Top Tips for Web Design

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.]
by: Frank Woodford

How to Maximize your Page Rank

Why care about the Page rank? As mentioned in previous articles, Page Rank is one of the familiar variables in determining appearance in SE results. Although today the importance of page rank has been descended, and sometimes we see pages of PR 3 or 4 getting to first places in Google, Page Rank is one of the variables SEO's often deal with because this is the variable we know a lot about and can approach sensibly. The second good reason to learn about PR is using it to emphasize important pages of your website, like the Homepage ( you know how annoying it is when SE presents some negligible page of your website higher than the Homepage) What is PR? PR ranges from 1-10 and indicates the number and quality of page incoming links. Page Rank is calculated as follows: PR(A) = log10((1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))) when : 0 PR(T1) – Page rank of page T1 linking to page A. T1, ….,Tn C(T1) – number of outbound links in page T Notice that the 1-10 scale is accepted because of logarithmization of the equation. Therefore , each group of page rank ( PR1,… PR10) is not equal in size and getting to higher PR group is getting harder with every step. This article deals with page rank maximization techniques: PR0 – Page rank zero This rank is usually given to: new pages pages with very few incoming links websites being caught using Black Hat Strategies to promote their website. Webpages with PR0 can harm your website in case that one of your pages links to PR0 page. Although, if PR0 page links to your page , your pages is not hurt nor benefited because Google assumes you don't have absolute control over your incoming links. Even so , you may exchange links with PR0 page in case that The PR0 page doesn't contain hidden text or other forbidden elements of black hat SEO The page is new and therefore gets zero ranking. PR leakage Although PR depends on your incoming links, linking to other websites can cause you PR leakage, therefore use only necessary links to other websites. Linking to pages inside your website does not cost you PR therefore you can do it freely. Make sure every page in your website links to other important pages since every link has its contribution. Leaving Dead end pages wastes this contribution. Use PR to emphasize important pages: Creating links smartly to most important pages of your website, like Homepage, gives it PR boost and helps emphasizing its importance in front of less important pages in the website. This is the most popular and beneficial link scheme emphasizing your homepage: All pages in the website link to Homepage (first priority page) Page of x priority is not linked to other pages of x priority but only to Homepage, page of x+1 , and X-1 priority. (for example, categories are not linked between them). No jumping between pages in non hierarchic order : for example Page priority 1 doesn’t link to page priority 3 , and page of same priority are not interlinked. If we count the relative distribution of PR between all the pages, in this scheme, Homepage gets the highest rank. If we link the categories , Homepage rank descends and category PR raises a little. If we link all the pages at the website to each other, all of them get the same but low PR. To get the highest Homepage PR we must link all the pages to Homepage only and Homepage must link to all the pages. Exchanging/ Purchasing Links Incoming link is more effective if it comes from high PR page. Page with few links is better contributor than page with lots of links (in case they are of same PR) Exchange links only with well ranked websites because exchanging links cause PR leakage. This leakage must be weaker than link contribution otherwise the exchange is not beneficial. Don't exchange pages with PR0 pages because in best case scenario it doesn’t help you. (Unless you expect this page to be very popular in short period).
by: Gally Reznor

Indexing Your Website

Index is a website which contains details and links to millions of websites divided to categories and topics. Indexes can have multiple purposes. Local Business Index – like Yellow pages. This kind of indexes apply to people who are searching for services in their town or area. It is a good idea to sign your company into few such indexes in case your business is locally oriented like flower shop or electrician. Inclusion in these indexes , at least the most popular of them , is usually quite expensive but also useful from the point of view of customers seeking local service and search engines, since you can include your site URL and earn a strong incoming link . Global Business Index – like Hoovers.com or business.com. These indexes usually contain data about large companies with turnover of few millions of dollars a year. Not everyone is able to enter such index, although some of them allow small companies listing in exchange for reciprocal link or inclusion fee . Inclusion in these indexes is important to large companies who apply to customers worldwide , and they also give a good incoming link in terms of SEO. The third type of indexes is Internet indexes which main purpose is to provide incoming links to websites. Usually these indexes are manually edited which means it can take months before the editor approves your link. Some indexes like yahoo require inclusion fee , some are free, like DMOZ and some require fee or reciprocal link. Website promoters largely use indexes to provide the new built websites with incoming links, although , not all indexes are usefull and important in terms of link strength and website promotion. Therefore I suggest to submit your website to as much as possible free indexes but be careful before paying for listing or exchanging links with nameless indexes. In this article I will list some of the most important indexes to be included in. General Guidelines to submitting your website to index: Make sure your website has no pages "Under construction" or "Not exist" (Error 404) , since some indexes might disqualify your website because of that. Wright down a short profile of your website which includes: Site Name , Full URL, 10-15 key words and phrases, short description (200-500) characters. Site name should not include many keywords, it might cause rejection by the editor. Open an excel file dedicated to indexes and directories where you keep all the passwords and usernames since you will probably need to come back to these websites few times to follow up your registration. Place your website in the most suitable category, in order to improve your chances to be indexed and later to improve the impact of the indexing on your page listing in search engines. Indexing takes a lot of time because index editors are volunteers and the demand is huge, so be patient and do not submit your website more than once , since it makes you look dummy and may cause your website be rejected . DMOZ Open Directory Project This is the most important and appreciated index on the web. It is edited by volunteers , and has more than half million categories and around five million websites. The main importance of DMOZ is its influence on major search engines like Google , Yahoo and etc. which derive information from DMOZ and ascribe large importance to links incoming from there to your website. To include your website in DMOZ go to www.dmoz.org , find the most appropriate category to your website, press Add URL and follow the orders. Take few minutes to read DMOZ terms of submission in order not to mess up your application. DMOZ will reject your website If it is placed under wrong category, mainly under construction, has no value to public or is poorly described. Description must be objective otherwise most chances it will be excluded. DMOZ will not notify you about reception or rejection. If you can't find your website, don't hurry to submit it again , try asking at DMOZ forums what is the status of your application. Entering DMOZ index is the only way to enter Google website directory. Yahoo Directory Yahoo is the most popular website in the world and US. Inclusion in its index might be worth the huge fee of 299$. Wright a short description (10-25 words ) , make it objective and fluent , include 2-3 keywords but do not exaggerate. Make sure your website is in a good condition (no 404 pages and under construction pages) Yahoo is not condemned to include your website even if you pay the fee , but they are supposed to review your listing in about 7 workdays. In yahoo index you don’t need to pick a category , one of the editors does it. Must say, most of the websites are included. Business sites must pay the fee every year while non-profit sites must pay only once.
by: Gally Reznor

Good Website Content

Reading a website is not similar to reading a book or a newspaper, therefore before you start spilling money on campaigns be sure your site is built in accordance with internet writing standards. Lets talk about few simple rules you don't want to break when building a website: Don't waste your visitors time Time is money. Most people decide whether they are interested in what the website has to offer in just to seconds. Therefore make sure your landing page provides the most crucial and appealing information about your business. Number one time waster is a heavy loading pages with lot's of flash animations and pictures. Make sure your web pages are not too heavy otherwise you might loose your visitors before they entered your website. Most of the visitors need to find what they are looking for fast, otherwise they look for it elsewhere. As a webmaster you must make sure your data is well categorizes and divided to relevant pages , categories, headlines and sub-titles. A visitor must be able to navigate your website easily and successfully. Avoid too much "Special affects" By this I mean don't include too much flash movies and avoid using music if you don't have to. As we mentioned earlier, Flash has a large loading time which damages viewer experience, besides too much flash may be annoying and search engines can't read it. Music is a great thing, but somehow music and websites do not fit too well. If you want to put some background tune anyway, make sure a user can silence it quickly and easily. Or in contrary , let the user click "Play" and begin the music when he decides. Pop-ups and new pages If you have links in your site , I strongly advise you not to use the pop-up option and not to open these links in new window. Seemingly pop-ups and new windows are a very good idea if we don't want the visitor to navigate from our website but many years of experience shows that users prefer to click "Back" buttons. As to pop-ups , most of browsers tend to block them , and you don't want to waste your viewer time on enabling pop-ups. Text Use standard fonts which are supported by all browsers, like Arial and Times New Roman. You don't want your viewers to get gibberish and go away from your website. Don't use very small or very large fonts . You don't want your pages to smear for miles and you don't want to scare away people with poor vision .
by: Gally Reznor

Create Successful Business Website

Congratulation, you finely decided to upgrade your business with a website. This is really important step which can take your business to a new level structurally and financially. 1. Well built and properly advertised website can bring you hundreds of new customers who wouldn't have heard about your business otherwise. 2. Most of people do not search for services on yellow pages no more but open Google , Yahoo, MSN, etc. Therefore your presence on the net is a very important strategy to earn new clients. 3. Website is your face when it comes to clients who arrive to you via the net. If your website is well built, even if you are a small business owner, clients will be more willing to work with you. Now that we understand the importance of a good, reliable website for a business, let's go over some basic steps to make sure your website will be a success story: Determine your budget: Website building can cost you nothing or cost you thousands of dollars. I think that the best site is the one which benefit will excel its cost. Therefore every business owner must determine his appropriate budget . Some companies offer absolutely free websites. There are some advantages and some disadvantages in such a website. The first and the biggest advantage is the zero cost. If your website turns out useless , you don't lose any money. The main disadvantages of free websites are usually the limited storage space (which means you can't build a large website) and limited bandwidth (if many users enter your site at once, it might become slow or even unavailable). If you have a large sum of money to put on your web site, you may go to a custom Web Design firm. They will usually offer you two or three unique design sketches which they embed in their Content Management System and a directions about how to enter your content into it. The problem about this option is it's high cost. There is no second chance to create a first impression: Design is naturally one of the most important aspects in website success. Website design must represent your business as a prosperous, impressive and trustworthy therefore there is no place to disregard it. Quality content: In order to be found in search engines and attract serious visitors you must fill your website with high quality content. We suggest you enter information about yourself , your business and products. Professional articles and further information from your field of interest might add more value to the website and present you as an expert in your field. Keeping in touch: Once you have earned clients you better keep in touch with them. There are number of fast and cost effective ways to do so: 1.By mail. Today spam mail is a felony, but once a customer signed up at your website and gave his agreement to receive your e-mails, you should keep in touch with him , informing him about new products, services and sales. 2. By SMS. If your business is very dynamic you might use the SMS technology to keep in touch with your clients at real time. 3. Keep in touch with your clients by blogs and forums where you can offer them technical support
by: Gally Reznor

Make Your Own Website: Achieve Success With Your Site

There are many reasons for you to make your own website. You may want to sell a product or service, or you may want to share your thoughts and dreams with the world. No matter what you want to do online, you can design a website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) to do it. When you are thinking of making a site on your own, there are a few things to think about. The first thing you will want to decide before you make your own website is what you want to accomplish by doing so. This is the most important thing you can do when you are ready to make a website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/). Knowing the purpose will allow you to make any other decisions more clearly. After you have completed these stages, you need to locate the company that will be your web host. This company will provide several important pieces for you. At a minimum, they will be responsible for registering your name and associating it with an appropriate web address. In general, you will be running your service from their space, so the host takes over administrative and physical security responsibilities. If you choose to use their equipment, you must sign an agreement concerning additional charges should you need more bandwidth or disk space than the minimums. Dedicated web space is space that you paid for. There are no advertisements on dedicated web space unless you want there to be. Unlike free hosts, paid hosts will not insert ads onto your site. If you make your own website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) and pay for the hosting, therefore, you have more control. Choosing your own domain name allows you to personalize the site even further. There is a ton of information about website building online. Some companies offer website building tools, while others only use HTML code. You will be able to find lots of HTML tutorials online if you are interested in learning. Doing a quick search in your favorite search engine will find hundreds of links to websites that offer these tutorials. The sky is the limit from here. You will be able to create a personalized and snazzy site. How it ends up is up to you. You can put as much time into the project as you want. Either way, when you make your own website, you will end up with something that is entirely your own. This is almost a form of art.
by: Tem Balanco