Web Site Design & Marketing Guide

SEO is short for Search Engine Optimisation, and one of the many tatics that web designers have to use to help any and all websites onto the 1st page of Google and promote a website in the world wide web.

SEO is the collective term for a number of methods used for optimizing any website. These include:
Keyphrase/Keyword: This is where a webmaster will word the website’s information in to include search terms that users would put into Google. The search engine then will automatically scan the website and update its database of the web and hopefully add your website to the list of websites being relevant for that search phrase.

Meta, Heading, and Title tags: These are similar to the keyword and key phrases but focuses on the main points of the website and also should relate to search terms entered into search engines. Meta tags are descriptive words for a website which a search engine finds websites, Heading tags are the main tags to highlight various parts of the website and search engine use these as keywords for search engines, and the title tag is what the main website is called and shown at the top of the web browser. This can be time consuming to do but once done will help a website rank higher in search engines.

Site maps: Whether it is Google, Yahoo or a websites own site map, a break-down of the website, it is beneficial to have as it helps all search engines clearly collect the data it needs to properly sort and categorize the website. This will make it easier to find when showing search results.

If previous posts have got you interested into taking complete advantage of this ever growing marketing resource, then there are a couple of ways in which you can get into this:

1. Creating a wap site. -

   WAP which stands for wireless application protocol: a protocol for transferring documents, esp. Web pages, over a computer network to cellular phones and other hand-held wireless devices, is one of the way in which to get access to mobile phones and other handheld devices. There are a online companies that offer wap creation for your business, and also if you use your mobile or handheld device then you can find various wap sites that allow you to create your own for free. Although this is a good thing, wap sites generally are very limited in how they are seen and not very exciting, if you do not get it ‘right’.

2. W3C standards coded website –
   This is the second meothd to get access to the mobiles and handheld devices around the world. As long as your website validates, according to the W3C standards, then not only will your website fix itself to how what the handheld device is, it may move everything into one column, depending on the device, but everything that you have created on your website will be there, and will look decidedly better than a WAP site.
   Also, along with the trend, there are browsers out there who are, themselves, getting into it by creating mobile browsers. At the present moment Opera is the only browser to really successfully create a mobile browser that is accessible to all recent mobile phones with a big enough screen which turns your mobile into a portable computer where you can access your websites, emails etc. Safari is another one, however is only accessible to the iPhone, and Firefox have created their own called Fennec but again only available to Nokia Mobile phones.

So, as long as your website can validate accroding to the W3C tests, then your website is avaliable globally and it also depends on what handset is being used and how, whether it is through the default mobile browser or if the user has downloaded a mobile browser, Opera, Fennec, or have Safari on their iPhone, your website is accessible but with growing developements in the mobile industry and more and more applications and browsers being created, then all you need to do is to get the word out.
Test this theory on your own mobile or handheld device and you will be surprised.

All through the Internet and the Internet Industry, there is a battle going on between code, browsers and Web Designers.  At the center of this battle is the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).  This post is to help you understand what this conflict is about and why standardised code is important.

The Internet is a way for individuals and businesses to have the ability to show off, share, promote and sell various products and services to a global audience, however, with the astronomical increase or individuals and businesses getting on the Internet, it is getting harder and harder to stand out from the crowd and be noticed.

This fact has a knock on effect on Web Designers, freelance and companies alike, to create that shiny, slick, standout from the crowd website each and every time.  One of the main factors, one of the main reasons for this obstacle, is lack of support for standards compliant code within browsers.  The W3C is an organisation who’s propose it is to create and develop a set of standard code, that it compatible in every browser, to allow for the full potential of a website and help Web Designers take full advantage of this and build bigger, better and more complex interactive websites.

However, even with the W3C working as hard as they can to ensure the creation of generating cross-compatible code to make this happen, browsers are a major factor.  The newer browsers, such as Firefox, Safari, Opera and Google Chrome are trying to ensure they they can and will accept code generated from the W3C, but Internet Explorer is the major problem.

IE6 is the most widely used Internet browser around the world and also the oldest, due to the fact that it is the default browser on most computers sold to individuals and businesses, and with the fact that it is so old, new code generated is not fully compatible and therefore makes it very difficult to create bigger and better websites because all Web Designers need to take into account this fact.

Yes, there has been a gradual shift from IE6 to IE7 and 8, Firefox and other compliant browsers, enabling more and more people to embrace the future; rounded corners, multiple backgrounds, drop shadows etc, and making it easier for Web Designers to give individuals and businesses a better website, but its just not fast enough.

What is standards compliant W3C code and why is it so important, it is so important to help make things better, faster, quicker and also with the use of W3C standards, websites are available for any and all computers, handheld devices and browsers.

If you want to get closer to your clients, if you want to optimise and improve your customer service and have the ability to get almost instant feedback from customers and clients, do you want the ability to help increase and improve your business, then this is why you should get into the Mobile Trend.

According to statistics, on average, there are currently 7.4 million mobile internet users within the UK from 2008, which also means that this figure has only increased since. 7 out of 10 people with a mobile phone will opt for using their mobile phone than their landline to make phone calls. On average, over a milion text messages, thats roughly 12 texts per mobile per person, are sent everyday, an increase of over 234% since 2002. Some companies are even now handing out Blackberry devices to employees in order for them to keep in touch, outside of work hours.

Recently, on average, there are now 1.8 mobiles per person, as the world is starting to become a two mobile world. With all this in mind, with all the increase in mobile usage, text messaging, calls and accessing the internet via mobile phones, there is no reason as to why not to get into the mobile trend.

With so many people all around the world, with access to unlimited, depending on their price plan, access to your business and its products and services, then this is one of the most perfect and best oppertunities that you can give you and your business buy going heads first into the Mobile Trend.

Portability, access, information.  These are what people of today are looking for and they are getting it via their mobiles.   Mobile Internet….growing trend or not?

Over the years, many of us have seen the transformation and development of computers and computer hardware go from being the size of a room, to what we have today; desktop computers, netbooks, laptops, iPhones.  Everything is becoming more and more portable within our daily lives making it more a part of our lives, our day to day living.  Access to information is now as easy as ever and companies need to grab hold of this trend now to get in to.

It is evident all around us, through friends, family and TV ads that more and more people are using handheld devices, such as mobile phones, PDA’s etc to access emails, and the wealth of information already available with the click of a mouse button is now also ready with the touch of a thumb.

Photos and videos can be taken and directly uploaded to the web via mobile phones and browsing the internet is getting easier and easier, especially now as there are more and more phones being released with the internet in mind, such as Google phone the “Android”, Apples “iPhone” and Opera have their own mobile phone browser with Firefox also working on their own; “Fennec”, which allows other types such as Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola etc access to the internet.  Its not just all about calling someone, or texting someone anymore, the industry has developed so much that being able to access their Twitter, Facebook, Bebo all from the palm of your hand<depending on reception of course, is the foremost important feature for every phone.

Due to the total and complete ease of access to online information available from the palm of your hand, I do believe that as the internet develops, mobile phones develop, the easier it will become to just press a button to find exactly what you want, anywhere in the world, and the more important for any and all businesses to ensure that they have their foot in the mobile internet door.

In every business around the world, there is one main common goal, to improve and expand the busines. This post is here to give the pros as to why you and your business should have a website.

Before the internet, the main ways to advertise your business and help expand it was to use the various types of media avaliable; TV, newspapers and the radio. This worked well for businesses starting out, however, these methods have limits. The money spent keeping their ads on the TV, newspapers and radio is costly enough but to advertise further and further away costs, so now with the introduction of the internet, suddenly each and every business had access to a global audience, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So where once companies were limited to their own areas, their own countries, the world was now their oyster.

With a website, companies have the ability to show the world their own personality, provide products and services to a global audience and have a direct link to customers with an unending source of a way of improving customer service.

Why should you have your own website? Its the next step for any and all businesses who wish to get closer to their customers and grow their business.

Ever since the start and introduction of the internet, everyone has wanted a piece of the action, but how much should it cost to get your business or voice hear all over the world? This post, if anything else should give a clearer view from the web designer and factors that they face everyday.

Every Freelancer and small to major company are different and so to are their prices. There are numerous and varying factors that effect any web designer at their work. Due to the ever growing, ever changing world wide web, methods, programs and availability of new and up-comming ways to view, change and interactive with the web means that more work has to be done by web designers and how they do their work which means their prices go up.

Every business/business person will usually work out a basic rate/range of prices and work from which to work out how to charge for more and bigger projects. These are based on every step of creating a website including; the initial meeting with a potential client, the work put into creating templates and ideas for a project, the decisions for what software and hardware and how the project is to shape and form into the finished product. The time then spent on coding the site and then that depends on what type of code is and should be used, and also depending on who you go to, they may know more about one type of code more than another while someone who doesn’t know as much than the other would charge differently from each other, as time spent creating or working through a piece/section of website is always the basis to price up/charge anything. The longer it takes the more expensive it is going to be.

You want to know how much web design should be, there really is no definitive answer to this question, it is like anything else, shop around to find out the best for less. However, the factor that you, the reader should be thinking of, quality. Yes you find a cheap web designer to do your work, but compare that to someone you pay that little bit more too and you can be guaranteed that the one you pay more for will be better because there would have been more time spent on creating your site that way you want it and not just pumped out and left to fend for itself.

Tips that I would suggest would be to look at their portfolio of work, look to see if there are any testimonials from previous clients, and remember that everyone is different.

The World Wide Web is massive. There are countless amounts of websites online filled with information on and about everything. It may all look the same to the untrained eye, a website is a website, but for web designers there is and needs to be a distinct difference between them all, to help them price up your website.
Each website that you see on the internet have different functions and layouts, and ways of grabbing your attention depending on what it is they are trying to achieve. There are several types of main websites that all web designers sell and work on.

1. Business
   With a Business website, it enables businesses to show anyone, globally, photos and descriptions of their products and services. Unlike an Ecommerce website, not everything you see on a business website is sellable over the web. Examples of this would be hair-stylist, dentist, schools etc.
   There are a number of key factors that need to be taken into account when designing a business website, these include:
   • Appearance: The first impression that a visitor gets when coming to your website should be a good one.
   • Navigation: Poor navigation will make it difficult for people to find what they are looking for and they will leave.
   • Content: Quality content not only sells products but it also insures good placement on the search engines.
   • Optimisation: Search engine optimization
     is crucial to your traffic flow.
   • Clarity and Style: The message that you are trying to convey to your audience must be clear and as simple as possible.
   • About us: Your visitors want to know who they’re doing business with, and this is your chance to tell them.
   • Contacts: You should include as many different ways for visitors/customers to contact you as you possibly can.

2. Personal
   A personal website is similar to a blog, but bigger and the person controlling the website, the webmaster (you), has full control of the theme, branding, and content such as adding interests, hobbies etc.The amount of Personal Websites that can be found on the internet is astronomical. Personal Websites are probably the fastest growing type of website.One of the main reasons for this type of website is to stay in touch with family, and including family photos or jusr used as an online diary.

   However, you do have to remember that Personal Websites are not private, so to take an air of caution with what information and pictures that you decide to upload.

3. Multimedia
   This type of website, uses a range of media to grab the attention of their potential readers, buyers etc, with the use of sound, video and animation aka Flash.Some examples of who would you this type if website include YouTube, other video sites, game sites and celebrity websites.

   This type of design is getting more popular as more and more people and businesses are on the internet and all fighting to get that number one spot on Google and other Search Engines, its one big competition.

4. News
   As the name suggests, News type website are pretty much self explanatory, examples of this type include BBC news, CNN etc.However, the defining factor between all of these is the style and ease of navigation finding exactly what you want.

   It is a very heavy commitment to run a news type website, as it needs to be constantly updated and reevaluated to ensure up-to-date news and navigation throughout the site is easy.

   But the upside to these type of sites is especially good as they usually allow for everyone and anyone to have their say.

5. Blog
   Along with Personal Website types, Blogs are one of the fastest growing website type on the internet, and they can be found anywhere and about anything and everything, whether its someone talking about the new Star Trek Movie, right down to a discussion on what they are going to wear out that night.The reason these are so popular, is that they are so easy to use and update and maintain.
6. Content and Info
   This is the most common site that you will find around the internet. These are sites with which homework is done, Wiki, Yell.com, Directories etc. These are set up purely to inform the world of what is going on, where to find something and how to get there.
7. Ecommerce
   This is the more complex and important websites and widely the most used globally. Examples of this include Argos.com, Tescos Direct, ASDA Online etc.There are even TV ads about ecommerce sites such as the LittleWoods website. This is usually a pinicle point for any business as it enables then to reach a global audience and use various marketing strategies to keep repeated custom, such as ‘Website only Deal’. These sites are very important to businesses that want to sell over the internet.
8. Online Brochure

   This type of site, the Online Brochure Site, is similar to the business/content and info sites, it is a way of showing the world what you have to offer and how. It does sound like an ecommerce site in the fact that they both show pictures and descriptions and optionally the price of products and services but again not everything is sellable over the internet, such as gardener, landscaper etc.

   It enables businesses to branch out and further their market globally and improve their business on the whole.

9. Hybrid

   The Hybrid Style includes sites that not only promote their own products and/or services, but also offer other information such as printable documents, news items, and other types of downloads and grabs your attention via sound, videos and animation. Hybrid sites are usually a mix of a number of different types in order to fully take advantage of the internet to boost their business and website.

   Examples of this would be a personal hobby site that not only tells the world what the person does, but also offer tips, hints, help downloadable paper work etc.

10. Web Directory

    This type of web site, the Web Directory, is similar to your phone book in your house, the yellow pages. It is not a search engine, but displays a list of various businesses, products and services a number of ways, such as alphabetically, industry or by area.

    There are a couple of ways web directories are populated with companies and services etc either directly added via the webmaster or a company would go to the website and add their own information and then it is reviewed and accepted or declined and placed in the appropriate category.

There are 5 main elements to any website that will make it work effectively. Technical requirements make up 3 of these which allow your website to operate, and a further 2 are required to ensure your website contributes to a business and these are marketing and purpose. Hopefully this article will clarify the requirements and provide a useful basis to making a website doesn’t just sit there, but works for you.

Technical Requirements

There are 3 technical requirements that must be fulfilled for your website to even show online. These are a domain (web address), web hosting, and the website files themselves. A good web designer will be able to provide all 3 of these. The domain is the web address that tells computers around the world where to find your website files e.g. www.niinternet.co.uk. The website files themselves are created by your web designer. These contain all of your websites content and design. Finally, the hosting refers to ther service where these files are stored. Hosting is usually a paid-for service that allows you to store your website files on a highly reliable computer that is permanently connected to the internet. If you have all 3 of these working correctly then your website will operate. However, just having w website doesnt mean anyone is going to visit it.

Marketing Requirement

A website can only be successful if there is someone to read the content, and this is where so many businesses fail online. There are many methods out there to get traffic. Many businesses forget to put their web address onto business cards, at the bottom of emails, in promotions, newspaper ads and in fact anything that will be seen by potential customers. Online marketing can be done through pay-per-click advertising, referral schemes and affilliate marketing. For the most cost effective long-term solution there is search engine optimization (SEO) which ensures traffic through high rankings in search engines.

Purpose

Without a purpose a website has no reason to attract visitor and provide them with anything useful. For a business a website must have a clearly defined Call-To-Action. Before having the website designed you should think about what the purpose of the website will be, and the best way to maximise return. At the end of the day, who spends out money to get nothing back in return. If you want to be contacted by phone, then display your phone number on every page, and make it clear in your content that you would like the visitor to phone you. If you would like to obtain an email address, then think about offering something back in return for them providing their email adress such as a discount or additional information.

There are so many websites out there that just exist. Companies  and individuals have a tendancy to build a website and spend a lot of money on it without carefully thinking through how they are going to maximise its use. If you get your website designed by a professional web design agency, i would suggest as a general rule spending an equivalent amount of money as you paid to have your website designed on marketing and Search Engine Optimization in year 1.