5 Ways to Create Effective Website Content

In order to retain the attention of prospects and clients visiting your small business website, the content you present needs to be organized, easy to read and search engine compatible. Writing for the web is different - online reading is not the same as reading from print. Web users, particularly those performing website searches, have limited attention spans - they tend to scan pages for specific information rather than reading every single word of content.

1. "Clean" Information Layout

Research indicates that the average web user only reads 20% of the content on any given web page. Here are a few ways to design your content so it captures the attention of your visitors:

• Descriptive headings - Let the reader know exactly what's on the web page by using headings that provide accurate descriptions of the content
• Short paragraphs - present one topic or idea per paragraph to make it easier to scan through a web page
• Bullet points - if some of your web pages present multiple facts within a single section, lay out the content in point form to make it easier for your visitors to "digest" the information
• Bold text - use bolding or capitalization to draw attention to important words/phrases

2. Concise Copy

Avoid the urge to present every detail about your company, product or service. Approach your content from the perspective of your website visitor and (briefly) describe how you can help provide a solution to a problem they might have. When it comes to editing, a good rule of thumb is to take what you've written and cut the word count in half!

3. Simple Language

One of the biggest problems with many websites is the amount of "gobbledygook" that is used. Try to avoid the use of technical language, industry specific lingo and acronyms. Your visitors will appreciate (and pay attention to) straightforward descriptions of your company, products, services and solutions.

4. Keywords

Take some time to research the keywords that are applicable to your product/service before writing or editing you website content. Keywords are the words or phrases web users type into search engines i.e Google, Yahoo!, etc to find information on the internet. Having the right keywords throughout your site's content will increase the likelihood of potential customers finding you online.

Google offers a great tool that will help you come up with keywords and provide you with search statistics (how many times the keyword was used in Google searches over a period of time).

5. Great Content

Offering great content will make your website better - An obvious statement, but based on the content on many websites, easier said than done. It's important to understand the meaning of great content - it's not content you think is great, it's content your visitors will find exciting and useful.

• Write an article that solves a client's problem
• Write an e-book that helps visitors learn something new
• Start a blog to share your ideas - and invite people to comment
• Publish a white-paper on a topic or trend that is important to your clients/prospects

One last note - offer your content for FREE...making people jump through hoops and exchanging content for email addresses is not the best way to build your brand online. If you offer good content and goodwill, it will pay off in the long run.

Mark Smiciklas is a Vancouver Marketing Consultant. His firm, Intersection Consulting, helps small to mid-sized businesses address challenges in the areas of marketing, management and business development.

To find out more about Intersection Consulting, please visit http://www.intersectionconsulting.com

For more thoughts and ideas on marketing and management for small business please visit the Intersection Blog at http://www.intersectionconsulting.typepad.com

Web Designing - Make Your Online Presence Count

Web designing is not a simple HTML (Hypertext Markup language) or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), it is much more than it. Basically it is a conceptual process in which research, discussion, planning, implementation, and finally, evaluation of electronic media is done via various technologies such as markup languages like HTML which are interpreted and displayed by a web-based graphical user interfaces (GUIs) or any other web browser.

The main purpose of web design is to create a website having interactive features and interfaces known as content that is presented to the end user as web pages when requested. Elements such as images (GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs), text, colors, tables and forms can be placed on the page using HTML, XHTML, or XML tags. Displaying more complex media (vector graphics, animations, videos, sounds) usually requires plug-ins such as Flash, QuickTime, Java run-time environment, etc.

Typically web pages are classified as static or dynamic.

• Static pages are those which do not change structure, content and layout with every request unless a web master or a programmer manually updates the page.

• Dynamic pages are those which change their content and appearance depending on the end-user's input or interaction or changes in the computing environment (user, time, database modifications, etc.) We can even change contents on the client side or on end-user's computer by using client-side scripting languages like JavaScript, and JScript, etc. Dynamic content is often compiled and executed on the server through server-side scripting languages like ASP, PHP, Perl, JSP, Python, etc.

Basic Aspects of Design

Depending on the goals of the website and the audience, the website's requirements and aspects of design changes. For typical commercial websites, the four main basic aspects of design are:

-What kind of content will be required to meet our goals?
The content: The substance and information on the website should be relevant to the website and should target the section of the public that the website is concerned with.

-What kind of look should the website have?
The appearance: the graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.

-What kind of visibility should the website have?
The visibility: the website must be easy to find via most of the major search engines and advertisement media.

What kind of usability should the website have?
-The usability: the website should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable.

Accessible Web design

For accessible web design, web pages and websites must follow certain accessibility principles like:

• Use sitemaps for proper navigation through the website.

• Use semantic markup that provides a significant structure to the web page.

• Provide suitable hierarchy among different web pages.

• Use a valid markup language like HTML that is supported by all the browsers.

• Provide text alternates for any non-text components like images, multimedia etc.

• Use hyperlinks that make sense when read out of context.

• Use CSS file rather than HTML tags for design and layout.

The website is an information system whose components are sometimes classified as front-end and back-end. Front-end is the observable content e.g., page layout, user interface, graphics, text, audio while the back-end comprises the organization and efficiency of the source code, invisible scripted functions, and the server-side components process output from the front-end.

Greymindz is a leader in Search Engine Optimization and Web Designing and Development providing innovative and effective solutions to synergize your business strengths by enhancing your reach to a targeted global audience.

If You Build a Better Website Will the World Beat a Path to Your Door?

So much money, time and energy is being devoted to website design and optimization. But what do customers need to purchase your products or utilize your services?

They need a kiss. "KISS" means "Keep it simple -------!

A flea market has a very simple layout. Find a spot, lay your products on a table or on the ground and have a flood of people passing by.

The idea is that there is not a lot of time for bells and whistles. Some very not so good looking websites are making money. Why? Traffic.

Yes, build an informative and interactive website with content, subscriptions, a guest books if you like. But, no traffic no sale. Put something on a webpage that people want in a presentable fashion and they will buy it: that's if they see it.

Search engine optimization is good. Do it. Search Engines are very unpredictable. Today you are in the top10, tomorrow you don't show up in a search. They change their styles for obvious reasons. Yet you should still put some good relevant keywords in your meta tags and throughout your pages. If you show up at the top for awhile you could still make some money.

Promote yourself and your website. Tell people about your business. Hand out business cards. Hand out some flyers. Put your website address on your car bumper, some T-Shirts and any where else you could think.

Bottom line, build a better website and try to get people on the path to your door.

If you're looking for the *Best Rated* home business opportunities, the latest time saving tools and helpful support from an honest friend in the business, James Winston, come by and grab a F-R-E-E subscription today at: http://www.hothomework.com