extensive article on the basics of a professional web design process, so we're just going to list some of the article's key points for the sake of avoiding redundancy.

Stage 1: Conceptualization and planning (flowcharts)
When designing a website, one should not begin the process inside of a text editor (BBedit) or website builder application (Dreamweaver, GoLive, etc). Instead, the process should begin on a piece of paper or within flowchart software. According to Wikipedia, a flowchart is:

a schematic representation of an algorithm or a process.

In layman's terms, a flowchart provides a visual chart illustrating the structure of your website. How many main navigational items will your website contain? What will these items be called? Will there be any pages contained within the main pages? What will they be called? By planning out your website using a flowchart, you get a head start on:


Information organization
Usability
Determining the volume of content required


Stage 2: Modeling (wireframes)

In the modeling stage, static "wireframe" mockups are created for each unique web page. To create wireframes, one may use either:


paper and pencil
mockup software such as Adobe Photoshop or our personal choice, OmniGraffle Professional


These wireframes contain a bare-bones skeleton which illustrate the layout of a particular web page. Where will the logo go? Where will the content be located? Will there be breadcrumbs? Will you have a login box? Each of these questions (and many more) are answered in the modeling stage. A few things one should take into consideration when creating wireframes:


be sure to include all important elements that will be used (logo, navigation, content placement, images/video placement, login box, search, breadcrumbs, etc)
reference the flowchart which you created in Stage 1
don't use graphics - wireframes are meant to be bare-bones: boxes/circles/ovals which illustrate the placement of objects
only use text to label the elements, don't use body text (thats for the third stage)
focus on clean, well-organized, user-friendly layout; avoid cluttered layouts


Stage 3: Execution

The third stage in our professional web design process includes:


Creating the graphical user interface (GUI), also known as the design
Creating the content
Converting the web designs from images into code (markup) which web browsers use to present your website on the Internet


In the final stage, reference both the flowcharts created in Stage 1 and the wireframe mockups created in Stage 2 to create the final page layouts and designs. The design should be finalized in Photoshop or whatever image editing software you choose to use because it is a pain to make changes to the design once it has been converted into markup (code).

Trust us, process makes perfect

Following a well-structured web design process is by far one of the most importance steps that many web designers choose to neglect. By following a web design process such as the one we've just described, you increase the likelihood that your website will be well-organized, easily navigable, and user-friendly. If you're going to skip any of the items in our professional web design checklist, make sure that the web design process is not one of them.


Step 2: Project collaboration tools

Note: If you are the only one working on your project, then you can skip this step. Project collaboration tools are only recommended for projects which have two or more people involved.

Communication is one of the most important elements in a project. When multiple people are building a website, there usually are quite a few e-mails sent back and forth between one another. The more e-mails exchanged, the longer it can take to find a certain e-mail and the easier it can be to misplace important bits of information. This was one of the biggest problems that our professional web design company faced when we first began - there wasn't an easy way to organize the e-mails, attachments, milestones, etc.

Thankfully, after a little bit of research, we discovered a project collaboration tool called Basecamp. Taken directly from the Basecamp website:

Projects don't fail from a lack of charts, graphs, stats, or reports, they fail from a lack of clear communication. Basecamp solves this problem by providing tools tailored to improve the communication between people working together on a project.

Basecamp (and project collaboration tools like it) allows multiple users to access a website which stores all of the messages, milestones, file uploads, to-do lists, time it takes to complete parts of the project, etc. that are associated with a project. No more sending e-mails. Everything is securely stored on the Basecamp servers. The only e-mails you will ever receive are notifications whenever something is contributed or changed within a project.

Basecamp has packages available that can be tailored to suit your needs. If you only need to use Basecamp for one project at a time, then you can signup for free. Unfortunately with the free version, there are no file uploads allowed. However, for a measly $12/month, you can control up to 3 projects at once, have 250 megabytes of file upload space, have unlimited people and clients, have a real-time chat that can easily be integrated into Basecamp, and much more.

When it comes to project collaboration and communication, nothing beats a web application like Basecamp. If you're serious about your project and want to have the best communication possible, then you must try Basecamp. A project collaboration tool such as Basecamp is especially useful for a professional web design company which handles a number of projects and clients at any given time. For project collaboration, there is simply no better way to communicate.

Plug over.


Step 3: High-quality design

Who and what determines a "high-quality design"? There isn't one answer. Often times something that is appealing to one person may be extremely unappealing to another. Despite this fact, there are several things that a high-quality design should have:


Balance. Balance refers to the equal distribution of the heavy and the light elements on a single page.
Unity. Unity keeps all of the similar elements in the website alike and those that are diverse further apart; everything should be pulled into one integrated whole.
Emphasis. Emphasis involves the main points where the eye is drawn into the design; also known as "focal points".
Contrast. Not just color contrast, but also contrasting shapes, sizes, textures, and even typography.
Rhythm. Also known as repetition, rhythm brings internal consistency into your web design.


Since this is a broad topic and cannot be fully covered in this article, you can read more about the five basic elements of web design.

In addition to these five basic elements of web design, information overload is often times one of the biggest killers of a website design. Designers sometimes forget the saying "less is more" and somehow seem to believe that the more information that is stuffed onto one page, the better it will be. Don't become a victim of information overload. Keep your layout as clean as possible. Give different topics their own dedicated web pages. One of the biggest causes for information overload is not successfully planning out your website layout through the use of flowcharts and wireframes, discussed above in Step 1: Multi-stage web design process. Remember: white space is not necessarily a bad thing. As a matter of fact, white space is your friend, especially when creating a professional web design. Successful professional web designers learn how to use white, negative space to their advantage, and make it a key element of the design.


Step 4: Attention to detail

When professionally designing a website, every little detail is thought out and planned. Should there be a line above the headers, and if so, why? If you use rounded corners for your main body, should you be consistent and use rounded corners for everything else? Does your logo look better with a reflection underneath? The only way to answer any of these questions is to experiment. Sometimes the best results come from accidental experimentation. Don't always be happy with the first design. Work to improve upon the design and go through a few revisions, each time asking yourself "What can be done to make the design look better?", be more consistent, and most importantly, give your website a stronger identity and image.

When we say "detail", we're not just talking about graphic design elements. No, graphic design is just the tip of the iceberg. We're also talking about typography (font faces i.e. Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet MS, font sizes i.e 10 pixels, 12 pixels, 18 pixels, font weight/style i.e. bold, italic, font placement), the use of negative space, and other elements of design.

Attention to detail is important because it is oftentimes the details in your design which make your website stand out from the competition (or from other websites in general). People get bored with the same old design - give them something different, unique, and attractive, and they will come back and visit. Heck, they may even become inspired by your design.

Remember: Less is more. Use details, but don't abuse details.


Step 5: Current web design technology (CSS)

CSS - also known as cascading style sheets - replaced table-based website layouts years ago. The problem is, a lot of web designers are still using tables to create their designs. Not only is this unprofessional, but tables just plain suck. Here are a number of reasons why using tables for your web design is a bad idea:


Tables slow down your website. Everything inside of a table's cell is loaded before being shown to the user. This is especially apparent for people using dial up connections.
Tables make messy code and add unnecessary junk markup. File sizes are increased due to the excessive lines of code which means slower load times. Also, having to sift through hundreds (sometimes thousands) of lines of code just to make a change isn't a lot of fun.
Universal layout updates are difficult and time consuming when using tables. Making universal edits with tables involves opening each file, sifting through the code and junk markup, and making a change (again, on each page). Often times with CSS, all one must do is open the stylesheet and change a single value.
Tables should only be used to show data, not be used to design websites.
Tables limit your creativity and design. Table layouts are limited to boring, grid-based layouts. With CSS, you can place anything anywhere. The layout possibilities with CSS are endless.
CSS will save you time and increase your revenue in the long run. Updates and edits are much easier using CSS than tables. Because of faster load times, fewer visitors are likely to become impatient and leave. Longer visits = more browsing, more ad-clicking, lower bounce rates = more money for you.
Display your CSS website on tons of high-quality CSS Showcase websites. Tons of exposure if your website is featured. Table-based layouts are not welcome. Complete list on listible.com.


Some people will argue that table-based layouts are better than layouts which are built using CSS. However, oftentimes the person arguing that tables are better than CSS is the person who spent thousands of dollars on a table-based layout. Despite what anyone tells you, table-based layouts are inferior to CSS and should be avoided at all costs.

To read all about CSS, visit w3schools.com. Again, to be blunt, if your website is created using tables, it is not professional web design quality. Start using CSS stylesheets today and keep the tables in your spreadsheet application.


Step 6: Well written, interesting, grammatically-correct content

One thing that greatly compromises the quality and credibility of a website is poorly written, grammatically incorrect, misspelled content. This kind of content is unfortunately present in an extremely high number of websites - especially "professional" company websites.

If you don't know how to write, then hire someone to write the content of your website. You'll thank yourself later. Even if you do know how to write, mistakes are easy to make. Run through your content a few times to confirm that everything makes sense, is interesting, and is spelled correctly. You'll look more professional and people will take what you have to say more seriously.


Step 7: Usability

Website usability is extremely important. According to usability.gov:

In general, usability refers to how well users can learn and use a product to achieve their goals and how satisfied they are with that process. Usability, as defined by Joseph Dumas and Janice (Ginny) Redish, means that people who use the product can do so quickly and easily to accomplish their tasks. Usability may also consider such factors as cost-effectiveness and usefulness.

If website usability is poor, then people can easily become frustrated and leave your website. A great deal of importance must be placed on website usability if you want your web design to be of professional quality. It is usually poor usability which separates the regular websites from the professionally designed websites. Usability is the most important element of a professionally designed website.

For a wealth of information regarding website usability, visit usability.gov and also read our Dos and Donts of Website Navigation Usability.


Step 8: XHTML and CSS validation

Some people will argue that validating your website with XHTML and CSS validation from W3.org is a waste of time. To be blunt, they are wrong (for a number of reasons).


Accessibility. Without accessibility, you run the risk of being sued. For example: a disabled person who cannot use a "conventional" browser can sue you if your website is inaccessible to them. Although validation doesn't necessarily guarantee accessibility, it is an important component of exercising ones due diligence and is reason enough that you should validate your website's XHTML and CSS.
Cross browser compatibility. The more validation errors your website has, the higher the chances are that your website will not look the same in all web browsers. We will cover the importance of cross browser compatibility in the next step.
You look more professional with a valid website. Again, like having interesting content free of grammatical errors and misspellings, having a valid website makes you look more professional to your visitors. It tells them "Hey, I care about my website's image, I took the time to validate it".


If you're building a website for the first time, then you may find that your website has a lot of validation errors. Don't worry, this happens to the best of us. The more websites you build and the more time that you take to learn the rules of validation, the fewer errors you will get and the easier it will be to validate your website.

For more information about XHTML and CSS validation visit W3.org.


Step 9: Standards-compliant

Perhaps the most difficult, time-consuming aspect of professional web design is making sure your website is standards-compliant.

Taken directly from Wikipedia:

Standards-compliant is a term often used in describing websites & user agents' (often web browsers) relative compliance with web standards proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

In layman's terms, if you want your website to be considered professional, then it must look and function the same in all major browsers. In addition, achieving interoperability lowers costs to content providers since they must only develop one version of a document.

As mentioned above, creating a standards-compliant website will take a good deal of time and can even involve using basic hacks in order for certain elements to appear the same across all major browsers. Major browsers include: Internet Explorer 6 (IE6 -PC), Internet Explorer 7 (IE7 - PC), Firefox (PC and Mac), Safari (PC and Mac), and Opera (PC and Mac). These browsers control the majority of the browser market share and therefore the website which you create should be tested extensively in each of these browsers to ensure standards-compliance. In addition, XHTML and CSS validation (as mentioned in Step 8: XHTML and CSS validation) are extremely important when programming a website to be standards-compliant. Validate your website, validate your CSS stylesheet, validate yourself (okay, you can't validate yourself, but if you could, would you?).


Step 10: Optimization

Website optimization is another crucial factor that must be taken into consideration when professionally designing a website.
Website optimization includes:


Image optimization. Next to audio and video, images can severely compromise the speed in which your website loads. Always compress your images using Photoshop or your favorite image compression utility. By compressing images, you decrease the size of a file which allows a web page to load quicker which ultimately decreases the chance that your visitor will leave your website due to long load times.
Audio/Video optimization. Another major annoyance which screams "unprofessional" is having enormous video and audio files embedded in your web pages. Try to use Flash Video (.flv) compression for your video files and (.mp3) compression for your audio files. Not only are the file sizes smaller than using (.avi) or (.mpg) for video or (.wav) for audio, but the video/audio loads faster which means other elements on your web page will load faster, too.
Clean code (just say no to tables). In case you skipped Step 5, do not use tables when designing your website - use CSS (cascading style sheets). Tables have a ton of junk markup which will slow down your page load time, increase file sizes, and make editing and updating quite difficult.
Validate your XHTML and CSS. Although covered in Step 8, XHTML and CSS validation is an integral part of professional website optimization and therefore should not be skipped. Validate your XHTML and CSS.



Step 11: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly

Professionally designed websites should be designed with a solid SEO friendly foundation. To make your website SEO friendly:


Don't use Flash. If you must use Flash, make sure it is used sparingly. Flash content is not crawlable by search engine spiders and therefore the content located inside of Flash files cannot be indexed in the search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, or Ask.
Don't use Frames. Search Engine Spiders have a difficult time crawling through a website that uses frames. Many Search Engine Spiders will receive the following message when visiting a website designed using frames:
“Sorry! You need a frames-browser to view this site.”

Keyword Research. Optimize your web pages by including keywords relevant to the content on your website. Use keyword research tools such as Wordtracker or Overture to find the best, most relevant keywords for your content.
Researched Keywords in Title of web pages. Arguably the most important element in SEO, make sure that your title tags include the keywords found in the keyword research stage.
Researched Keywords in URL. Be sure to include the researched keywords in the title of your web pages as well. For example, if a page on your website is about energy drinks, make sure that the file is saved as "energy-drinks.html". Use dashes instead of underscores, if possible.
CSS Navigation/CSS Stylesheets. CSS navigation guarantees that your website navigational text is crawlable by search engine spiders. CSS navigation also loads very quickly and anyone will be able to view the navigation using any browser.
Researched Keywords in Anchor Text. For hyperlinks inside and outside of your website, be sure to include the researched keywords in the anchor text of your hyperlinks. This helps search engines better determine what a particular page is about and will help that page rank higher with the researched keyword(s).
Images: ALT tags, no text in images. Not only are ALT tags required for XHTML validation, but they are necessary components of web accessibility. Try to avoid placing text inside of your images since search engine spiders cannot crawl image text. However, if you must place text inside of an image, use the text inside of the image as that image's ALT tag. Search engine spiders can read ALT tags, just not the text inside of images.



Step 12: Abuse of Flash, Javascript, and sound effects

The last step in creating a professional web design and website is to avoid the abuse of Flash, Javascript, and sound effects. Not everyone has Flash or Javascript enabled on their computer, and therefore your website should not be built around them. If you're going to use Flash or Javascript, use it sparingly.

Try not to use Flash Intros on your website. Most people hate waiting for Flash Intros to load, hate being forced to sit through them, and hate being surprised by the sound that many of them have. Do not create your website using only Flash. Again, what about the users who do not have Flash enabled on their computer? That could be a potential client, customer, or reader who you're missing out on because of an unnecessary technological limitation.

If you're going to use sound effects, make sure that they only play if the user enables sound on your website - never force sound effects onto your visitors. Nothing screams "unprofessional" like having a sound effect play each time a navigational item is rolled over or even worse, when the visitor lands on the home page of your website.

As a matter of fact, Flash and sound effects should generally be avoided when creating a professional web design. Javascript is the only exception as long as you program the website to work even if Javascript is disabled. Flash and sound effects are a nuisance to a lot of people, so for that reason alone, try to stay away from them.

The recipe to professional web design

These 12 steps make up the majority of the recipe which many professional web designers live by when designing websites. Of course, knowing the things that you know after reading this article and actually being able to create a professional web design are two very different things. However, as it does with anything, practice makes perfect. Now get out there and start building a professionally designed website! And hey, if you can't do it yourself, go to Google and search "professional web design". Chromatic Sites is in there, along with many other highly-respected professional web design companies.

The website design your company commissioned a few years ago may hold a special place in the hearts of some within your company, but the market needs to be gauged regularly to determine if what worked then is what will work today. Your online presence must evolve if you hope to stay ahead of your competition. Mimicry and imitation of the #1 company in your sector is not the answer. Let DexterityMedia.com help you think ahead, employing not only proven design tactics, but revolutionary methods as well. As a leading Search Engine Optimization Company and Interactive Media Agency with offices in New York and Dallas, DexterityMedia.com is dedicated to achieving a strategic online presence for our clients through innovation, experience, constant testing and evaluation.

Working in close collaboration with your company, DexterityMedia.com's web designers and developers focus on usability, searchability and corporate branding, creating the most prospect-friendly, user-friendly online experience for your websites visitors.

While we do enjoy some of the more cutting edge tools and methods, we tend to shy away from gimmickry and the gratuitous use of "the next big thing," relying instead on proven and researched technologies that we predict will have staying power.

Affordable, innovative and strategically sound, DexterityMedia.com website designs focus on building your business.

DexterityMedia.com designers have worked for some of the biggest names in business. Contact us for a portfolio sample and URLs to some of our work or to schedule an evaluation of your website design or redesign needs.

The concept of web development may include more than a singular ecommerce website.

I have talked about the subject of web development in light of positively constructing a website. I’ve also talked about the mentality needed to envision the entire site prior to launch so you have some idea of where you want to go. The goal also included the need for a plan for growth and site expansion.

This article looks at the subject from the point of view of a corporate office with a few satellite offices that support and expand the potential of the primary business.

In a brick and mortar store environment it is often true that a business will start in a singular location. As trust is built through longevity and commitment to quality and service the business grows. If the business does well the owner may decide to develop a second store in another city within the region of primary service and support. Other stores may be opened as a result of the ongoing success of the overall operation. The idea is multiple stores – one brand.

Web development may be the mirror image of the brick and mortar model. Why do I say mirror? Well, because in the case of an online environment an ecommerce business owner may be better served by starting with the secondary stores and building up to the primary online business portal.

If you’re thinking, “That does seem backwards,” allow me to explain.

These satellite stores should have direct links to your primary site. Each satellite may have its own emphasis, but will always relate to the thrust of your main business. The end goal remains the same, multiple stores – one brand.

Why develop more than one site?

In web development the idea of more than one site could mean improved site rankings for your primary site and additional opportunities to reach potential customers.

Think of it this way. Each satellite website you develop can take on a distinct list of keywords or phrases. Each will be associated with your primary product. All content on the site will be geared toward the specific keyword or phrase.

If you have four supporting sites that can go online at the same time as your primary site you have five distinct opportunities to reach consumers with your message. Work to optimize each site for search engines and select unique and researched keywords or phrases for each site.

Is that the only benefit?

By developing your web presence this way you begin the process with backlinks already in place from the satellite sites to your primary web presence. As your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies begin yielding results they should do so in all five instances and ultimately this effort benefits your bottom line.

By having five separate sites that market the same product from a slightly different vantage point the potential improves for increased sales. This is true not just because there are more sites for consumers to view, but because search engines will connect with this scenario and provide improved rankings earlier.

Proper web development may include more than one site and more than one approach as the vehicle used to maximize the overall potential of the product or service being marketed.

This article takes a look at the top 10 web design tips for users at any level. It will give you 10 complete different points to contemplate when you next begin a site design or when talking to your web design consultant/employee.

Design is never straight forward and web design has the additional unpredictable complication of technology thrown in. This means that you need to consider the consequences of your design decisions and how it will effect the most important people who see your site, the users themselves. The following tips should help you consider this and have a positive effect on your site and its users.

1. Navigation & Functionality

You should never sacrifice overall functionality for artistic extravagance. It is highly unlikely your site will ever achieve its purpose if the people who visit it cannot clearly and easily navigate around it.

Your site should look good but first and foremost consider how someone who knows nothing about the site would think when they landed there.

Something occurring in website frequently these days is Mystery Meat Navigation. This is a term coined by Vincent Flanders and it is used to describe site where navigation structures are so obscure and difficult to process that users cannot identify them at all and end up running there mouse across whole sections of a screen just to identify hyperlinks.

2. Images

People say images are worth a 1000 words and in web design that’s true in 2 ways. Firstly an image can do a lot more than text in some situation but secondly they are much, much bigger files with a higher download time.

It is widely accepted users will click away from a page that takes longer than 5-10 seconds to load and every time you put an image in a page you are increasing the likelihood of this happening. Additionally each image you imbed into a page design activates an additional HTTP request to your server so dividing an image into smaller ones or using lots of small images across a page does not solve the problem.

ALT tags should also be factored into the code of a website. They are a huge help to people who have either images turned off in a browse, mobile broswers that can’t read the images or a random error preventing the image from showing. They also hold a small SEO benefit.

3. Tables

It is advised that you use CSS and not tables to format a document but in some cases tables can be necessary. Remember one thing however, a table cannot be displayed until it has fully loaded. This can potentially cause a huge problem for users as they wait for the page to load, nothing appears then out of nowhere the whole page is done.

Someone is much more likely to click away when nothing is loading than when they can see progress.

4. Fonts

Don’t design sites to use fonts only you have, chances are they will be converted into some dull font and ruin the effect you were trying to achieve. Save special fonts for specific headers and convert them to images. Make the rest of your site in standard fonts so that as many browsers as possible will see it in the way you meant it to be. Recommended fonts for high scale compatibility are Arial, Verdana, Courier, Tahoma and Helvetica.

5. Plug-Ins

Plug-ins hold a lot of potential for both users and designers but it can easily be misused and misguided.

Plug-ins have a many forms and uses, the most popular being Java and Flash Player. I have heard a lot of people say that these plug-ins are “safe” and that everyone has them but this is simply not true. Every plug-in has a stack of different versions and connects differently depending on the browser the user is surfing with.

Think if your users will really want to browse to other sites to download a plug-in, restart the browser then navigate back. If the answer is no use other tricks at your disposal to make your page unique and save the big guns that are Flash and Java for times where it is essential.

6. Tags

The “tags” I am referring to hear are meta keywords and description, title, alt and h1 tags. Together these tags help manage your sites search engine optimisation (SEO) potential and this is defiantly something not to overlook. Helping people find your site will bring more traffic in and more conversion if you are a retail site.

The higher search engines rank you the more traffic will filter down and the more successful your site will be. Try to keep a constant theme running through all your tags but do so in a subtle way. Splashing the same word 1000 times on your page will only have negative effects so make sure you strike the correct balance between informative and spammy.

7. Browsers

In a perfect world everyone would use the same browser and your website would look the same on everyone’s screen but unfortunately this is not the case. Every browser has its own specific functions and styles and learning to make you code cooperate with both can present some serious problems.

The three you really need to concern yourself with are Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. These make up a good 95% of the browser market at the very least and while there are some additional popular browser I would not recommend you spend time optimising code for the rest.

The only thing you can do is do your best and stay away from browser specific functions, you’ll never make someone get a new browser.

8. Pop Ups

Something that is very important to remember is that the user should be in control of their browser and desktop. Do not place unnecessary pop ups and window opening links everywhere and the user will feel they have lost control of the site, become annoyed and close the windows.

There are some exceptions to using the (_blank) attribute but I would steer clear whenever possible.

9. Text Layout

Text is part of your design to and positioning it correctly on the page is very important. Try to get all the copy you need as early in the design process as possible. This means you will be able to design around the copy instead of trying to cram it into smaller spaces because someone wrote twice as much copy as they said they were going to.

Use the right alignment for the right situation, remember 99% of people will prefer left align and while justified look aesthetically better it can be very difficult to read in longer bouts.

10. Site Search

In this day and age finding what you want on a website in paramount. After you have followed the first tip on navigation you should also provide a search bar on your site so that a visitor who cannot immediately see what they are looking for can search. Many internet studies have seen the success of these smaller additions to your site and free ones are available from Google and many other SE operators.

Conclusion

Taking these 10 tips into account will help you design a more user-friendly and successful website, sometime it may seem like they are hindering your grand design but failing to take notice may result in your site being a very pretty stop sign for browsers. Just because you can find your way around your Flash menu system that takes 6 minutes to load doesn’t mean Mrs Smith who needs the product can.

Before you embark upon the process involved when you design your own website, you must select and register a domain name. That is your site's brand name and contact name. In order to be given a domain name of your very own, you must make a yearly payment to the appropriate registering entity to obtain the exclusive right to it.

Obtaining a domain name doesn't mean you have a web site or anything close. All you have is a name. It is similar to getting yourself set up with a name for your business is the "real" world - just obtaining exclusive rights to a name doesn't mean you are totally in business. You just have a name.

A web host commonly implements numerous computers that are all linked to the Internet to allow a very large number of web pages to be broadcast all over the world. The first step in making your new web page visible is to use a reputable web host that will give your personalized website a virtual home.

Thinking of a domain name is very much like thinking of a name for your company in the physical world. Similarly, a web hosting account is the equivalent of renting an office for your company. After you have come up with a domain name and signed on with a web host, you will then need to design your own website to attract visitors.

As a beginning web designer, you first need to design your own website in a attractive, and appealing manner. After you have got your basic web page posted you will be able to make any adjustments that you feel are needed. There are free web editors and commercial versions that are widely available.

When you choose to use free software, you can also learn more from a complete tutorial on the web. The step-by-step tutorial will guide you in the process of making your own web page, site map, and comment forms. It will also give you tips on the basic aspects of the software so you can continue to update and improve the site in the future.

A crucial aspect of web development is optimizing your site for search engines. This should be undertaken from the very start of the design process. In addition, there are a number of other concerns involved in developing web pages.

Online directories are locations where people go to find websites, the same way they do with search engines. However, there are considerable differences between the two. In order to be successful at increasing website traffic, it is crucial for people to understand these differences.

Whereas search engines usually accept almost any site that is submitted to them without looking at its quality, directories typically only accept sites that offer quality content. Since humans review all websites submitted to directories, low quality sites rarely get accepted.

Therefore, it makes sense to make sure that your website is ready before submitting it to any directories. Remember that directories list sites, not pages. In most circumstances, you should only submit the front page of your website to directories.

WHICH DIRECTORIES SHOULD YOU SUBMIT TO?

You should always begin your website promotion agenda by listing your website in the most popular online directories. These directories can significantly affect your search engine ranking so it is a wise move to list your website here before you submit to the search engines.

Directories can also send significant traffic to your website. Make sure you are listed in all of the major directories before you try any other promotional methods. In this way, you will have laid the groundwork for a successful marketing campaign.

Submitting your website to the directories is an easy process, requiring very little effort. However, making certain that the site will be accepted is the difficult part.

Since directories are far more selective than search engines and require much more preparation, you must become familiar with their policies before you submit your website. If you do not follow their instructions carefully, your website will be rejected.

If you are unsure about the appropriateness or quality of your website, research web page design articles to see what works and what does not. The primary goal of a webmaster should always be to have unique, high-quality content and lots of it.

OPEN DIRECTORY PROJECT: The best directory to start with is the Open Directory Project. Make sure you read their instructions carefully before you submit your website. The editors usually review sites quickly and will not reject them unless there is a good reason for doing so.

The Open Directory Project is free of charge, making it a perfect place to start. Once you are successful at listing your website on the Open Directory Project, you should move on to the number two directory.

YAHOO: Try to get your website listed in the Yahoo directory. Commercial websites are charged a fee but it is worth the price. Non-commercial websites are free. Again, make sure you read their instructions and guidelines carefully before you attempt to list your site.

LOOKSMART: The third biggest directory is Looksmart. A good listing in it can send a lot of visitors your way, but it is expensive. Looksmart does not draw as many visitors as Yahoo or the Open Directory Project. However, MSN, Altavista and Dogpile all use Looksmart's data in their search results, making it attractive to a lot of people.

SUBMISSION PROCESS:

Now you know where you should submit but how do you get started? It is quite simple. The first thing to do is to carefully read the rules and instructions on how to submit. They are usually displayed when you are beginning the submission process. Read them over a couple of times and follow them to the letter.

Most directories consist of various categories and subcategories. Each category consists of sites related to the category’s name (e.g. the Business category will only have sites relevant to business). You need to find the category (or more often, subcategory) that most closely fits the subject matter of your site.

You can accomplish this by browsing around the directory or by doing a search on the keyword or keywords that are most relevant to your website. There may be several categories that fit your website and you will have to choose the one that most closely describes it. Make sure you submit your website to the most accurate category for your site since submissions done to the wrong categories are usually thrown out.

All directories will ask for the title and description of the website you are submitting. Give careful thought to your choice. A good title can significantly boost the amount of traffic you receive. A bad title can work against you and decrease the amount of traffic you obtain from the directory.

Your title should be brief and include your most important keyword and start with a letter that is close to the beginning of the alphabet. Many directories list websites in alphabetical order and getting listed near the top can boost your traffic.

Since the title has to be the official title of the site and it must be used on your pages, you might be required to change the name of your site. The title must sound like it just happens to start with a letter near the beginning of the alphabet or it will get edited. Do not use hyperbole (best, unbelievable, etc.) or all capital letters.

As with your title, do not stuff your description with cheap filler words (greatest, cheapest, fantastic, etc.) Never use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Write a short (20-25 words) description that exactly describes your site and includes one or two of your best keywords. Your description should flow smoothly. If the editor thinks your description is just a list of keywords, he/she will reject it. Try to make it sound like an objective review.

After you have entered all the information, check and re-check for any possible typos or spelling errors. Be very careful typing in your URL as a typo in it would result in your site never getting reviewed. When you are ready, hit the submit button.

You will be notified by email if your website if accepted but not, as a rule, if it is rejected. Therefore, it is difficult to know whether your site has been reviewed and rejected or if it has not yet been reviewed. Give them enough time to process your submission and wait a few weeks before you resubmit your site.

Web traffic is a major part of a website. Websites are not able to function without it, as it is the amount of data and information received and sent by a website visitor. A website should have increased web traffic in order to survive. To increase the web traffic, a website should have many visitors.

How are you going to increase the web traffic of your web site? If you are a web developer or ecommerce owner, increasing the amount of visitors in your website is of extreme importance. For you to gain many visitors, you need to use the following methods to learn more about increasing the traffic of your website.

• You only need to maintain a particular content of your website. Your website should contain all the information your visitors need. The information you should feed your reader must contain many links to your website. You also have to put quality content to give your visitors reason to come back.

• Have a regular distribution of newsletters. Newsletter serves as a reminder to your visitors that your website still exists. You should send newsletters especially to those who have subscribed but has failed to visit your site for a long time. Write and send newsletters on a regular basis. It can be monthly or weekly as long as the newsletter you will be sending to your subscribers is of quality and has convincing content.

• Make a forum or community posts. This will give you information to all the asked questions of your visitors. Not only that, it also answers all the questions of your visitors including yours. It also gives you information that you can add to your website. Get your self involved in the forum, and add your advertisements as well as your URL.

• You can run contests or promos that will encourage your visitors to log on to your website repeatedly. Promos and contests will catch the interest of your visitors. Make them go after your good prize; it will make them excited to win. You should make your visitors aware of your rules, like the most times that a visitor uses your website, the more chances of winning. This catchy promotion will absolutely increase the web traffic of your website.

• Invite good writers to your website. From writing your own web contents, you are sure to save money from it. However, there are things you need to master before you can write a quality article. By inviting writers with good reputation, your site will be a good hit to the visitors especially to the ones who appreciate good insightful literature. They are going to write quality articles that will make your visitors comeback to your website.

• You can also invite special personalities in your website. They can join the forum together with all your visitors. You can hold a special event where your visitors will be given a chance to chat with a prestigious personality. They are given special privilege to ask questions and chat with the special personality invited.

• Advertise your website through banners, text links, magazines, newspapers, media and offline advertisements. This is an invitation that should catch the attention. Make sure to make convincing advertisements. Aside from the mentioned above you can also try giving away free e-books or articles as well as classified ads.

• You can also give the top visitors free items or freebies. These items are given to the frequent visitors of your website. Pens, shirts, stress balls and many others that can be given with your website’s name and URL. This will be a good advertisement.

To build a good website, you must build a good reputation. It is the most effective way to make your website famous. This is attained through writing emails and making good contents of your website. You can also write articles on other websites as long as you put a small resource box after your article. This will serve as the link to your website. With more articles you made, the more chance of getting more traffic in your website.

You are able to get the major numbers of traffic in your website by using the following methods. If you want to earn money, you have to work for it, and you need to do lots of effort to attain effective and positive popularity of your website.

You can get a lot of website traffic without having to spend a lot of money. If you want to develop a busy and profitable website for your online business, there are a lot of techniques for getting website traffic without it being expensive. Some of these cheap website traffic techniques include article directories, SEO, blog posting and even forum posting.

Among these methods, one of the most practical and most effective is submitting articles to article directories. These articles should contain a link or two back to your own site, which can help you increase your site traffic from readers who may be interested in seeing more of what you’re offering. There are already several excellent article directories available for your submissions. As long as your articles remain in the directories you submitted them to, this method will be one of the best and cheapest ways to pull in traffic.

Using SEO, or search engine optimization, is another inexpensive yet very effective way for getting traffic to your website. By using proper search engine optimization, your articles and your website’s overall content will become more search engine friendly, as well as your website. Include your keyword in the domain name of the website that hosts your articles. Also include keywords in the first paragraphs of your pages, as well as the title of the page itself. These SEO techniques will help your site get better exposure with search engines, and your articles will rank higher on search results.

Blogging is now becoming more popular than ever before, and you should take full advantage of it. More and more online businessmen are using blogs to promote their products and services, and it just makes perfect sense to follow suit. There are several good blogging sites on the Internet that allow people to sign up and create a blogging account with them for free, such as Blogger or Wordpress. Create your blog and link your home page to it. Updating your blog regularly will allow it to become more relevant to search engines, and as a result, it will help to drive more traffic to your site. It would help a lot if your articles and posts contain the appropriate keywords.

Another inexpensive website traffic technique that you can use is to join and participate in forums. Finding a forum that is related to your website’s content is even better. You can then easily post discussions, answers, and even start threads that can be useful to other forum members. You can pull in traffic by making entertaining or informative posts, since you’ll develop a reputation for being an authority on certain subjects. And don’t forget to have a link to your site in your signature file or your member profile.

See? You can get a lot of website traffic without spending a lot of money, just by following these techniques. Remember, effective usage of relevant keywords in your posts and articles, proper SEO methods, article submissions, blogging, and forum posting can all become invaluable but inexpensive tools for driving traffic to your website.

One of the most important things that any website owner needs is a continuous stream of traffic to their site. As more and more websites compete for the same targeted traffic, webmasters have to constantly deal with the predicament of getting the traffic that they need to keep their online business going. This problem has also been the subject of countless solutions and ideas from varied sources. As can be expected, some of these solutions have been useful, some have proven to be a waste of time, and a few others have been rubbish, to say the least.

One of the good ideas, though, that has resulted in getting loads of traffic into websites is the concept of viral marketing. The idea of viral marketing makes use of a person’s natural instinct to tell others about something that he or she has found to be useful, entertaining, or remarkable. As a matter of fact, companies both online and in the real world have relied on “word of mouth” to promote their services or products.

There are several ways to attract people and encourage them to spread the word about a certain product or service. It can be a funny anecdote, an addictive game, or a flashy production number. Viral marketing is a truly inventive and inexpensive method of advertising and promotion, which any businessman would do well to use. Even if you do have to spend some money, the benefits of a successful viral marketing campaign would greatly overshadow the costs.

Tell-A-Friend Scripts

If you’re going to use viral marketing, using a Tell-a-Friend script would probably be the easiest way to start. This is a simple programming script that webmasters can include in their website’s programming. Tell-a-friend scripts are usually installed in web pages where any form of media, such as a video, a flash game, etc. is also installed. This makes it easy enough for users to inform their friends or family members about the interesting media they saw on that particular site. Sometimes they can even send the media itself, depending on the programming of the script.

The script allows a person to enter his contact details such as name, his email address, and the email address of the person he’s sending the media to. He can then send the media file to anyone he wants to, like an attachment to an email. Because the recipient recognizes the name of the sender as a friend or family member, the thought of spam mail would never enter his mind. The chances of the media being blocked by the recipient would be gone, since tell-a-friend scripts always send out the media based on the information that the sender inputs. Granted, this is quite a devious method, but the results can be surprisingly effective as well.

When the email is received, the attached media will either be viewed, heard, or read. The email would also include a blurb or two about the company or website sponsoring the media. This is how you can initially promote your products, services, or even just your website for starters. Of course, another tell-a-friend script will be included as well. As the entire process begins anew, more and more people will know about your website or company that sponsors the media files. There is the additional benefit of people clicking on the links in the emails they receive, which means additional traffic for your site. Additional traffic could also mean additional prospects.

Using Tell-A-Friend Scripts

It doesn’t need any complex programming skills to use tell-a-friend scripts on your website. Actually, you can install it on your web page simply by copying and pasting the script’s code. It’s also very easy to find one on the Internet. Just type in “tell a friend script” in any search engine and press enter. You will see a number of sites where you can go and download the scripts you want. It’s all a matter of looking for it, then copy-pasting it onto your site.

Tell-a-friend scripts can become one of your most potent weapons in your viral marketing campaign. This harmless script, although quite simple, can do wonders for driving much-needed traffic to your site. You do have to use some patience, though, especially if the media files you use to spread the word doesn’t attract as many people as initially expected. Sometimes it takes time for people to notice the value of your media. Never fear, since your ads will be seen by lots of people who can potentially become your customers - by: Richard Legg

Nowadays, it seems that everyone and his cousin have taken to blogging. This form of online self-expression has slowly but steadily taken over the World Wide Web to become somewhat of a phenomenon in recent years. Some people use blogs as their personal journals, some may see them as an outlet for their creative work, and others may just want their own personal place in cyberspace to share thoughts and ideas.

Now, a quick question for the Internet businessman. If you have a blog, can you use it to boost your site's exposure and drive more traffic to it? A blog is great for sharing ideas and posting about things you like or don't like, but can a blog help your online business succeed?

The answer is a definite YES. Your blog can do wonders for your website, but it all depends on the way you utilize its potential power. I'm going to teach you a tried and proven method that has been effective for other website owners, and this method is applicable for any type of blog. You will just need a lot of creativity and some time to make it work.

First thing you have to keep in mind is that most blogs on the Web have a community feel to them. You may think that your blog is your own, since you're the one who installed and developed it. And you may be right. But your blog is also connected to other blogs on the same site. You may also be connected to other blogs that are using the same blogging software as you. This situation guarantees that sooner or later, a person will land on your blog and be able to see all that you have to say. This can also mean that your blog is now getting free advertising within the blogging community. I don't think you need me to tell you how beneficial this can be for your site's traffic.

However, you do have to keep in mind what you're posting as your blog's content. If all you're doing is making posts that promote your products or your business, then you're dead. Believe me, that is not the recommended way to use your blog. Have you seen the Internet lately? It's already overflowing with loads of advertisements for products and services. Be different. Your visitors need a good reason to keep coming back to your blog. Use it to give expert and knowledgeable information about your line of work to your readers. If you're selling a product on your site, talk about it on your blog, and don't just post a measly advertising blurb.

Let's say you're selling power tools on your website. You can write reviews and other useful posts about the kinds of tools you have on your site. What you're doing is providing some insight for your potential customers about the tools you're selling. These blog posts will then be able to generate confidence in your readers and encourage them to actually buy the products.

Another advantage of having a blog is that it makes it easier for interested buyers to get access to the seller (that's you). Usually, readers of a particular blog post are allowed to leave comments on what they've just read. For example, you've just finished a review for the new Ajax power drill. Whenever a reader comes across it and has a question regarding that product, he or she can easily leave a comment. You can then see the questions and post your answers. See? You can now connect with your readers and potential customers personally. This make you much more approachable, as compared to the faceless entity behind the impersonal commercial website.

In addition, your readers will also have the option of subscribing to your blog feeds via RSS or to your newsletters, so they can be immediately notified about any new posts you make. If you have established a reputable standing in your niche, a long list of eager readers will soon be waiting for your next post, and lots more will be coming to your website - By.Richard Legg