Tech Search

A lot has been written on web design that sell products and services but relatively few web designers know how or are even bothered about developing websites with the basic elements required to give your website a head start on search engines.

Here are a few important web design tips that will set your website apart when it comes to ranking on search engines and selling your products and services.

1. Every web design should include the famous tags. There is no excuse for not including these in a web design from the outset. No matter what they say, tags have their say in the way search engines look at your website and no web design is complete without carefully chosen tags.

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There are 3 important tags namely the Title tag, Description tag and the keywords tag. Each web page should have its own set of tags. What are these tags? These are words and phrases that are embedded in the HTML of the website and very easy to include in your web design.
Let us look at each of these tags.

2. The Title tag is an important part of web design for search engine optimisation. This tag is likely to be picked up by search engines and displayed as a result header when a visitor finds your website on a search engine. This tag also appears as the title that in the blue strip at the top of your browser.

A good web design will contain a short Title tag that includes the keywords you think visitors will use to find your site.

3. The Web design should also include the Description tag. This is a short description of what the web page is about and it often appears just below the title in search engine results. Although the importance of the Description tag in search engine ranking is uncertain, the description in a web design acts like a sales pitch. This is your opportunity to tell the visitor what the web page is about and why he or she should click on your website. Remember, web design is not just about building a website and getting it ranked. A good web design should do all this, get the visitor to click on your website when it is found and sell your products and services.

4. Let's look at the Keywords tag. A lot of web designs contain a mass of supposed key words in the Keywords tag. Keywords are the words or phrases that visitors use to search for websites on search engines. A good web design practice is to have focussed and themed web pages. This means that each web page should be focused on one keyword at a time and this keyword should be in the web page Keyword tag. It is very important that the keywords used in the tag also appear in the body of the text.

5. The h1, h2 headers are also important elements of a good web design. Use h1 and h2 headers as these are read by search engines. Use them as high up on your web page as possible and where possible use the keywords in the h1 header. H1 headers are by default large fonts. It is possible to format these so they match the overall look of the web design and retain their header properties.

Ralph Ramah is the webmaster of Discount Web Design( http://www.discountwebdesign.co.uk ), a leading web design firm. Please feel free to republish this article provided you keep this resource and the hyperlink.

Karri Flatla is a business graduate of the University of Lethbridge and principal of snap! virtual assistance inc., a small business consulting firm providing online marketing services to the progressive entrepreneur. Karri also produces Outsmart, a free email newsletter full of practical tips and fresh insights. Visit http://www.snap-va.com for more information.

Have you noticed these days that so many websites all look the same - square box in the middle of the screen? That's because it's fairly easy and cheap to use the many templates available to build a simple website. There are many web designers or friends of a friend out there that will offer to do you a website for a few hundred pounds but there are many technical issues to consider to ensure really professional results.

A good website should have the following attributes: Strong corporate identity User friendly navigation Quick to download A useful resource Expandable - needs to incorporate technology that allows scalability Visually attractive to encourage usage Must work in all browsers on all computers PC and MAC Good investment / value for money Search engine friendly

Remember that first impressions count and a badly designed website is worse than having no website at all. You wouldn't get a friend of a friend to do your company brochures or service your nice new car you would go to a specialist, so why take the risk and compromise on quality with your website.

A well designed website with good graphics and strong corporate branding will last for years and should be a good investment for your company. Updating the content is simple and inexpensive.

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You can start with a small but well designed website that fits within your budget. The key is to ensure that your website is expandable so that as your business grows it can be added to - you may even wish to add a database or e commerce functionality at a later stage.

We believe that Flash is really designed for use in the entertainments industry and we do not recommend using it on a business website. Even with the increasing availability of broadband Flash can be very irritating for users, it serves no purpose, it can detract attention away from the important messages on your website and it will adversely affect your search engine rankings. Strong visual affects can be achieved using other methods.

Using HTML is the most popular and cost effective way to design a website. These can include original graphic designs and are text driven to incorporate relevant search terms, which is good for getting your site recognised by search engines.

DYNAMIC websites incorporate a database and offers more user functionality. A dynamic website can be classed as a web application and is a powerful tool for gathering and providing data for your customers who will be able to log in and search the site quickly for information. If you require a dynamic database driven web design you will have to budget for the back end coding required to build the database. This will be more expensive than a HTML site and will need specialist hosting. As a less expensive alternative it is possible to build a HTML site which links to a third party database which you can access through your existing ISP.

An E-COMMERCE WEBSITE is an online secure shopping facility so that customers can purchase your goods by credit card over the web.

graphic design Edinburgh and web design Scotland

John Lewis is a multimedia designer who specialises in producing interactive CD Rom, original graphic design Edinburgh and web design Scotland

Many think a website is hard to understand, harder yet to use, and hardest of all, to afford. Not true. A good website design firm, that speaks plain English, and is well versed in Internet marketing will help. These agencies should also give you a free review and perhaps samples of what they can do for you. Depending on your needs, some websites can be had for as little as $10 per month after the initial design and marketing fee. Caution should be exercised here. A very high priced website may not bring you all you imagined, but a very inexpensive one will surely disappoint. After your website is built and ready to begin working for you, there is the tricky task of submitting and marketing to the search engines. Search engines like Yahoo and Google are where most of your prospects find you. Submission and marketing is a tricky proposition because the search engines change the rules often and there are very specific steps you need to follow so that you are ranked well. Everyone wants a first or second page listing, but getting there takes the work of an expert. Don't undertake this task yourself. Let a search engine specialist do it for you. Their fee will be worth its weight in gold.

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Make no mistake about it; the Internet is the most powerful marketing tool we have ever seen. Build your website, market it well and watch your fortunes grow.

Betsey Duggan is president and CEO or McMann & Tate Advertising a midwest agency that specializes in making its clients stand out from the crowd.

STEP 1: CHOOSING A DOMAIN NAME/WEB SITE ADDRESS To begin the creation of your website you will need to come up with a domain name or website addresss. Try to get an address that has specific keywords for what your business or website is about. This will make it easier to remember and will also benefit with keywords searched for on search engines. There are a lot of additional domain extensions to choose from .com .co.uk .co.nz .net .biz .tv etc.. A new domain extension is recently available .ws (WorldSite or WebSite) Try this domain name extension as there may be more names available than the .com's. Top 5 Tips: * Make the address easy to remember. * Choose an original domain thats reflects what you are about. * Include keywords in the domain for what your site or business is about. * Decide what domain extension to use (.com .ws etc.) a local or international domain. * Buy multiple domains if required. Similar wording for the domain names.

STEP 2: SETTING UP YOUR WEB SITE HOSTING AND EMAIL ACCOUNTS Once you have your domain name, you can signup with a hosting account web server. There are many hosting account deals out there on the web. Search around for something suitable for your website and business. It can sometimes be best to get a hosting account that is within your country. There are even hosting deals called 'resellers accounts' where you can create hosting for unlimited domains plus divide and sell webspace! Top 5 Tips: * Search online for an appropriate hosting provider. * Choose hosting that is within your country. * Check details for MB allowance, email accounts, databases etc. * See if the hosting account has an easy to use control panel. * Decide if you want to run a 'hosting resellers account'.

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STEP 3: THE DESIGNING OF YOUR WEBSITE BY YOURSELF WITH WEBSITE TEMPLATES OR USE A PROFESSIONAL DESIGNER! If you have the skills you can design your website yourself by learning HTML or use web design software. Otherwise hire a web site designer to create your site. If you design yourself, there is a range of software available that is freeware and shareware, although we recommend buying Macromedia Studio 8 as a professional web design package. You can take shortcuts in your design by using web site templates. Pre-designed sites that have navigation and colour schemes already created. These can save hours of time, lots of money and make your websites easier & enjoyable to design. 1000's of free and professional templates are available on the internet. Top 5 Tips: * Create the website yourself or hire a designer. * Choose suitable design software. * Surf the internet to get ideas and learn from other websites. * Use free or professional website templates. * Search for free scripts and tools.

STEP 4: ADD SITE CONTENT AND PROFIT WITH GOOGLE ADSENSE! Google adsense is a great way to earn money online and add content to your web site. Google makes it easy for website designers to display relevant Google ads on their site. Because the ads match your keywords and content, your visitors have will be interested in the links, plus you will profit from the links they click on. It's as simply as that. You can also make extra money by referring others to the program. The first time they make $100US, your account is credited with $100US. Additional to this you can be credited $1 for every download and install of the Firefox web browser. Top 5 Tips: * Use text ad units for best results. * Blend link colours to match your site. * Place the google ads amongst content. * Have links for referral signups. * Place ads on all your pages and websites.

STEP 5: MAKING MONEY WITH AFFILIATE PROGRAMS! Affiliate programs are a great way to make money online. You simply have links to products and services on your website. Once a visitor makes a purchase through your link your can receive some great commissions on sales or even simply by people clicking on your links. Top 5 Tips: * Signup to a selected few good programs. * Create your own affiliate program for your products. * Signup with Google Adsense to create profit fast & easy. * Create multiple streams of income on different sites. * Use your mailing lists to advertise your affiliate programs.

Stay tuned for the next part where we'll look at promotion of your website your created..

Phil M. is the author of this article 5 Steps & Tips for creating Websites that Generate Revenue! To read other articles and discover more on these topics please visit: http://www.makemoneyonline.co.nz

1. Every web design should include the famous tags. There is no excuse for not including these in a web design from the outset. No matter what they say, tags have their say in the way search engines look at your website and no web design is complete without carefully chosen tags. There are 3 important tags namely the Title tag, Description tag and the keywords tag. Each web page should have its own set of tags. What are these tags? These are words and phrases that are embedded in the HTML of the website and very easy to include in your web design. Let us look at each of these tags.

2. The Title tag is an important part of web design for search engine optimisation. This tag is likely to be picked up by search engines and displayed as a result header when a visitor finds your website on a search engine. This tag also appears as the title that in the blue strip at the top of your browser. A good web design will contain a short Title tag that includes the keywords you think visitors will use to find your site.

{mosgoogle}

3. The Web design should also include the Description tag. This is a short description of what the web page is about and it often appears just below the title in search engine results. Although the importance of the Description tag in search engine ranking is uncertain, the description in a web design acts like a sales pitch. This is your opportunity to tell the visitor what the web page is about and why he or she should click on your website. Remember, web design is not just about building a website and getting it ranked. A good web design should do all this, get the visitor to click on your website when it is found and sell your products and services.

4. Let's look at the Keywords tag. A lot of web designs contain a mass of supposed key words in the Keywords tag. Keywords are the words or phrases that visitors use to search for websites on search engines. A good web design practice is to have focussed and themed web pages. This means that each web page should be focused on one keyword at a time and this keyword should be in the web page Keyword tag. It is very important that the keywords used in the tag also appear in the body of the text.

5. The h1, h2 headers are also important elements of a good web design. Use h1 and h2 headers as these are read by search engines. Use them as high up on your web page as possible and where possible use the keywords in the h1 header. H1 headers are by default large fonts. It is possible to format these so they match the overall look of the web design and retain their header properties.

Ralph Ramah is the webmaster of Discount Web Design (http://www.discountwebdesign.co.uk), a leading web design firm. Please feel free to republish this article provided you keep this resource and the hyperlink.

Fortunately, there are many tools out there for webmasters to make the tasks of design and development easier. Wading through the sea of web tools can also be a time-consuming process. In designing your website, you should be aware of all the components that go into successful development and how to use them to your best advantage.

The first step, other than developing great informative content for your visitors, is to put everything together in an attractive, user-friendly format. If you need a little help in manipulating HTML coding or CSS (cascade styling sheets), you might visit www.xhtmlandcss.com for advice and tutorials regarding these components. CSS in particular is an invaluable tool for webmasters; these are the programs that control the set of styles for your fonts, tables and many other attributes of your website. The ability to manipulate CSS allows you to customize sites such as web forums and blogs and create a website that stands out and gets noticed. You can also amplify the attractiveness and user-friendly attributes of your websites with e-mail and forum signature generation tools from www.needasig.com and brighten your format with free smilies from www.thesmilies.com. Internet users love extras, and adding customizable interactions such as signatures and smilies will help keep visitors coming back.

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Once your site is developed, you must then undertake the task of optimizing your website for search engines. There are many ways to do this. One is to use relevant keywords throughout your content and page tags—without overusing them—that will help visitors find your website when they’re looking for information. Using a keyword generator such as the free tool at www.webmasters-cavern.com is an easy way to find plenty of relevant keywords and phrases. When incorporating keywords into your content, you should make sure the text reads well. The practice of keyword stuffing to boost search engine ranks not only endangers your listings with search engines, it also turns visitors off to your website and will keep them from coming back.

Another component of website optimization is getting your website listed with search engines. If search engines can’t find your website, neither can visitors! After you have created great content with relevant keywords and lots of user-friendly extras, you should then begin the process of getting your website out there for people to find. You can submit your website URL and descriptions manually. Major search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo include links to their submission process for manual submission. However, these links can be difficult to find. You may want to consider using a search engine submission service to submit to several search engines at once; there are many good, free submission services that cover multiple search engines. It is important to remember that submitting your website once is not enough to get it noticed on the Internet radar. You should carry out the submission process on a regular basis. However, you also must realize that submitting your website too often can get your URL banned from some search engines. It is a good practice to submit to search engines every 30 days.

Beyond search engines, you should also list your website in as many relevant directories as you can find to increase your site’s exposure. Strive to find directories that don’t require linkbacks to your website for listings, because reciprocal links carry far less weight with search engines than strictly inbound links. Two excellent directory service that doesn’t require linkbacks can be found at www.submiturlhere.com and www.urlshack.com . You can find many directories for your website; just make sure they are relevant to your content. If you have a webmaster site, then www.kingofurl.com is an ideal choice.

If you have multiple websites or long website URLs, another great tool for you to use is URL redirection. You can get a short, easy to remember and easy to post URL for your website that will sit well with search engines and make it simpler for you to advertise your websites on forums and in e-mail messages and signatures. Free URL redirection tools are available at www.smoothredirect.com.

Tracking visitors to your website is another important aspect of running a successful site. You should install a web counter that is invisible to visitors, but allows you to find out where your traffic is coming from so you can concentrate your promotion in effective areas. For example, a good web counter will not only tell you how many hits your website receives, but whe

2. Read, read and read. We do not experience everything. Thus, our tendency is to learn from others. Reading web design books, newsletters and tips are pretty valuable since they can save you time and effort. Basically, books are more conclusive than newsletters and tips however, they are for free and mostly updated.

3. Narrow down your target market. You cannot please everybody same thing that you cannot be good at everything. Thus, this fact calls for the narrowing of your target market. Even in the interface of the so-called web design, a designer cannot claim that he is an expert at anything or everything about the needs of a website. It is better to pick a certain audience and try to be good at catching their attention, preference and choice. This practice allows you to be best at a given area thus developing expertise.

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4. Answer your target audience’s needs. In order to answer the visitor’s needs, web designers must know what kind of visitors his site is welcoming. Do they belong to the younger generation or otherwise? What do they want from your site? Are these information, details and pleasures in your site in order to get their undivided attention and loyalty? Bear in mind that colors, font size, style of graphics, contents and the entirety of the site affects viewer’s decision and choice.

5. Know the basics of SEO and copywriting. Though Search Engine Optimization and copywriting are not directly related to designing, still, designers must have basic knowledge about them. This is because web designing is intertwined with marketing, use of keywords and visibility.

Aside from that, designers must also have knowledge of the programming basics. If not, the tendency is waste time or to create a mediocre or unsatisfactory design to the detriment of the sites.

6. The primacy of functionality. If ever you are faced to make a decision between a web site’s aesthetic form and its functionality, you have to be firm in upholding the latter. Not everything that is pretty is ‘saleable’. Besides, you don’t create web sites for the sake of making it nice-looking.

Above anything else, the site must be functional so as to cater to every visitor’s wants and needs. Appearance is a means to catch visitor’s attention nevertheless, it is not the end. If a designer prioritizes appearance alone without considering its primary consideration the web site’s marketability will suffer.

7. Know when to break the rules. Rules are only guidelines, if you feel that the rules are inappropriate for a certain creation follow your heart’s desire and venture on an experimental adventure.

Please visit Web Development Services Pros site at http://www.webdevelopmentpros.com for comments and inquiries regarding this article.