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Archive for the ‘Web Development’ Category

Top Website Development Tips

Monday, May 24th, 2010

You have a website and want it to rank high, but don’t know where to begin from? You can get high rankings and increase web traffic to your site by following these tips

•    Study what keywords visitors use most often on search engines that relate to your products or services; to increase website traffic use these keywords as text in the design.

•    ”Keep It Simple” – majority of all web designers use too many graphical images and programs like Java, Flash, etc. which results in lower rankings and less traffic.

•    Web pages are made using cells and tables.  Use as few cells and tables in your web design as possible.

•    Create good Meta Tags.  Every page should have special keywords in the Title and the Description Meta Tag.

•    Limit the number of times you repeat words in your Keyword Meta Tag.

•    Put the essential keywords at the top of the page as text headers.

•    The most important keywords and page should be on the first side of a website.

•    Never include pages that re-direct people to other pages.

•    Limit the use of services that automatically submits your URL to the top 10 search engines.

•    After finished with a page, run a spell checking program and then compress the html code.

•    Follow your search engine rankings and website traffic.

•    As the website is indexed, your web designer should go back and improve pages that didn’t get high rankings on keywords.

•    Make a small change on each web page every 3 months.  Search engines like to see that changes.

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 (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.

Website Optimization Tips

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

If you want your web pages to be recommended by the search engines, then you should optimize them for certain keywords. Search engines can only read text. The keywords notify the engines what the pages are about. Consequently, you should fill up your website with articles optimized for different, relevant keywords. Use text pages and optimize each page you are promoting for one main page keyword, though sometimes people prefer to use up to two additional secondary keywords.

When choosing keywords take into account the number of searches. On the one hand it is a waste of time to optimize pages for keywords with few searches. On the other hand, web page optimization for keywords with too many competing pages is not a smart step as well. Consider the number of pages optimized for a keyword by including it in the page title, the page URL, and in anchor text of links leading to the page. Use the same keyword in the first and last paragraphs one or more times throughout the page, but do not include the keywords too often.

Include the keywords in H1 and H2 headings and in boldface. Try to have longer pages and use semantically related phrases throughout. It may help search engines to send all those semantically-related queries that do not have pages optimized for them.

Create links to your page that contain the page keywords in their anchor texts. Put articles in article directories that include the links in their resource boxes for backlink building.

By using these website optimization tips you can increase your website traffic.

Why Your Business Needs a Website?

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Your website is the face of your business on the internet. It must exactly reflect your products and services and address the needs of your customers.

A website has become a key part of any business that is supposed to inform your potential customers about yourself. Customers expect to be able to find out about your business, products and/or services from your website at any time they want. Therefore if you don’t have a website then you are missing out the opportunity of gaining more customers, moreover you can lose the existing ones.

A website is open for 24 hours a day; this means that customers are able to visit your site anytime.  The information is usually fresh in websites as a website may be updated at any time.

A website can save your time and can help your customers save theirs too. You can provide any information  you like about your business, therefore reducing the time spent on pointless phone calls, and at last saving your money. A website gives you both the opportunity to make money and save it.

First-class website design can create a positive sensation of your business. It is a great way especially for small businesses to ingrain confidence. In turn, it can help you to win larger contracts and develop into a successful business.
If you have an out of date website that is not optimized for search engines, or simply its design creates the wrong perception of your business, you are losing your business!

NexusLab offers web design, web development and SEO services both to the companies which are eager to improve their existing website and to new ones that want to have a flying start in online market.

The Role of Color in Website Design

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

When starting a website design there are many steps to make. But the key one for the web development turns to be the choice of the color scheme which is a scrupulous work. Color is a subjective experience, it is a mental sensation, a reaction of our brain. Color is a very powerful element in website design.It makes us feel a certain way, so they can be used to support the purpose of a website.

Psychologists have suggested that color impression can account for  more than 50% of the acceptance or rejection of a product or service.

Some web design specialists want to use their favorite colors. It is a good trick when a designer leaves his/her own signature on a design. It distinguishes him/her from the others, but their favorite colors may not be the best to use. The color scheme plays a big role in the formation of the first impressions. Before choosing a color scheme a website designer should try to understand what emotions are needed to convey with the website. Once they do, it will be much easier to decide on the primary and secondary colors. It should be noted that no matter what messages you want to get across, your color choices will also be sending out messages.

Colors are means of non-verbal communication, and as you make a web design it is helpful to keep in mind how the eye and the mind perceive certain colors and the meanings we associate with each color.

Website planning

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Planning your website design is a complex, but at the same time an essential ongoing activity. Some essential steps, e. g. navigation planning, menu structure planning, are required before creating and uploading the website. It is extremely important to thoroughly consider the audience, as well as identify your goals and decide what content will be developed.

Context

Web design is comparable to traditional print publishing. Every website is an information display container and every web page is like a page in a book. Web design is undoubtedly the most sophisticated and complex method to support communication in today’s world.

Purpose

It is necessary to define the purpose of the website as one of the first steps in the planning process. A purpose statement should prove focus based on what the website will accomplish and what the users will get from it. A clearly defined purpose will help the rest of the planning process as the audience is identified and the content of the site is developed.

Audience

Defining the audience is a key step in the website planning process. The audience is the group of people who are expected to visit your website. These people will be viewing the website for a specific reason and it is important to know exactly what they are looking for when they visit your website.

Content

Content organization requires that the purpose of the website is clearly defined. One of the key steps in website planning is collecting a list of the necessary content and organizing it according to the audience’s needs. Planning for the site’s content ensures that the wants or needs of the target audience and the purpose of the site will be fulfilled.

Web Designers Role in Business Success

Monday, February 15th, 2010

New design standards, technologies and techniques are constantly being developed in an effort to meet the ever-increasing demand for more exciting web designs and functionality. It’s a must for a web design specialist to stay abreast of the rapidly changing technology in the field.

You should realize that website design is not just a work where you can invest your creativity; it also supports the business goals. The end results of your work are viewed and judged by thousands of people. If you make a mistake, the entire company may suffer. Web designer’s job is to make the website both functional and pleasurable for the user. At the same time, a corporate website should allow for targeted marketing, thereby improving the company’s business.

Whether you work as an independent contractor or as a part of a web development team within a company, you need good people skills, imagination, and mastery of web design tools. You will interact with clients or other departments; take different forms of information, such as brochures, slide presentations, print advertisements, or other documents, and turn them into multimedia experiences designing a website that people will enjoy visiting, and which will help the sponsoring company achieve its goals.