Every online business owner wants to ensure that his or her web development objectives are on target. Web development includes Search engine optimization and appropriate use of keywords.
One of the ways many individuals are helping develop their website is by utilizing reputable site review sites. Interestingly there is even a site review that reviews other site review sites.
Let me seek to demystify what I am talking about. When you have worked to put all the finishing touches on the first draft of your website you may want to submit your site information to a site review service. This is typically a fee-based service where either peers or techies review the site using a laundry list of criteria.
What they are looking for are problem areas that can be fixed before your site goes live. They let you know how your site could improve navigational concerns and what text errors could be fixed.
There is another type of review site that you should know about. These sites review products and or websites for the public to view. This may or may not help you. What you are looking for are services that can assist you in the final stages of web development not those that give you a grade and then pass that along to the public.
Once your site is as on target as you want it to be THEN you can begin sending your URL to the site review locations that provide public opinion on your site if you decide you want to. This can be a good or bad thing simply because you never know how a single person will review a site.
I think it makes better sense to gain independent feedback prior to site launch and then work steadily on improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies. Unless there is significant positive buzz about your site you might avoid submitting to a public site review scenario. Yes, negative publicity is still publicity, but the roll of SEO will have a greater impact than by hoping for the best now with a public site review.
The reason publishers use editors is because no matter how talented an author may be there are likely to be mistakes that will be missed. The editor works to eliminate mistakes. This is the role of the private site reviewer in web development.
Web development takes into account the branding of the business and/or product and it seeks to ensure there is ample room for growth. This process is a positive in the context of ensuring your site is as error free as possible before you launch.
You can have a friend or family member look over your website and give their opinions. This can be a positive experience, but by using a private site reviewer you have the potential of a more objective opinion of the work.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
SEO Web Site Development
SEO Web Site Development should be incorporated in the planning stages of any new or upgrading of your web site. SEO (search engine optimization) will not detract from the visual or communication aspects, it should add to the quality. Any web site that doesn’t rank well in the primary subject matter (demonstrated by what we call keywords, terms, or information that the company has determined their target audience would search for) might as well be invisible.
I get a lot of phone calls from people who have had a web site designed that is visually attractive, has some basic product or services information, and unfortunately, is invisible to the major search engines. The problem is easily solved most times and it doesn’t detract from the design or look and feel of the web site.
Search engine optimization is a deep and bewildering subject to many. It’s very easy to get lost in the weeds and get so technical that most people get lost. But if you just adhere to some basic fundamentals, you can get some good results. It’s all about making it easy for the search engines to figure out exactly what your web site is about and displaying it in the appropriate search results.
Even if you already have a web site up and running, there are small changes you can make to facilitate the search engines discovery. The search engines send out “bots” (software that visits your web site and catalogs the information) to scan your web site and determine the content. So it stands to reason that you should do whatever you can to make it easy for these bots to find what they need to properly index and rank you according to the information presented.
A good example of bad search engine optimization is to put your street address as an image rather than text. You see it all the time, a logo that lends itself to an image, has the street address right below it on the same image file. It looks nice, and actual visitors can see it plainly. But the search engine bots can’t see it. So if someone searches on location, you won’t show up since the search engines have no idea of where you are located.
Location may or may not be important to your business but you see the point. Images are good, but always make sure that you have critical information in a format that the search engines can see and index you under. It could be slogans, manufacturers your represent, headlines that describe your product or services, and etc.
By all means uses images where they add to the user experience, but always have the information available somewhere that the search engine can also see. Menus are another common area where images are often used but are invisible to the search engines. Menus that show the different pages and contents should be listed in some way that are also visible to the search engine bots.
So you can put your fancy images at the top or left side of your web page, but put another menu line at the bottom of each page that is in text. And when you name and title the page, be sure to use descriptive terms that are understandable to both visitors and search engines. Instead of putting home page, use a term that describes your business for the link. If you have a page on your product or service, don’t list it by the generic term products, use the product name or something that describes the product.
I get a lot of phone calls from people who have had a web site designed that is visually attractive, has some basic product or services information, and unfortunately, is invisible to the major search engines. The problem is easily solved most times and it doesn’t detract from the design or look and feel of the web site.
Search engine optimization is a deep and bewildering subject to many. It’s very easy to get lost in the weeds and get so technical that most people get lost. But if you just adhere to some basic fundamentals, you can get some good results. It’s all about making it easy for the search engines to figure out exactly what your web site is about and displaying it in the appropriate search results.
Even if you already have a web site up and running, there are small changes you can make to facilitate the search engines discovery. The search engines send out “bots” (software that visits your web site and catalogs the information) to scan your web site and determine the content. So it stands to reason that you should do whatever you can to make it easy for these bots to find what they need to properly index and rank you according to the information presented.
A good example of bad search engine optimization is to put your street address as an image rather than text. You see it all the time, a logo that lends itself to an image, has the street address right below it on the same image file. It looks nice, and actual visitors can see it plainly. But the search engine bots can’t see it. So if someone searches on location, you won’t show up since the search engines have no idea of where you are located.
Location may or may not be important to your business but you see the point. Images are good, but always make sure that you have critical information in a format that the search engines can see and index you under. It could be slogans, manufacturers your represent, headlines that describe your product or services, and etc.
By all means uses images where they add to the user experience, but always have the information available somewhere that the search engine can also see. Menus are another common area where images are often used but are invisible to the search engines. Menus that show the different pages and contents should be listed in some way that are also visible to the search engine bots.
So you can put your fancy images at the top or left side of your web page, but put another menu line at the bottom of each page that is in text. And when you name and title the page, be sure to use descriptive terms that are understandable to both visitors and search engines. Instead of putting home page, use a term that describes your business for the link. If you have a page on your product or service, don’t list it by the generic term products, use the product name or something that describes the product.
Effective Website Development
Ronn Jones
Internet is the new media that has been creating a buzz everywhere lately. Be it an aspiring musician, a model or a successful organization, everyone now wants to make its presence felt on the new media, the much hyped and talked about internet. This online presence is often materialized by creating a website or webpage containing useful information along with media files that help to highlight the USP of the individual or organization. The main idea is to get an edge over competition by venturing into a newly and still largely untapped region. But this “untapped region” is not so untapped after all. It’s a common trend for businesses and individuals to go online in the present day and this has again effectively introduced a new area of competition. There are millions of websites and webpages scattered all over the World Wide Web and the numbers are growing every single second. So how does a particular site stand out from its competitors, attract more clients and exert maximum influence?
In order to answer this question, we need to understand the source of visitors to any website. There can be many sources like hyperlinks from a particular page, word of mouth and viral procedures. However, the primary source of visitors to any website is through the search engines. Search engines list websites on the basis of a number of parameters and the ones listed on the first page, especially towards the top, gets more visitors than the others. In order to get a website listed on top of any search engine result index, a whole lot of technical issues need to be taken care of. These are known as search engine optimization techniques. However, it’s not just these techniques that would help a website gain advantage over its competitions. The SEO techniques require support from design aspects too. For example, a particular website with very good search engine listing would attract a lot of visitors but if it does not have a proper navigation facility, the visitors would not be able to find what they are looking for and would eventually abandon the site.
It is definitely not possible for any one person to handle all the aspects of an effective website. So the best possible option is to go for professional help. One good thing is, presently there are several companies offering professional website development service at an affordable rate. However, it’s best to have an overview of the services they offer before entrusting one with the job. A firm that offers a whole bunch of services right from the development of the site, the designing aspects and search engine optimization techniques to support each other would surely be the best choice
Internet is the new media that has been creating a buzz everywhere lately. Be it an aspiring musician, a model or a successful organization, everyone now wants to make its presence felt on the new media, the much hyped and talked about internet. This online presence is often materialized by creating a website or webpage containing useful information along with media files that help to highlight the USP of the individual or organization. The main idea is to get an edge over competition by venturing into a newly and still largely untapped region. But this “untapped region” is not so untapped after all. It’s a common trend for businesses and individuals to go online in the present day and this has again effectively introduced a new area of competition. There are millions of websites and webpages scattered all over the World Wide Web and the numbers are growing every single second. So how does a particular site stand out from its competitors, attract more clients and exert maximum influence?
In order to answer this question, we need to understand the source of visitors to any website. There can be many sources like hyperlinks from a particular page, word of mouth and viral procedures. However, the primary source of visitors to any website is through the search engines. Search engines list websites on the basis of a number of parameters and the ones listed on the first page, especially towards the top, gets more visitors than the others. In order to get a website listed on top of any search engine result index, a whole lot of technical issues need to be taken care of. These are known as search engine optimization techniques. However, it’s not just these techniques that would help a website gain advantage over its competitions. The SEO techniques require support from design aspects too. For example, a particular website with very good search engine listing would attract a lot of visitors but if it does not have a proper navigation facility, the visitors would not be able to find what they are looking for and would eventually abandon the site.
It is definitely not possible for any one person to handle all the aspects of an effective website. So the best possible option is to go for professional help. One good thing is, presently there are several companies offering professional website development service at an affordable rate. However, it’s best to have an overview of the services they offer before entrusting one with the job. A firm that offers a whole bunch of services right from the development of the site, the designing aspects and search engine optimization techniques to support each other would surely be the best choice
Necessary Elements Of Website Development
Omaro Ailoch
Most businesses can benefit from a good, online presence. Whether a website is used as an online portfolio and contact method or a more complex customer management and shopping cart doesn't matter. What matters is that your website matches the professionalism of your organization. Many websites that fail to make the impact expected fail because they are inaccessible or simply look unprofessional. The effectiveness of a website design comes down to a lot more than colors and code.
Quick To Load
Pages and page elements must be quick to load. A surfer's attention span can be measured in seconds, and very few of them. Bearing in mind that while high speed Broadband connections have become much more popular, there are still a large number of people using 56k dialup modems. Masses of graphics and multiple streaming videos that play automatically will make a page slow to load. Poor design and coding can also cause a page to load slowly, along with an overloaded server, and excessive traffic.
Accessibility
Web site accessibility is vital and there are a number of facets that should be considered. At its core, accessibility means that the site should not be prone to regular outages. These are usually caused by unstable host servers but can be caused by poor programming and maintenance. Your site should also be accessible to people regardless of disabilities, usually overcome by providing the option to increase text size or have an audio version of your site. Check your site loads properly in all browsers, on all systems, to ensure the greatest possible level of accessibility.
Easy Navigation
Site navigation needs to be simple and easily visible. If you intend to attract visitors from the search engines then navigation menus also need to be accessible for the search engine spiders. Text links are usually best, but if you use Flash menus or images, then include a sitemap and link to it directly from your homepage. This will help people that are looking for specific information, and the search engines appreciate the effort too.
Clean and Crisp
While partially a design element, keeping your site clean and clutter free also assists visitors and helps improve your site's performance. Too much clutter distracts users' attentions away from the main point of the page. If there eye is caught by a flashing banner at the side of the page then most visitors will give up trying to read the main content and look for another site.
Most businesses can benefit from a good, online presence. Whether a website is used as an online portfolio and contact method or a more complex customer management and shopping cart doesn't matter. What matters is that your website matches the professionalism of your organization. Many websites that fail to make the impact expected fail because they are inaccessible or simply look unprofessional. The effectiveness of a website design comes down to a lot more than colors and code.
Quick To Load
Pages and page elements must be quick to load. A surfer's attention span can be measured in seconds, and very few of them. Bearing in mind that while high speed Broadband connections have become much more popular, there are still a large number of people using 56k dialup modems. Masses of graphics and multiple streaming videos that play automatically will make a page slow to load. Poor design and coding can also cause a page to load slowly, along with an overloaded server, and excessive traffic.
Accessibility
Web site accessibility is vital and there are a number of facets that should be considered. At its core, accessibility means that the site should not be prone to regular outages. These are usually caused by unstable host servers but can be caused by poor programming and maintenance. Your site should also be accessible to people regardless of disabilities, usually overcome by providing the option to increase text size or have an audio version of your site. Check your site loads properly in all browsers, on all systems, to ensure the greatest possible level of accessibility.
Easy Navigation
Site navigation needs to be simple and easily visible. If you intend to attract visitors from the search engines then navigation menus also need to be accessible for the search engine spiders. Text links are usually best, but if you use Flash menus or images, then include a sitemap and link to it directly from your homepage. This will help people that are looking for specific information, and the search engines appreciate the effort too.
Clean and Crisp
While partially a design element, keeping your site clean and clutter free also assists visitors and helps improve your site's performance. Too much clutter distracts users' attentions away from the main point of the page. If there eye is caught by a flashing banner at the side of the page then most visitors will give up trying to read the main content and look for another site.
Options For Website Development
Countless people are trying to figure out how to build their website. They know they need one. They have an idea what they want it to look like. They know what they want the website to do. In many cases, they even know the domain name they want to use. But the real question is: where do I start? Who can build it for me? What’s it going to cost?
As it turns out, there are many different options available. In fact, there are as many options available as there are websites on the net. But a few stick out as particularly good approached for you to consider. This article will review three strategies for getting your website up and running. In reality, there are countless subcategories within each strategy but this overview should give you a good start to begin your planning.
The first strategy is also the cheapest. You can use the Joomla CMS Web Application Framework to build your website. Joomla is an open source project, meaning it was developed by loosely affiliated developers around the world and it’s free to use. Yes, you read it correctly. It’s absolutely free for anyone to use. You simply download the platform and install it on your server and you’re good to go. There are also countless extensions you can download and install, enhancing the functionality of your website. The beauty of the platform is that you can log on at any time and make changes or adjustments to your website, all by yourself. Joomla is a powerful content management system and you can quickly put up a feature-rich website without paying a penny.
The second strategy is to host your website with a company that offers a template-driven web application framework of their own. More and more hosting companies are offering platforms like this and they’re a great option for non-tech-savvy people who want to get a website up quickly and be able to modify it whenever they like. These platforms offer similar functionality to Joomla but they tend to be more intuitive and easier to use. They are also being upgraded regularly and usually have some sort of user support line as well. While basic hosting might cost $10 per month, the inclusion of these platforms might increase your cost to $20 or $30 per month.
The last strategy we’ll discuss in this article is the actual hiring of a web developer to put your site together. This is obviously the most expensive option but it does come with some distinct advantages. For starters, you can design the website any way you like. You’re not limited to templates or layout options. You can do whatever you like. You can also incorporate custom functionality Joomla or the template-driven platforms don’t offer. And in many cases, today’s developers can incorporate administrative back-ends so you can change content whenever you like. There’s no question you can get the Cadillac treatment with a custom web developer. The only downside is that it’ll cost you a lot more money
As it turns out, there are many different options available. In fact, there are as many options available as there are websites on the net. But a few stick out as particularly good approached for you to consider. This article will review three strategies for getting your website up and running. In reality, there are countless subcategories within each strategy but this overview should give you a good start to begin your planning.
The first strategy is also the cheapest. You can use the Joomla CMS Web Application Framework to build your website. Joomla is an open source project, meaning it was developed by loosely affiliated developers around the world and it’s free to use. Yes, you read it correctly. It’s absolutely free for anyone to use. You simply download the platform and install it on your server and you’re good to go. There are also countless extensions you can download and install, enhancing the functionality of your website. The beauty of the platform is that you can log on at any time and make changes or adjustments to your website, all by yourself. Joomla is a powerful content management system and you can quickly put up a feature-rich website without paying a penny.
The second strategy is to host your website with a company that offers a template-driven web application framework of their own. More and more hosting companies are offering platforms like this and they’re a great option for non-tech-savvy people who want to get a website up quickly and be able to modify it whenever they like. These platforms offer similar functionality to Joomla but they tend to be more intuitive and easier to use. They are also being upgraded regularly and usually have some sort of user support line as well. While basic hosting might cost $10 per month, the inclusion of these platforms might increase your cost to $20 or $30 per month.
The last strategy we’ll discuss in this article is the actual hiring of a web developer to put your site together. This is obviously the most expensive option but it does come with some distinct advantages. For starters, you can design the website any way you like. You’re not limited to templates or layout options. You can do whatever you like. You can also incorporate custom functionality Joomla or the template-driven platforms don’t offer. And in many cases, today’s developers can incorporate administrative back-ends so you can change content whenever you like. There’s no question you can get the Cadillac treatment with a custom web developer. The only downside is that it’ll cost you a lot more money
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