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Archive for the ‘Web Design’ Category

Tips to Keep Rankings after Website Redesign

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

1. File Names

Never change your file names unless it is completely important to reform the file hierarchy as not only you risk losing valuable rankings with page renaming, but also you might lose existing customers who could have bookmarked the now-moved page. If you do not have a choice but to rename file names, the use of a 301 redirection is the best solution. Your customers are automatically redirected to the new location while using 301 redirection.

2. Site Structure

Together with file names, site structure changes may include your domain name. The above rule still holds true if your domain name is the only change you make to your site. Even with correct 301 redirects, your rankings may drop notably.
Ensure that you have 404 redirects in place. Either direct “page not found” traffic to a custom 404 error page, or to your site’s home page.

3. Image Links

In case your present website uses text links to the home page, ensure that they are carried over to the new website design without losing the relevancy.

4. Content Management Systems

Today lots of new sites use CMS for content management which can destroy your rankings from time to time. Before switching to a CMS make certain that changed URL’s are accurately covered with 301 redirects and try to find a system that offers clean URL strings with minimal extra characters.

5. Content

If your new site has wholly fresh textual content, make sure that the keyword densities remain as close as possible to the old copy.

6.Title and Meta Tags
Make sure to copy the title and meta tag of your old page to the new version.

Web Design Myths

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

1. Adding too much graphics is helpful

It is right that graphics can build easy communication, but overuse of graphics may make it difficult. The page with heavy graphics takes a lot of time to load. Web design which is rotating simple and loading graphics easily is always pleasant for the visitor.


2. Use of too much color will make the site beautiful

Capturing website design is the key to attract a web visitor, but there is no need for a website design to look like a rainbow. Research proves that myriad of colors may spoil the outlook of website. Also it is possible that the web visitors may get irritated with the use of too much colors. So the website designer should always use the colors that go well with the theme and purpose of the website.

3. Flash is needed to add attractiveness to the website

Flash is usually used while creating advertisement banners and animations during website design. The flash banners may add reliability to a particular web design, at the same time they have many disadvantages. Web designer should remember that not all people have flash plug-ins installed in their computer so people may lose their patience if they are asked to download plug-ins to view your site. So a web developer should offer the choice of non-flash version along with the flash version, which permits the web visitor to browse through the information.

4. Website will look same in all browsers

Even designing successful websites many web developers believe that the website will look same everywhere as it appears on their PC. Though today, different website browsers perceive HTML pages in different manner. So a website developer should always make sure that the website is optimized with web standards adopted by different browsers.

Top Strategies For a Successful Website Design(1)

Monday, May 10th, 2010

1. Convincing Content Creation

Content is one of the key elements of web design and it should contain “healthy” information. The information delivered to your audience should offer value. In case you offer the same information that other sites do, then no one will visit your site for the second time. Your site should be exclusive.

2. Easy Navigation

It is a huge issue when a user cannot figure out how to navigate to another page of your website. It is the right point where you can lose their interest.  The ability to browse through the site without any difficulty can keep your visitors longer on your site.

Menu bar should be included on all the pages of your site with a consistent location. If it is located at different areas of the site it may confuse the user.


3. Avoid overfilling the web page with images

Images usually grab attention but the abundance of them may seem very diverted to the users. Also it is important to consider the location of these images. Having a banner located at the top or bottom of a page, left or right side of the page is quite common. Try not to include banners after every paragraph when you have articles.

4. Avoid Image Backgrounds

The users usually state that the time they are wasting for the page to be displayed is the most annoying. Visibility is a problem as well. If the size, type and font color  are not chosen carefully then it can drive dissatisfaction.

Top SEO Mistakes Made by Designers and Developers (2)

Friday, May 7th, 2010

1. “Click Here” Link Anchor Text

“Click here” or “Learn more” can be seen a lot as the linking text. This is okay as you want to be ranked high for “Click Here”. But if your goal is to tell the search engine that your page is worth ranking for a topic, than use that topic/keyword in your link anchor text. It’s much more relevant to say “learn more about keyword topic”.

Notice: Don’t use the same anchor text everywhere on your website. This can also be taken as search engine spam.

2. Empty Image Alt Attribute

It is essential to describe your image in the alt attribute. It is the alt attribute that describes the image to a blind web user. As search engines are not able to see images, your alt attribute is a factor illustrating what your page is relevant for.

Hint: Appropriate description of your images can rank in the image search results.

3. Unfriendly URLs

Nearly all blog platforms include a friendly URL feature built-in, however, not every blogger is taking advantage of this. Both the audience and the search engines like friendly URL. The URL is also an essential spot where your keywords should appear.

There are some benefits with using friendly URLs:

•    visitors are able to see where is their current location within your website
•    easy to memorize direct links to a certain page on your website
•    This is also a very good search engine optimization technique as Google “understands” your website more accurate and gives a better search results.

Top SEO Mistakes Made by Designers and Developers (1)

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

1. Splash Page

You can observe this mistake very often when people put up just a big banner image and a link “Click here to enter” on their homepage. The worst case — the “enter” link is embedded in the Flash object, which makes it impossible for the spiders to follow the link.

This is okay if you don’t care about what a search engine knows about your site; or else, you’re making a BIG mistake. The homepage of your website is probably the highest ranking page and gets crawled frequently by web spiders. The internal pages of your website will not appear in the search engine index without the proper linking structure to internal pages for the spider to follow.

Your homepage should at least include target keywords and links to important pages.

2. Non-spiderable Flash Menus

A lot of web designers make this mistake by using Flash menus like those fade-in and animated menus. They might seem great to you but they can’t be seen by the search engines; and consequently the links in the Flash menu will not be followed.

3. Image and Flash Content

Web spiders can’t read the text embedded in the graphic image or Flash. Usually designers make this mistake by embedding the important content (such as target keywords) in Flash and image.

4. Versioning of Theme Design

Somehow designers like versioning their theme design into sub level folders (ie. domain.com/v2, v3, v4) and redirect to the new folder. Repeatedly changing the main root location may cause you to lose backlink counts and ranking.

Plan and Design a Website Structure

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

An effective website structure enhances user experience and allows search engines to determine the subject matter and relevancy of your site. You should create a blueprint before you begin your website design and content creation. It is important to keep all related website content grouped together into categories. Each of your categories should have unique directory and file name structure, so that when your website is indexed by search engines, your site demonstrates a wide breadth of content related to the subject. By doing this your website can be viewed by search engines as an authority across various areas.

You need to spend a long time working on your website structure. Failure to have a properly structured site can make it difficult if not impossible for search engines to properly index your website. Such a failure may lead search engines to omit your website from the search results. The spiders can conclude your website does not have any authority for the subject or the matter.

An effectively designed sitemap increases the likelihood that your site is indexed by search engines. A well built sitemap demonstrates the internal framework and organization of your website’s content to the search engines. A sitemap should reflect the entire navigational framework of your website so that search engine spiders can find and index all your content.

Key Elements All Websites Should Have (1)

Friday, April 30th, 2010

A lot of details should be considered before designing and developing a website. As you’ve completed the planning stage of your website, plan the next steps beginning from User Interface Design to Content Creation and to actual Development. There are also some points concerning Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as well.

Here are some elements that should always be included on any website.

1. Fine Visual Design

It does not mean that every website needs an incredible visual design. Usually all you need is a clean and simple design. First impressions are decisive. Although a good web design alone will never keep someone on your site, an eye-catching design will at least attract visitors.

2. Thoughtful User Interface

The foundation of any good functional website is the user interface. While designing a site, you’ll need to bear in mind your average user – that is who your ideal customer is.It works well if you create an image of your ideal visitor and have it in mind when planning out the website design. Make sure that on your site you offer everything that they would want to find.

3. Primary Navigation above the Fold

To have an easy to navigate website ensure that the primary means of navigation are kept above the fold. Elements that need to be included here are your logo, linking back to your home page, as well as links to the main sections of your site.

4. Repeat Navigation in the Footer

If you use images (or flash) for your main navigation, offer a duplicate set of navigation links in your footer. Even if you use text links at the top, the repetition is still helpful. Often times the footer will link to additional information as well.

An Introduction to basic Website Structure

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Optimizing the basic website structure greatly increases the possibility that search engines will successfully locate and index your content. Search engine ranking algorithms analyze numerous on-site factors when determining where web page ranks for particular search terms. Some of these factors include your website content, your domain name, your website structure, your navigational linking structure and the accessibility of all your pages, also your credibility. There are a lot of ways to optimize these factors – starting with choosing reliable web hosting, choosing an appropriate domain name, optimizing your site for all web browsers, creating a logical site structure and navigational menus, generating a sitemap, up to creating an “About us” and “Privacy Policy” pages.

On-site factors are essential for the process of search engine optimization or SEO. A well-optimized design and structure help to improve the overall performance of your website, help users to navigate it, and allow search engines to find and index all your content.

During the process of website design or website redesign, just ask yourself a couple of questions:

  • Does my website appeal to visitors?
  • Is it search engine friendly?

Once you answer these important questions you can build every page as a balance between the needs of search engines and the experience of the user.

Web Design Styles (2)

Friday, April 16th, 2010

•    Textures and Patterns
Using textures and patterns is a good way of adding depth to a web design. This style is usually used on the background either as a repeated image or a big background image.

•    Grunge
The grunge style may look a bit chaotic and messy because of its irregular, nasty, sometimes even ugly and crooked visual elements, but this is the most appealing side of it. Grunge style is an irreplaceable tool especially for websites that advertize certain brands appropriate to this style.

grunge web design

•    Nature
Nature elements may give a web design an organic feel, creating a familiar relationship with the outdoors and evoking the feeling of being down-to-earth.

Nature web style

•    Abstract

Abstract art may have certain or no meaning at all. It can be interpreted in various ways and may be used as a good looking visual effect.
Abstract web style

•    Retro

Retro design is a recent trend in web design. It is mostly used to sell a product or service with styles that originate from the 1920s to the 1970s.
Retro web style

•    Photo-Realism
Photo-realism is a great way to complement the content especially when used as a large background image.

Website Redesign: What Should You Consider Before? (4)

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

1. Will you use a content management system (CMS)?

Website owners now prefer to use a CMS, so that the website can easily be updated without a web designer. A CMS may be a good, time-saving decision which alleviates the website update issues.

2. What can be done for SEO (search engine optimization)?

One of the most essential aspects of website resign is SEO-friendliness. Try to outline what can be done for SEO. Spend some time on deciding what SEO improvements your website needs.

3. What keywords and phrases are being targeted?

Before redesigning your website, choose exactly what should be used in titles, headers, anchor text, alt tags, etc. Don’t simply consider the search terms; make sure that these are the most effective terms to go after.

4. What pages are currently drawing traffic?

If there are pages on the website that are currently doing very well with search engines, then you should avoid making major changes to the content of those pages, otherwise you may kill your high rankings.

5. What pages currently have inbound links?

If there are pages that currently have inbound links, then you should use the same URL structure to ensure that any changes do not negatively affect these links.

6. Why will your visitors come back?

Creating the first solid impression is not enough for your website’s success. Try to determine what will keep visitors coming.