Showing posts with label Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tips. Show all posts
  1. Be Obvious. Be Simple. Be Smart: Tips for Designing a Stellar Website

    Friday, June 6, 2008
    By Andy
    You have the layout complete. The text is done. Let's Build! Wait. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row first before throwing up any old website. Stand out, be different, and showcase your product in a stellar setting. Check out these tips for designing a website that will quickly convert traffic to sales! Clean code with a crisp marketing message, coupled with a search engine friendly design might just knock the socks off any search engine that comes crawling your way.

    Slappin' Ya in the Face Obvious

    You'd be surprised by how many people say, "...but my phone number is right there!" ...But is it, really? Is your call to action on your website so pronounced that it practically hits your potential buyer-customer square between the eyes? If not, you might want to fix that. Studies show five seconds is all you've got to captivate your audience with a bright call to action, or a custom graphic to make it obvious. Hook, line and sinker them with a sheer cut, eye popping call to action! Whether it's a "Call Today", "Book It", or "Buy Now" - make sure the Pick ME cue is apparent and obvious to your target audience.

    Get Ready to Rumble...

    We're all human. Competition runs in our blood. Everyone wants to be first or "the best"... carry this attitude over to your website and you are sure to beat out your competition! Your website is your virtual store, and if you don't possess this thinking already, you need to. Invest in your website, as its seen 24 hours a day, seven days a week by potential clients all over the world. Be prepared and get educated, as a website is a terrible thing to waste. The good old days of tweaking things here and there and wham! ...top ten placements, is over. Invest your time and hire a good SEO firm to help you market your business the right way.

    Find out who's the hottest in your industry and make it a goal to beat them. With over 180 million searches on the web today, it is imperative to research keyword phrases that your competition is going after. What are their marketing tactics and are they working? Do they have an email campaign located on-site? What are their credentials? Does the website provide coupons, discounts or hot deals? It's the internet my fríend, the competition is steep and all bets are off. So, roll up your sleeves, put on your gloves, and get ready to rumble! Or, research an internet marketing firm that specializes in both search engine optimization and website design that can fight the battle for you.

    Simple Simon Wins

    Being a "Simpleton" ain't all that bad these days. Just because the world turns at record breaking speeds doesn't mean your website has to. Too much going on, whether there are words upon words, or graphics up the wazoo, can do more harm than good. Be cautious before slapping up just any old image or using too much text to get your point across. We all know that "Content is King!", but Optimized Content reigns supreme. By strategically placing the right keywords in your Title Tags, Meta Data Tags and throughout the body of your website, your business will benefit. Clean design, concise code, and fresh marketing ideas that are clear to the end user will help you get the leads and generate the desired sales you are looking for.

    Optimize, Optimize, Optimize!

    Search engine optimization... what's all the hype about!? Internet competition is booming - open your eyes and smell the code! If you have a beautiful website, but it's not converting...you've wasted your time and money. A well built website with search engine optimization in mind is a goldmine at your finger tips. What's the first step in optimization? Researching and determining a líst of keywords that will drive traffic to the site and convert into sales. Test out various keywords, find out what your competition is and let it ride. For the keywords that don't convert, bag 'em. Expand your focus to reach broad based keywords as well as long tail keyword phrases. The narrower the keyword is, the more likely the user will convert on your page.

    Widgets are In

    What is a widget? Widgets aid in the process of interacting with your target audience. When your potential customer/buyer installs your widget on their webpage, blog or social media networking profile - you wín a valuable fríend! Widgets provide a great way to strengthen the bond between your existing customers and any newbies who are interested in your product. Get new customers and provide a widget for them to interact with you. Personalization is "key". Almost anything can become a widget - from games to stock tickers or audio players - put your thinking caps on and give your customers the option!

    Smarty Pants Always Test

    This is true. Successful websites are successful because webmasters test their work. A great way to test your website to see if your design is working is through the A/B Split method. These tests run concurrently, at least for a couple of weeks to gain true results. A/B testing provides real world, data-driven, unbiased results based on your target market. There is now even an easy to use A/B Split testing program through the Google Website Optimizer tool! Check it out and win big. Go ahead - be a smarty pants... you know you want to!

    Time to Analyze

    Yes, folks - it's time to analyze. You might think the hard work is done, but it's now time to see if all your work has paid off successfully. You've created this gorgeous website perfectly equipped with clear calls to action, clean code and search engine friendly site architecture - now what? Let it ride and hope for the best? NO! Test, test and analyze your findings.

    Does your hosting company provide a stats program? If so, fire that baby up and analyze what is working, what can be tossed out and what needs to be amped up. Focus on unique visitors, time on site, referrals, and what keyword phrases are driving the most targeted traffíc. A stat program is your fríend, NOT your enemy. Embrace your website's analytics and learn from them to tailor your website, your search engine optimization and your business model after this information. Google also has a free analytics program that involves placing a simple code before the tag on pages you'd like to track. Fast, effective and proven.

    If you are a "do-it-yourselfer", I hope these tips helped you with the marketing of your business. If you are too busy and are looking for a firm to handle both the building of your website and the marketing - research a good SEO firm. Count on a professional internet marketing company to shine through and get your hard work to pay off. Good luck!

    About The Author
    Sarah Lamansky is a Search Engine Marketing Manager at Mannix Marketing, Inc. in Glens Falls, NY. Please contact us for all of your search engine marketing, website design/development and advertising needs. With a positive approach, streamlined goals, and over Ten Years in the search engine optimization industry, We Get You Found On The Web AND improve your sales. For website tips, advertising ideas or a FREE search engine optimization quote, please contact us. Got ten minutes? Let's talk.
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  2. Site Maintenance: Web Hosting Tips - Web Hosting Tips

    Wednesday, June 13, 2007
    By Andy
    Author: Alex Shah

    In order to become successful online you really need your own website, but how do you choose which hosting plan is right for you? There are many factors that you need to be aware of before you decide which company you want to use.

    Firstly, you may want to use a free hosting service for your first website but there are some major disadvantages such as disk space and data transfer restrictions, banner or pop up adverts which you have no control over, and a lack of personal support if you require any help.

    With website hosting accounts now available for as little as $5 per month for 5 gigabytes disk space and 2550 gigabytes data transfer there really is no need to use a free service anymore.

    Here are some of the factors you need to consider before choosing a professional website host.

    Web hosting Tip 1: The amount of disk space you require. If you plan on creating a large website with hundreds or thousands of content pages and various scripts you will need a hosting plan that offers unlimited disk space so that you never have to worry about how large your websites gets. Some hosting plans offer a set amount of disk space with no ability to upgrade to get more so if you reach the limit you will need to find a new host and transfer your entire website which can be very stressful and time consuming.

    Web Hosting tip 2: The amount of data transfer you require. If you plan on sending a large amount of visitors to your website every month you will need a hosting plan that offers a large amount of data transfer (also known as bandwidth) so that you never have to worry about how much traffic you send to your website. If you reach the limit of your allocated monthly data transfer your website will become unavailable for the rest of the month which can result in a massive loss of profits.

    Web hosting tip 3: The number of domain names you require. If you plan on creating many different websites you will need a hosting plan that offers the ability to host multiple separate domains on one account so that you don't have to create a new account for each domain name.

    Web hosting tip 4: Support for the latest versions of PHP, Perl, JavaScript, and CGI. This is essential if you intend to install various scripts on your website such as blogs, forums, article directories, etc...

    Web Hosting tip 5: Access to MySQL, SSL, and shopping cart. If you plan on using scripts on your website you will need to be able to create MySQL databases and if you want to collect credit card information you will need SSL for encrypted security.

    Web Hosting tip 6: Support for both DreamWeaver and FrontPage. Whether you use DreamWeaver or FrontPage you will need a hosting plan that offers compatibility with both in case you decide to switch and use one over the other.

    Web hosting tip 7: Personalized email accounts. Its important to be able to create personalized email addresses for your domain name including mail forwarding addresses, catch all addresses, auto responder addresses, and the ability to retrieve mail with your email software.

    Web hosting tip 8: Shared or dedicated server. The problem with a shared server (also known as a virtual server) is that only a small amount of disk space and data transfer is available and that many other websites will be hosted on the same server which can reduce the loading speed and availability of your website. Its far better and safer to use a dedicated server because your website will be the only one using it and you will have far more disk space and data transfer.

    Web hosting tip 9: Windows or Linux server. In the past there where some major differences between Windows and Linux based servers but recent improvements have meant that these differences have now diminished to the point where you can make your choice of hosting company based on the features they offer rather than the operating system.

    Web hosting tip 10: Live support. This is one of the most important factors when choosing a website host because if you ever have any problems you need to be able to instantly communicate with a professional to solve the issue. It can be very frustrating if you have to wait a few days for your help desk ticket to be answered.

    This is a brief overview of what you should look out for before you decide to purchase a hosting plan. Its a good idea to plan for the long term and buy as much disk space and data transfer as you can afford to ensure that you don't run into any problems in the future.

    About the Author:

    Alex Shah is a freelance writer for NxtDomains.com Software and Services which provides cheap domain registration and cheap web hosting.
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  3. Web Design Basics: Must Know Tips for Redesigning your Website the Right Way

    Saturday, May 26, 2007
    By Andy
    Website redesigning can be as simple as you make it. However, it can also be as difficult as you make it. There are a number of things which you can do in order to make your website redesigning goes excellent. Here, we will take a closer look at some of the things that you can do in order to make sure that the website redesign process goes a whole lot smoother.

    Pick A Reputable Website Designing Company
    In order to get the best website redesign, it is important to make sure that you choose a reputable, well liked company. Not only is it important for them to have previous experience with website redesigning, but it is important for them to be able to cater to your needs.

    They should be worried about what it is that you are looking for, rather than what they feel. Finding a website redesign company which is not only well known and liked in the company but that will also put your values before their own is very important to your website's success.

    Think of Increasing Your Success
    If you know anything about website promotion, chances are that you know that the most important thing is for you to be successful. Increasing your company's overall success can be a very important key to your company's overall success.

    There are a number of things which can be done in order to increase it, but the main key is to keep this goal in mind. You want your website promotion to be as successful as possible.

    Develop a Good Style
    One of most important things about website designing in general is the overall appearance of the website. Whether you decide that you want your website to have a white background with basic black writing or if you want it to be rainbow multicolored, having an overall style is very important to the look of our website.

    It can determine several different things, such as the font which you decide to use and the graphics which you want to include on your website. Developing a style which you would like to have should be one of the first things that you do.

    Think About Content
    Although the appearance of your website is very important, the content which you want to include is very important. It can have an effect on both your website promotion and website optimization, which makes it very significant to your website redesign in general.

    Making sure that the information that is available for people to read sounds very legitimate, believable, easy to read and easy to understand can be a major key to how well liked and effective your website will be in general.

    Make it Very Keyword Rich
    One of the most important keys to your website's overall success and effectiveness is how well its website optimization is. How will you be able to improve the website optimization of your website?

    Well, it is simple really. All that you need to do is make sure that you website is keyword rich, in order to increase its optimization within search engines.

    Compare Websites in Search Engines
    As previously mentioned, in order to develop the best website optimization for your website, you need to make your website keyword rich. But, what do you do if you are not sure which keywords will be the most effective for you?

    One of these ways is to use search engines to find similar websites and see what keywords all of these websites have in common. This will give you a good idea of what types of keywords are popular for the type of website that you have.

    Know it is Up to Date
    One of the most important things that you need to keep in mind when you are in competition with another company is staying up to date. You should make sure that you check out the content that is on some other websites. This will give you an idea of whether or not your content is good enough, as well as whether or not your content needs to be updated.

    Making sure that your website is up to date with the times can be a very big key to how successful your company will do in the future. If your website hasn't been redesigned in years, chances are that it is very important for you to do.

    Make Sure it is Easy to Navigate
    One of the main keys to having a successful website is making sure that it is easy to navigate. If you have a business website which people do not understand how to use, chances are that they will not even try to use your services or buy your products.

    When you go through the website designing process, it is important to make sure that your website is put into simpler navigation form. The website designing company which you choose to use will be able to do this for you, as this is something which they are very familiar with.

    Make Sure it Grabs the Eye
    One of the most important things that any website needs to do is grab attention. If you feel that yours does not grab enough attention, a website redesign may be necessary for you. Not only should your website contain some really nice graphic designs in order to increase how appealing it looks to the eye, but the fonts and overall design should also be perfect.

    This is just one of the many things which website redesigning can do in order to increase your website's overall appearance.

    Develop Credibility
    One of the most important things that you need to do in order to increase your websites sales through website promotion is make sure that your products or services are credible. How do you do this? Well, a number of ways. You need to make sure that you give as much information about your website as possible.

    If possible, you can consider adding a discussion forum where all of your customers can recommend your services and share the experiences which they have had with your services.
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