5 Simple Rules to Website Design

When designing a website you sometimes only have one chance to keep the internet visitor from clicking the back button on their web browser. Whether you are selling a product or offering a service, remember your website design represents your business.

For years, we have been told that when going to an interview you have 10 seconds to make a lasting first impression. There is no difference when designing your website than making the first impression in an interview. You are making a first impression with the internet visitor who has searched for what you are offering in your website design every time. The first impression can make the difference between in a paying customer or just a visitor to your website.

Here are just 5 simple rules to keep in mind when designing your website.

Rule #1. Limit the use or do not use flashy banners and advertisements at the beginning of you website. There is a time and place for the banners and advertisement.

There is nothing more annoying then clicking on a website to see cartoon characters, advertisements for other products flashing in front of your face. This can be too much for your potential customer. Your customer is there for a purpose and if the blatant advertisements or flashing banners turn them off they may just hit the back button before they find what they are looking for.

The only exception to this rule is determined by the purpose of you website.

Rule #2. Make sure your website design make it easy for the visitor to find the navigation buttons. If a customer has to search for a navigation button to find information about the company or the navigation buttons are not working, the visitor may get frustrated and leave you website.

A rule of thumb for your navigation buttons are on the left side of your web page because the majority of people read from left to right. Think about reading a newspaper or a book. You look at the headlines then you read from the left to the right.

Rule #3. When visitors are browsing your site, have a clear indication for the visitor of where they are on your website and how to get to other parts.

You may want to put a link on each page that the visitor clicks to take them to the home page or another page relating to the information currently viewing. In other words do not confuse your visitor or you visitor may just click off the website totally.

Rule #4. When designing your website pay close attention to loading time. The time it takes your web pages to load. You can reduce loading time by reducing graphics on each page. A good website design should load under twenty seconds.

The longer it takes the pages to load the more frustrating it can be to the internet visitor. People want it yesterday not today and definitely not tomorrow.

Rule #5. Use a font that is common to all web browsers and easy to read. You have to think of your market. If you are selling a product or service that is used by older individuals you may want to increase the font.

Most of us are not going to get younger and with age, we find our eye sights are not what they use to be.

In addition, different web browsers display fonts differently. Therefore, you want to use a universal font compatible to the popular web browser for better viewing.

Bonus Rule #6. Make sure the information on your website is up to date, and relevant to what you are offering. If your website is selling 32", LCD Flat Screen TV's you should not be offering products to repair your driveway. I know that is extreme but people want to know they are visiting a website that has up to date information and is relevant to what they are searching for.

These are just a few rules of website design. There are many other things to adhere to when designing your website for optimal visitors.

When designing your website look at it from the customers or internet visitors standpoint. Would you want to visit this website? Would you want to purchase a product from this website? If you answer "no" then correct the problems.

If you deal with customer service, you need to do as they do. Get out from behind the counter and see what the customers see from where they stand. If you go "ugh", that is not good and you need to make some changes.

Pat Turman is a successful mid-level manager and internet entrepreneur. She co-owned and operated a quarter million dollar e-retail store selling golf equipment for women, runs numerous online businesses, and manages a company with revenues of over a million dollars. She holds a BBA from an accredited University and numerous awards and certificates. http://www.eznichewebsitedesign.com

How to Create Your Own Website - Pick a Template and Boom You Are Done

Building your own website may be a necessary part of any little business plan. This will give means to the buyers so that they have instant access to your goods and services. Taking the correct steps when building your website may distinguish whether you spend hundreds of dollars for a expert web designer or having that money for other promotions for your business.

It can also be a lot of fun for non-professionals as well. In this day and age, with families living far away from one another it's a great way to keep everyone updated on your life. You can learn how to create your own website that is updated frequently with pictures and stories from your life.

Your first impression might be that creating a website is complicated and beyond your ability. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many companies specialize in "how to create your own website" with a content builder. That simply means that you pick out a template, type in all the required fields and soon your very own site is up and running. Learning how to create your own website is a no-brainer in today's world.

If you prefer to create a one-of-a-kind site, you can find all sorts of internet tutorials to learn from. They begin with the fundamentals for rookie web designers and also provide material to aid in adding to the skills one has already acquired. Regardless of your proficiency level, you're sure to find a tutorial on the Net that can assist you in accomplishing your aims.

Before designing your website it's important to think long and hard about exactly what you want your content to be. If you're a business, you will need to figure out which sections you'll need. For example, you might want an area that has a price comparison between your different products. Or, you might want a section devoted to testimonials from previous customers.

The sky is the limit when it comes to private websites. The hardest part will be figuring out what you want because you can customize any combination of links, pictures and blogs to present your personal vision.

You don't have to know the technical aspects of how to create your own website to own one. Whether for a profitable business or for keeping in touch with family and friends, there's tutorials and software out there to help you make your own website, be it basic or complex. The hardest (and most important) part is deciding what your content should be. Be sure to carefully plan what sections you want to have. A business website should have testimonials and price comparisons; a personal website should have photos, essays, and links. Even if the layout of your website is not, the content should be unique to attract visitors.

Website Design Guidelines For Novices

The internet is the first place people go to find the information they seek. The web provides people with quick access to information and the ability to find products they are seeking. While other markets are suffering, the World Wide Web is running strong.

A website design which makes your site attractive and easy to navigate is an important advantage regardless of whether you are promoting merchandise or services, selling items through an internet shop, or just providing information and/or blogging.

One of the important elements to the success of your site is its website design. You need not only attract visitors, but to keep them coming back. Some aspects of a visitor friendly site are; an attractive appearance, good information, laid out in a manner that draws your visitor's attention to your products or services and a navigational flow that is easy.

When you are selecting the colors for you template, always keep one thing in mind that not to choose those colors which could harm the eyes of the visitors. Do not use many different and intense bright colors. It is always best not to use one color at more than three places. The text shade that you use should be in way that it is opposite to the colors that you have used in your template.

Quality subject matter is crucial to your web sites success. When your customers arrive, you want them to stay, come back and refer the site to their friends. You want to provide correct and informative content. In case you are selling an item, you want to provide full descriptions that are easy to understand.

Another important aspect of website design is ease of navigation. You need to be certain that it is easy to get to all your pages. In fact, each page on your site should be reached by no more than three clicks. Navigation bars are probably the simplest way to be certain that your pages are linked properly. Another helpful option is to post a site index.

Without visitors all of the hard work you've put into your site will be pointless. One method to increase page views and to promote your site is the use of search engine optimization techniques. These techniques involve the purposeful use of keywords to improve your rank with search engines. Keywords are words or phrases people are most likely to enter into a search engine to particular pages. Using keywords properly will cause your site to appear closer to the top on search results.

If this seems like biting off more than you can chew, there is always the option of hiring someone experienced in web design to assist you. Often, you can find online designers, but there are sure to be ones in your area as well. You can do an online search to find web designers. It is simple as typing in web design Los Angeles in your search engine, and a list of experienced designers in that area should pop up.

No matter if you looking to the web for a marketing campaign to bring attention to your business, selling a product via online store or have an information site, you can benefit from a well laid out website design. Without visitors all of the hard work you've put into your site will be pointless. One method to increase page views and to promote your site is the use of search engine optimization techniques. Using keywords properly will cause your site to appear closer to the top on search results. For professional assistance, try typing "web design los angeles" into a search engine.

Making a Website That Converts - 5 Must Have Items

So you now have a website and you are driving traffic to it, but the sales just aren't coming in. I know it's frustrating, first thing you should do is stop all advertising, stop spending money. I know people that think "well they will come back and make a purchase" 85% of the people you are sending will never even click on the vendor's pages, let alone go back and buy the product. So Stop all advertising. Now the 5 "Must have items".

1.) Catchy Headline - Make sure that your headline grabs the attention of the visitor, on average you have less then 5 seconds to get the attention of a visitor, after that consider then lost.

2.) Professional graphics - Now I don't mean go spend 1000's having your site redesigned, or all flashy graphics. What I mean is that you must have a good looking webpage so the visitor feels like they can trust you. Gone are the days where you can throw up a headline, some ad copy, and makes sale. Make a good looking website.

3.) Site Layout - This is often forgotten, but if you have a opt-in box, the best place is for it to be in the middle right, or upper right hand part of the screen above the fold. Having your opt in box at the bottom of the screen, or a horrible looking pop hover, or whatever they call it are bad choices.

4.) Testimonials with pictures - everyone needs reassurances when they are buying online, and having testimonials with "real" pictures goes along ways, and to go a step further if you can get a video testimonial that can do wonders for your conversion rates. Here's a tip - don't be fake, it must be sincere and honesty, people will see through fake testimonials.

5.) Clear calls to action - People have to know what to do once they are at your website. If they are unsure, they will just leave, think of it as leading a man to water. He needs to know where to go, and how to get there and it expecting you to help. So make sure your visitor knows what to do when they are at your page.

Those are 5 things you can change today to help your website. And hopefully increase your sales.

Make sure to check out my site at http://www.cash4noobs.com - find out why your not making the kind of money you should be online!

Is a Website Creator Easy to Use?

Many people have the need for a website. Whether it is for personal or business usage, creating a website can be a very daunting and unnerving task for those not familiar with coding and all of the technical aspects of building a web page. The typical consumer wants to be able to input their data and come out with a webpage they can be proud to show. One may think you need a magic wand to be able to complete this task. Well, let a website creator be that magic wand.

You can use a website creator -- a template -- to easily design a site. It allows you to provide all the information, including words and photos, and then it crafts it into a Web site. When you're building a Web site many Web editors impose certain limits, such as a maximum number of colors or backgrounds. Others might have no restrictions at all and it'll be completely up to you. Often, what's available to you depends on how much money you are willing to pay.

If you're just beginning, you might wish to try a free online web creator. You can find these online if you type in "building a website" or "homepage creator" into a search engine. Literally hundreds of sites will show up. When you review them, make sure you look for quality results. Also watch for how much flexibility these sites will give.

If free editors do not appeal to you and you are feeling a bit adventurous. Your options are to bu website building software or download it. You have more flexibility and control of your creation, with the more expensive software. There also maybe promotional incentives offered with the paid software, such as free hosting or technical support. The best thing about own the software maybe that you have the security of associating your specific business with the product.

People usually don't think about security in the design of their website. It is good to have in dept knowledge of the people servicing the software whether the service is free or not. The internet has a lot of scams; so be aware of someone hosting a web site just to get information from unsuspecting users like you or someone else. Make certain that you research web site hosts thoroughly to make sure they are credible.

Website construction should not have to be boring like your chore. It should be fun and exciting while allowing you to express your creativity at the same time provided that the right tools are utilized. A website creator is such a tool; it can help turn your website from dull to captivating.

The average person desires an easy way to build an appealing web site. A website creator can help. It is basically a template that allows you to plug in your information, pictures, and other content, and then presents you with a completed web page. Depending on the specific website builder, you may have more or less control over the process. Building your own website does not have to be a chore. It can be a fun exercise in creativity if you have the right tools. Using a website design program can also help take your present web page from blah to brilliant.

Make it Easy to Purchase From Your Website

This is in large part due to the streamlining the buying process. A decade ago, commercial websites were not interactive and consisted of little more than an electronic version of a magazine ad. Such mail order purchasing is a cumbersome process and that is why internet commerce was minimal in the early days. Today, the way in which people can buy online is much easier. That is why they buy in such volumes. Yet, there are still those who employ a website design module that is ten years out of date. So, let's take a look at the website design methods that are much easier for people to make purchases.

First and foremost, the website designers must make it apparent that the website is a commercial venture. Poor web development, for example, may be loaded with lots of cool graphics and interesting text but the actual items that are for sale are presented in a peripheral manner as opposed to the focus of the site. Needless to say, such website development is very weak and will not facilitate any profits.

Solid website design, however, will clearly identity the products or services that are offered. The description will be clear and properly illustrated. If you are selling boxing gloves, for example, you would need to provide a photo of the gloves; the manufacturer should be identified; the different weights of the various gloves; the different colors the gloves come available in; and, of course, the price of the gloves. In short, the potential customer knows EXACTLY what he is buying. If a person is provided with proper information then the person will be less likely to dismiss the purchase.

Now, here is the absolutely MOST CRITICAL aspect of commercial website design. The website positively must have reliable shopping cart software installed. Without such software the ability to make a purchase is made much more difficult. The first time a customer buys from your site all they will need to do is plug in vital purchasing information such as credit card info, mailing address, etc. This info can then be saved on the cart's memory so the next time a visitor wants to make a purchase they can do so with one click. Such ease of use makes customers much more likely to buy.

Ultimately, that is the goal of streamlining website design for commercial sites. You want to make it as easy as possible for customers to purchase. When the process is easy then the ability to sell more items becomes much easier.

As an affordable designer of award winning Canada Website Design, we offer front page search engine listings and global marketing with every website we create. Based out of Alberta, Canada we are a very reputed, global webmaster and web development company specializing in branding and consumer interaction.

We start your web development with a detailed fact finding discovery session, were we identify your companies online objective, target audiences and your specific branding message. Creating a successful design is about understanding the companies our service represents on a personal level to truly appreciate your business objectives and challenges.

We are more than an website design studio, web developments shop, or programming house, we are GlobalWebsiteCreations.com, dedicated to businesses and consumer interaction.

Creatively yours, Todd Herman
President
Senior Vice President
GlobalWebsiteCreations.com
President
GlobalWebsiteCreating.com

The Powerful Key of the Logo for Your Business

Do you want to know the powerful key of the Logo for your Business? Now you imagine if logo as a CEO of the company, the first thing he would say “Please don’t change me, I’m here for long time!” If you observe the logo you will find the very interesting character of the logo. First you will find the silent message that represents your company and its products and services. Then the most essential thing of the Logo is the spirit of your business life. Given such an important role, shouldn’t the design of a logo be given services consideration during the development of a company’s strategic plan?

Thinking in long term, what then some of the issues to address? Positioning of a product or service in the proper category is the most important in planner’s minds when a product or services is just introduced. Advertising themes and campaigns consider effective positioning in the desired category in be the most urgent objective.

Positioning is the process of creating a specific perception of a product, service a company’s attributes in the mind of a desired consumer goal. An advertising theme positions a product or service to utter to a particular segment of the population, a segment that is known to have a need with those attributes.

Each group of people (different of age, income and geographic) has different needs and will respond to product they feel will fill those needs. An effective, particular developed logo can subliminally communicate the capability to perform better than competitive products.

Design of a company or product logo should not be labeled on to an advertising campaign at the end of the planning process. It deserves to be well considered and integrated into the body of the campaign; it should not be the tail of the dog. A good logo is developed at the front and, the part that inspired!

Planners should communicate to the graphic designer certain key information about what the company or product targets are. They have to pass in to the artist a demographic picture of their target consumer age, income, where they live. All of these factors are coming along with the strategic planning process.

Logo work’s unique development process enables the number of logo interpretations for an individual product, service or company. Through convergence of ideas, take from some different artist, logo design choices are optimized and it is to good to make a choice one or more that best communicate the desire positioning for the product or service.

In choosing a logo, we should be around for as long a time, looking for it everywhere, emblazoned on everything, it can be either a joy or eyesore.

Some logos have survived through ravages of time they are still effective at transmitting a well-established corporate image. Passing through many generations, the Rock of Gibraltar logo still lends its strengths to AIG; the Mac Donald's logo keep its great taste, BMW and IBM logos still drive their products in right direction.

Periodically, every business planner should examine his company’s logo to ensure if they are effective represent his company and his company’s products or services in this moving world. Sometimes we need modification, revisualization new graphic could be employed to ensure greater effectiveness without changing the basic message the original logo was designed to transmit.

About the Author

Thomas Joseph is a professional Art Director, and has a huge passion for logo creation and sharing his knowledge to others.Thomas's personal goal is to help his clients and friends to come up with a conceptually strong, and easy to remember logo. You can know find more about Thomas in www.wiselogo.com.

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