1. Choose a simple design for your Web site
2. Keep continuity from page to page.
3. Regularly update your website.
4. Make sure that your Web site is easily accessible to the customers.

Try to know the drawbacks

Things like pop-ups, bad links, pages that announce “Under construction”, browser incompatibility and dated information often irritate the existing and future clients. Similarly, if the users are forced to download programs to see your site, users would try to stay away from your site.

Set goals

Before starting conceptualization of design and content you must have a goal in your mind. And the available content and design must be according to the demands of your goal. If you develop your Web site without setting any particular goal, your business wouldn’t be supported by your Web site the way you want it to do.

Know your Website users

It can be very handy if you know about the likely visitors of your site. Are you interested in soliciting new prospects in your site or just targeting the existing customers? You must consider that besides your primary target customers, your site may also be visited by people like employees, competitors and media. Always make structure of your site keeping the possible visitors in your mind.

Simple design is the best design

Usually, people desire to use every tech trick to make their Web site sizzle and dazzle but such desired must be restrained as countless bells and whistles can in fact be a turn-off for users. Simple to read and simple to navigate always prove the best designs. Further, there must be a consistency from one page to the other.

Keep it Update

It’s not over yet, once the site goes live. You must maintain and update your site to remove any error and keep the content fresh and update. An out dated content on your Web site makes your business look unprofessional and it also conveys to the potential customers that you are no longer in business.

Make it easier for customers’ access

Underestimating the influence of search engines is one of the biggest mistakes. What the use of a killer Web site if your customers ca’t find it easily.

Related links

• avoid some common Web site woes

This article is the property of http://www.iguides.org
Copying and publishing any article from our site is strictly NOT allowed

Of course, hiring a web site designer is not always easy. There are tens of thousands of designers to choose from, and you need to make sure that you are hiring the one that will be able to complete your job to your exact specifications. Of course, price is also something to consider when hiring a web site designer for your business. If you are starting a new company, you may not have the money to hire a top of the line designer. This is something that you have to consider when going over your budget.

Here are the steps that go into hiring a web site designer.

1. Make a list of what you would want your web site designer to do for you. This will not only give you a better idea of the direction that you want to move in, but it will also allow you to communicate effectively with potential designers. Make sure that you take your time when compiling your list and finalizing the details. The more direction that you have the easier you will make things on both you and the designer that you hire.

2. Begin to search for web site designers both online and in your local area. You may find that a local designer can help you best. Not only will you be keeping things in your area, but you will also know for sure that you can meet with the designer in person if need be. Of course, if you search for a web site designer online you will be expanding the pool that you can choose from. When searching online you will want to use search engines, while also asking those in the know who they recommend.

3. Compile a short list of designers that you may want to work with; five will do. From there, send each potential designer the list that you put together in step one. This will allow them to see what you are looking for, and then give you some feedback. Chances are that each web site designer will respond with what they think about your project, as well as how much it will cost. This will give you a better idea of who is best, and will in turn allow you to narrow down your list even further.

4. Now that you have an even smaller list, you should ask for samples. It is essential to see what type of design work that each person is capable of. This will give you the chance to see the designs that they have completed in the past, while also giving you some ideas about what you may want.

5. The final step is to decide on a web site designer. This is a big decision, so don’t rush into things. Take your time, and then make a decision based on what you think is best for your business.

Overall, the steps above are perfect for anybody who needs to hire a qualified and reputable web site designer.

Search Engines defined

Search Engines are systematized retrieval structures designed to help find information. It is the job of a search engine to minimize the time consumed in finding information. This amount of information must be consulted similar to managing techniques for information overload.

Search Engine Optimization defined

Search Engine Optimization also known as SEO is the process by which the volume of quality traffic to a website via search results through a search engine. The earlier the site is published or the ranking it appears on a search engine result will generally influence more searchers to visit the site. Chances are the first page results of a search on an engine will be the ones to be getting all the attention.

Basic Rules for effective optimization

Human powered searches

Easy reading Your perspective target market, visitor or audience should be able to easily comprehend what is written. Whether you or your marketing team, find it comprehensible is at this point not the important matter. Remember the object is to be able to capture an audience. Ask yourself this, are you using too much lingo or jargon on the site? Ants, worms, or link farms, is this about insect breeding? Hence the phrase: ENGLISH PLEASE! A great number of people on the web conduct searches because they simply want to know more about the topic at hand, therefore a good number of them are newbies to the data. Make your content information informative and yet simple enough for average Joe or Betty to understand and fore go the need for a translator.

Easy navigation A site that does not require the help of a GPS to locate where you are at any given moment. The person must be able to have a clear path as to where they currently are and where they are going. Read: Orientation.

Easy to locate On an external point of view the site info must appear easily on search engines. Internally this means rich keywords and information are mapped out as not to boggle the minds of site visitors. Your info must have a scent or trail that the bloodhounds that are search engines can easily sniff them out and track them.

Layout and design consistency Style elements should be consistent, colors, fonts, format should be done with a theme concept. In the mind of a wedding coordinator, everything should work as mix and match. Think Pastel colors + maid of honor in deep magenta = clashing wedding photos and the return of Bridezilla. Try coordination with an accent piece or pieces.

Quick loading Nobody wants to wait period.
The maximum loading time should take half a minute or less on a typical; 56k modem. 15 second quickies here are the best.

Web Crawlers

Crawlers, spiders or bots are one and the same thing. Web crawlers are programs or automated scripts created to browse the web in an automated, systematic, and methodical manner. In such a way that data provided is up to date.

Searches via Crawler based engines

Keyword abundance Use keyword rich texts don’t waste the opportunity of not doing this. Used in titles, Meta tags and text body and all through out the site. The bloodhound needs a scent to track down, this is THAT SCENT.

Site and page architectural structure Basically the same as keeping things in theme and keeping the visitor oriented of his navigational whereabouts the only difference with this sub topic from that of human searches is this just sounds more technical when phrased as such.

Premium link development Get connected; link yourself horizontally, vertically and contextually. Building links will create bridges that will connect you to others. Pick the people to associate with, still running with the theme concept, connect with people who share the similar interests, and have relevance to your site’s contents. You do not want temporary site visitors, linking to just anybody will just give you quantity base traffic. The traffic aim should be to invite people who would want to come back to your site again and again. Linking should go beyond your neighborhood. Why fraternize locally when you can go global? World domination is the key concept.

Self Help: Things to ponder on to determine the Search Engine congeniality of your site.

Access

After following through with the above topic, is the site’s keyword rich text you provided easily accessible to engines? Is there means provided to be able to get access?

Bases

Did you cover all the marketing strategy bases?

Maps

Have you created a site map with text links to every singe one of your site’s pages? Maps are useful; eventually even the manliest man will break down and look for one. Make is simple to understand as it was hard enough for a man to admit to being lost, it’s another issue to admit the lack of reading comprehension. Remember how pirates just marked the spot with an

Stuffing

Have you positioned keywords in your titles, body text, anchor text, Meta tags, alt text, etc? Embed, embed, and embed.

Spiders get lost too
Crawlers need a navigational structure that’s easy to follow. Like humans they don’t want to get GPS help either.

Tags

Create relevant title tags, these are tags that are not visible and appear mainly in html codes used to the title bar of the browser window.

Targets

Are you targeting a market on their level? Don’t get sidetracked, remember your market base constantly and target them appropriately. Use demographics or analogy whichever works for you.

Validations

Check to make sure your html does not have any errors or old codes. Check that all codes are closed properly. Run your final code through HTML and CSS validators. Such is available at HTML Validators

Words

Does the site contain enough words and phrases to capture the target market? Think of all the likely words, the plain, unadulterated and ordinary text that a person could type into a search engine. Do you have all they synonyms down phat? Did you remember to include misspelled words? After all not everyone has impeccable spelling or typing skills.

Creating a search engine friendly site will not ensure immediate top ranking or listing for a particular keyword or phrase. It will however be a step in that direction or at least the first few search pages. A site that is not search engine ready is least likely to show up on search radars.

Photo by Paul Milson

When you are looking for a web host for your e-commerce site there is a lot to take into consideration. If you are looking to make money online then of course you need a reliable and secure web host. It is always good to research each web host that you are interested in and compare all prices as well as benefits to each company before making your final decision.

Before you even start looking for a web host you first need to figure out exactly what requirements you have. They could include:

• Bandwidth
• Disk Space
• How many email accounts you need
• FTP ability
• Technical and customer support
• Shopping cart

Your e-commerce site is going to require basic features and when comparing web hosts you need to make sure that it has that availability. Not only that, but you need to know that they include the benefits you need in one lump payment so that you will not be paying for each payment separately.

The security of your shopping cart is of the utmost importance when picking out a web host. Many larger companies offer firewalls and protection against denial of service attacks at an extra cost. However if this is something you require then you do not want to be paying extra for these additional services unless you absolutely need them. If you do need them then the extra money is necessary because it will save you from a security lapse that can undo all the effort you have put into building up your online business.

You also want to make sure that there will be no downtime at all, because that could hinder your business significantly. If a buyer cannot access your online store then chances are they will go somewhere else. Besides the frustration that the online buyer will feel, they also might let others know of this experience and word of mouth will spread that they could not “check out of your store. This of course will make others lose interest in your business as well. Make sure to check the uptime guarantee offer if they have one or check for back up hosting that they may offer in case of a server failure.

Once you have compared hosts and found a few that you may be interested in, it is time to compare prices. Although a budget web host may seem less expensive to you at the time of choosing, chances are they have lesser facilities and lack the technical support that you may need. This could prove more expensive in the long run. Not all budget hosting services are like this of course, and if you find one that has everything you need then by all means go with the least expensive web host. However, if you want to be sure that you are getting your full money’s worth then you may want to consider a mid priced host, as long as they offer you what you need.

So, you have decided you want to build a website, but you are not sure where to start? Well, deciding to build one is actually the first step in building a website, so congratulations! Now, once you decide you want to build a website, the next step is deciding what exactly you are going to put on your website. Basically there are two different kinds of websites: business and personal.

Business websites: These websites, as their name implies, will either give information about a business, or will offer a product or products for sale.

Personal websites: These websites are used by people to talk about their family, post thoughts, poetry, drawings, just about anything that you could think of.

Photo by Natasja_75

Almost anyone can build a basic website, and it’s not even required that you know HTML in order to produce an eye catching, fun to browse website that will keep people coming back for more. If you don’t have the money to pay someone to build your website, and you need a type of structure to go by, there is plenty of website building software offered both in stores and on the web.

But no matter how you build your website, whether you step out on your own or you use website building software, there are some basic guidelines to remember:

1. Keep it simple – There is a story told me about a little boy who was building a kite. He had all kinds of cool ideas of what he wanted to put on his kite, and ignored what was suggested. When he went to fly the kite, it wouldn’t fly because there were way too many decorations on it.

You may want to put a lot of things on your website, but too much tends to clutter the website and make people stop looking at it, because they can’t find what they are looking for easily. So keep your website simple, keep it clean, and give people easy access to what they are looking for.

2. Make it easy to navigate – This is especially important if you are offering products or services on a business website. Chances are, if the potential customers can’t find what they are looking for easily on your website they are going to go somewhere else, no matter how good your products are.

A common misconception is that a side bar on every page is enough for navigation. It also is a good idea to have a small navigation menu at the top of the screen, and a search box doesn’t hurt either. Sometimes people want to be able to search for what they are looking for quickly.

3. Keep your website consistent – When you are reading a book, how often do you see pages with different colors? Not very often, and the reason is because people like consistency. Choose a color scheme for your site and stick to it. One other thing to remember is to make it easy on the eyes. Lots of flashing lights and moving images might seem like a good idea to you, but it can be a real turnoff to some people. There’s nothing worse than losing potential business because your website gives someone a headache.

4. View your website on different browsers – Once you have your main page up, it’s a good idea to preview it on several different web browsers to see how it looks. There’s nothing worse than having a website all complete and have it look horrible on the browsers that most people commonly use – Internet Explorer and Firebox, so make certain that it looks decent before you finish it and are disappointed with the results.

5. Don’t use huge graphics – Graphics that are large tend to slow down your website’s loading speed, so when adding pictures and graphics to your website, keep them small with an option to click on them to view a larger size.

These are the basic things to remember when you are building a website. There are, of course, other things that are optional, but the guidelines listed above are the most important to remember. Some other things that you might want to consider for your website are the following:

1. If you have a business website, you might want to register with something known as Paypal. Most customers use it and enjoy it, and it allows them to pay for services and products quickly and easily.

2. A guest book is always a nice addition to a website. This lets you know what people think of your website and allows them to leave any suggestions that they might have.

3. A hit counter gives you a good idea of how many visitors you have to your website each day. Again it’s not necessary, but always something nice to know.

Your website should be a reflection of you or of your business, and something that you can be proud of. Don’t get discouraged with it, and above all have fun.