Category: web design

Speed Up Your Website For an SEO Benefit

Posted by admin – 01/06/2010

There is  a lot of buzz at the moment about the speed of your website being a factor that affects your search engine rankings. Matt Cutts the unofficial  public face of Google seems to be dropping little hints to this fact whenever he speaks, most recently when he addressed the Dublin chamber of commerce you can read more about Matt’s visit in the Irish Times

You know you need to speed up your site but how do you do it

Now that you know the benefits of having a higher page loading speed, how do you actually go about it? Well, most SEO experts will usually proceed by performing the following SEO methodologies considered to be the best in order to achieve higher web page speed:

  • Reduce initial display time of webpage
  • Resize and optimize images
  • Upgrade CSS style sheets to the latest standards
  • Optimize Java scripts
  • Optimize multimedia content

What did you just say?

All this sounds great but if your a small business owner with limited experience with the web its a tall order in anyone’s book.  what you need is a step by step guide on how to do all the above tasks.

  • Reduce initial display time of webpage

Well yes, that’s what were trying to do! ignore this one as it’s the out come of the methods we are going to put in place.

  • Resize and optimize images

One we can work with. Often images on a web page are unoptimised. What this means is they are larger in file size then they need to be (larger the file the longer it takes to download) this can be because the image is using more detail then it needs, or the actual image dimensions are lager then is being displayed

these are both exactly the same image except one has been resized in the page mark-up

speed

speed

You can do optimise and resize your images online with www.webresizer.com

  • Upgrade CSS style sheets to the latest standards

This is a bit misleading as its not upgrading your CSS as such,  it’s just re-writing it into a shorthand version. We use CSS tidy there was a hosted version at http://csstidy.sourceforge.net/ but it’s no longer there, we have our own copy hosted on our servers http://webmojo.co.uk/csstool/

  • Optimize Java scripts

What this simply means is place all your Java scripts into one external file

  • Optimizing Multimedia Content

Audio: First ask yourself whether your site really needs sounds or music! Having a midi file playing in the background is an annoyance (my opinion); visitors come to your page because of its contents and not to listen to music. However, if it’s imperative to include background sounds or music try to use a midi file or a small .wav file that loops seamlessly.

Video: Since video files can be quite large, it’s best to provide a link to the file mentioning the file size and leave the choice of viewing it to the visitor rather than forcing it to load in the page.

Flash: Flash is a vector based program. To keep Flash files at a minimal size try to use fewer fonts, reuse symbols, compress the included sounds, convert bitmaps to vector graphics etc. To judiciously decide whether Flash intros are required for your site.

http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/design/optimizing_web_pages.php3

If Internet marketing is war is this battle worth fighting

Posted by admin – 25/04/2010

Face facts if your an SEO or a web marketer you are at war, you are at war with the guy who’s targeting the same phrase’s and keywords as you. The other person may be nice or nasty, they may even be your most hated enemy or best friend ether way they are trying to take the food from your children’s mouth and thy must be stopped.

Before you go off to battle this foe in the search engine rankings, you need to figure out if the battle is worth fighting. Firstly do you have a chance of winning without wasting large amounts of your resources. Secondly is the battle worth your time. By choosing your battles with a clearly defined criteria you can save your self many hours of wasted effort.

Is the term you are targeting profitable
Are your competitors well established in the market
Is your target term specific
Are you being led by ego

Lets deal with the fist on the list “Is the term you are targeting profitable”. Profitability is a major factor in your keyword decision in regard to SEO. A key phrase is profitable when its product or service led, non generic and hints at the user intention. In plain English, the end result is money changing hands

The phrase “health and safety consultant” is a prime example of a phrase that hints at what the user is looking for when they search via the search engines. The intention being that they wish to find a person to help them with health and safety. If the user had typed in just “health and safety” then the intention is not that well laid out.

A well established market can be hard to compete in if your a late comer to the party. To establish how entrenched the top ten sites are here are a few points to look for.

High PR(page rank)
Lots of indexed pages (found by typing in the search engine “site:thedomain.com”)
Domain age (old domains rank better then young ones)
Dmoz listing
Yahoo directory listing

If you find a few sites in the top 10 that are young with little or no PR then you should be able to compete.

Are you being specific in your target, similar to profitability a phrase that is more specific will convert to a sale better then a generic term.

Ego is a flew in the competitive SEO or web marketeer. We like to be number one and the search engines are the place to do it. I have fallen into this trap of targeting a competitive term with little profitability value to prove how good I am. Don’t do it it is wasted effort. Its just ego, your ego doesn’t put food on the table. To be a web marketeer you need to be pragmatic and look at the bigger picture.

Once you have the habit of looking at the bigger picture and only take on projects that are winnable you will find you have more time for the more important things.

Rundown of SEO Web Design

Posted by admin – 22/04/2010

A brief rundown of SEO web design by a company in LA

What is SEO Web Design

Posted by admin – 20/04/2010

seo web design helps business growSEO Web design as the name suggests is an amalgamation of web design and SEO. There are some strong reasons why you should use a company that is expert in SEO as well as website design. To explain this further we need to break down what is web design and what is SEO

Web Design

For the dedicated web designer, designing a website is all about the look with considerations given to how well the design communicates the message. The use of graphics and typography is there to support the core communication. Many web designers come from a graphic design background and have a basic grasp of the code behind the design and may well depend strongly on web design packages such as Dreamweaver to help them produce the end product. Many of theses designers are able to produce designs that a visually breath taking

SEO

For the SEO its all about the traffic. Getting visitors to your site they rely on statistics and conversion rates. From a design point of view it’s all about making it easier for the search engines to crawl and index your website. The skills of good SEO’s should never be underestimated as they can help a business thrive by delivering targeted visitors, identifying search trends and even new markets.

SEO Web Design is …

When you combine these two disciplines, what you get is a web designer that can produce great looking websites while creating a design that is optimised to produce great search engine results.

On page optimisation is easer as the site structure is designed to place the most relevant content higher up in the page. As a rule of thumb, the closer to the top of a page a word or phrase is placed the more relevant it is.

Image optimisation

The optimisation of the web design images this is done by the use of file names, title text and alt tags this can be used to support the overall website theme

Linking text optimisation

Optimising the way the pages are linked by the use of keyword rich links as opposed to generic terms like “home” or “about us”

Conclusion

I have done my best to lay out the basics of why SEO web design is so crucial to long term success of any website. As you can see there is more to web design then just making things look nice or just getting traffic. For a website to work it has to appeal to the senses as well as perform well. You have to strike a balance between the search engines and the user, stray to far one way and you cancel out the other.

Small Business Marketing and Advertising for Doncaster and South Yorkshire

Posted by admin – 24/03/2010

online marketing and advertising graphWhat options are available for small businesses to get cheap or no cost marketing in the Doncaster/South Yorkshire area. In my opinion Marketing should be the number one priority for any small company. Without clients there is no business period. Getting new customers, if done incorrectly can be costly and end up costing you more then the clients are worth in terms of business.

Off-line advertising

Newspaper Advertising

Pros: A range of advertising opportunities starting at classified ads to adverts on the front page.

Cons: Can be costly and the adverts have a short life span.

Directory Advertising

Pros: People only look in the directory if they are looking for a product or service, so conversion to business should be higher. More popular with the older generation. Adverts have a 12 month lifespan

Cons: can be costly, if you spend less by having a smaller advert the response rates drop dramaticly. Response rates are decreasing over time as the internet becomes the first port of call for a lot of potential customers. See
Is Yellow Pages and Other Paper Directory Advertising Dead

leaflets

Pros: Tight area targeting by demographics

Cons: Low response rates for most

Business Networking

In Doncaster we have a range of networking events with groups like the BNI and and 4Networking. We have a fantastic chamber of commerce in Doncaster extremely professional and pro active and I would advise any business in Doncaster to see what it has to offer.

Tap Your happy Customer

Happy customers can be great for business two ways to build on your success is firstly ask for referrals do they know of anybody who would benefit from your product or service. Secondly don’t underestimate the power of a positive testimonial that you can place in your marketing material.

Marketing ideas box

if you run a company that employs people, have a marketing ideas box so that staff can suggest ways to get new business. This not only get you now idears but also makes people feel that they are part of the team.

You could go one step further by placing the box in your reception and offering a prize to the customer that suggests any ideas that you use

Online Advertising and Marketing

The online world is full of opportunities for the small business to compete with the big boys all you need is a talented web designer and SEO like me . Having a website is a must for most businesses but if you have zero visitors seeing your site, its wasted money.

WebSite

Pros: when done correctly can produce large amounts of business for many types of industries. can be updated in a very short time so it can display your product offerings bang up to date .

Cons: Like anything it requires work. If you just place your site online and expect business then your going to be disappointed. you need to keep it up to date or get a web professional to do it for you

SEO

SEO or Search engine optimisation is the skill of getting your website up the search engine rankings for when people search for your product or service

Pros: Gets you qualified leads as we know having a lead pre qualified makes it a lot easyer to convert them to a customer

Cons: Takes time, like wine SEO and Websites get better with age.

PPC

PPC or Pay Per Click is paid advertising in the search engines. You only pay when someone clicks on your link

Pros: Quick, you can have qualified traffic to your website within hours.

Cons: Unless you know what you are doing you could find yourself with lots of clicks but no new customers.

Email Marketing

Pros: Cheap, the cost of DIY email marketing is only your time. If you have a good email list you can get lots of good business from it .

Cons:You need to build your list by an opt in process, meaning the recipient has to give you permission to send them the email. You have to include a way for them to un subscribe from your list. There are laws in place to stop spam so be careful that you don’t fall fowl of theses

Social Networking

Social networking is a way of communication with friends or perspective customers online. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow you to add friends, the friends then see your status updates (or your marketing message)

Pros: Like email if you have a focused friends list you can keep customers abreast of your latest offers

Cons: very time consuming

SEO Web Design Secrets: Search Engine Optimization Tips For Beginners – Web Design Tips – Web Development

Posted by admin – 28/02/2010

web design SEO Web Design Secrets: Search Engine Optimization Tips For Beginners

SEO web design is a skill that can be learned, though most search engine optimization for beginners courses dwell too much on linking strategy as opposed to web site design per se. There are many ways for most normal people to get an improved search engine ranking, and secure a high search engine listing, and while linking is important, good on-site SEO is also necessary.

Although it might not seem like it, getting a good listing on Google or any of the other search engines is not as difficult as many like to claim. There are rules to follow, and if you play the game properly then the outcome should be in your favour. The tips provided in this article are not really secrets as such; although many people offer to divulge marvelous secrets to you, all they are giving you is stuff that people have been using for years.

So you won't get any secrets here. I have nothing hidden away that I don't want anybody to know, and if I had I wouldn't tell you about it! Would you? If you had some secrets that were so valuable that they were making you money, would you give them away free in an article like this one? Of course you wouldn't!

So here are my not-so-secret tips on getting a good listing in Google and improving your search engine ranking. You likely know a fair bit about meta tags, and have been informed that most are not used by search engines. Well let me tell you something. If you Google' Article Services you will finds my website right at the top in the #1 position for that keyword. Check the description that Google provides right under the title: that is exactly as it is in the Description' tag that I have on the site. So don't let anybody tell you that Google don't use the Description tag, because they do. So do Ask and MSN (now Live Search), and Yahoo also uses it, but not the whole thing exactly as written.

The Keyword tag is another matter. Google aren't interested in what you tell them the keywords are: they decide the relevance of the page themselves from the text and Alt tags on the page. Google no longer need keyword repetition to understand what you are writing about: they have the LSI algorithm now, that will determine the meaning of your page from the character strings it contains. The algorithm is programmed to calculate a relevance factor from the vocabulary you use in relation to the rest of the vocabulary on the page. However, back to SEO web design, and some search engine optimization tips for beginners.

In addition to the Description meta tag, the HTML tags you should use are:

1. The Keywords meta tag. Although little used it only takes a second to put in, and does no harm. There is evidence that some search engines might use it. The rest of the meta tags are pointless.

2. The TITLE tag. This is the title of your web page, and should contain the primary keyword for the page. Each page should be written round one primary keyword that relates to the subject of your website or niche.

For example, if your niche is costume jewelry, the primary keyword for your home page would be costume jewelry'. You could then have a number of 'silos' with a main page title each. The title of one main silo page could be 'simulated diamonds' and the first page title of that silo could be garnets'. All of these are the primary keywords for their respective pages. Another silo could be colored gem stones', with that as the primary keyword for the main silo page, and that for your first sub-page in that silo could be citrine'. And so on.

Each page must have one primary keyword, and it should be included in the Title tag for that page. The Title tag does not appear in the body of the article, but in the HTML between the two HEAD tags in your html.

3. The H tag. These are heading tags, with H1 being the most important. The heading for each main section in your page should be contained within H1 tags, and many pages have only the one set of such tags. Subheadings, containing secondary keywords, should be contained within H2 tags, and so on. Thus, in the example above, the heading or your garnets silo could be could be Garnets in Costume Jewelry' in H1 tags.

After an introduction to garnets, you could then have an H2 heading containing The Source of Garnets: Where Garnets Come From', then another passage of text headed How Garnets are Cut for Costume Jewelry', again held in H2 tags.
4. The ALT attribute. Use Alt = within the Img tags of your images and graphics. This lets the search engines know what the graphic is about: search engines do not read graphics, and the Alt attribute offers you the chance to use your graphics meaningfully with respect to SEO web design.

TEXT FORMATTING

That's all you have to worry about regarding the HTML tags. You text formatting can be used to emphasize to search engines what the important text on your page is. Thus, if you use bold text, underscoring or italics, they indicate the important words and phrases. Thus, use the STRONG and U html tags in your heading.

WRITE NATURALLY

Don't worry too much about your keyword density (KD), other than having to much. Too high a KD could harm you if Google thinks you are making unnecessary use of them. Write naturally for human readers, and not robots. If your text reads well and makes it clear what the subject of the passage is about, then you will be fine. In my writing I ignore the concept of KD altogether. I use my keywords as indicated above, and also in the first and last 100 characters on the page (or at least in the last paragraph somewhere).

Good SEO web design is not keyword fixated, but contains good contextually related vocabulary that the LSI algorithm can use to target the relevance of the page to the search term being used by somebody using the search engine to find information. That's all a keyword is: a term used by somebody looking for information. If you cannot work without a target KD, then I would go for a max of 1% with plenty associated vocabulary, synonyms. Related terms, etc.

Thus, if you are writing a 400 word article on the keyword losing weight', use these words four times, not twelve (1% not 3%)

None of these are web design secrets, and I doubt if there are any such secrets left any more. I suppose the only thing even approaching a secret here is that my description meta tag is copied exactly by Google in the listing for my #1 placed website. That allows you to determine how Google users see the description of your site in the listing.

I have several more SEO web design tips to offer, but these will be the subject of another article. In the meantime if you implement these search engine optimization tips for beginners, then you should soon see an improvement in your website's search engine ranking.

If you want more SEO web design tips, you will find Part 2 of this article with more search engine optimization tips for beginners on Seocious Tips 2 along with a free gift for everybody from me, Pete Nisbet of SEOcious.

SEO and Web Design Welwyn Garden City Hertfordshire

Posted by admin – 20/02/2010

Webmojo are opening  in a new location. we have expanded into welwyn garden city in hertfordshire

Web Design Welwyn Garden City

SEO Welwyn Garden City

Web Design Tips For SEO

Posted by admin – 31/01/2010

It really wasn't all that long ago that SEO or search engine optimisation was one big giant mystery. Back then it was a rare person who even understood its basic principles let alone effective techniques.

Now how times have changed and it seems that today almost everyone with a website is aware of its basic functions. However; what still remains pretty much exclusive knowledge is the finite workings of SEO.

So just what can you do to better familiarize yourself with SEO and its inner workings, prior to having your website designed. Understand them in such a way that you won't be stuck like you were the last time you had to talk to a mechanic about your car when it comes time to communicate with your Web Designer.

You can start by typing in what ever you're selling or providing into your computers search engine. Check out the sites on the first page brought up by the most popular keyword entries. The ones at the top are doing something right, so study their sites carefully.

One thing you're going to notice is that at least one of them and probably more will have the keyword in their name. For instance if your business in wedding cakes and the most popular keyword is of course wedding cakes, you're going to see sites with names like weddingcakes-4U etc.

Now check out all the pages of their site and you'll see that they have their name, which includes this keyword plastered all over each page. They won't be penalized for “keyword abuse” either because it's in their name and it's only normal that a company would put their name at the top of each page and in their text.

So the gist of all of this is to consider including a popular keyword in your domain name, so it can be used liberally in your site. It's really not worth changing or adapting your name for less popular keywords though but its really all up to you.

OK so whats next? How about a selection of topic related keyword articles in your site. Perhaps a box on the right or left of your opening page with around 15 well written articles that contain 15 good keywords. Now bear in mind that the top keywords can be very competitive, so you may want to consider passing some up.

Consider wedding cakes as an example again. Type in (wedding cakes) and you may find that 2,000,000 entities are competing under that keyword. However; if you live in, say Kalamazoo Michigan, you may be better served by focusing on less popular and far less competitive “regional oriented” keywords in your articles like (Kalamazoo Wedding Cakes) or (Michigan Wedding Planners), etc.

Do yourself a big favor by taking some time to study up on article writing and keywords before you put your pen to paper, so to speak. Once again, another great idea is to check out what some of the better article directories have to offer under your selected keywords.

Do the same thing there. That is, check out the top articles on page one and consider duplicating or even copying what they're doing. Of course direct copies will never pass copyscape, so you'll have to rewrite them in your own words but there is nothing wrong with writing “similar adaptations”.

Pau Harris writes for Studio-40 a web development company based in the United Kingdom. Learn more about them here: Web design Leicestershire.

Practical Advice on How to Find and Hire Your Web Designer

Posted by admin – 31/01/2010

Selecting a web designer for your business is a lot like choosing a contractor to work on your home. Get ready to…

  • Ask lots of questions
  • Seek recommendations
  • Check out the work they’ve done for others

If you use these common-sense tips when choosing a design studio for your web site, you are likely to get the results you want.

1. Be specific about what you want to accomplish. Write it down!!

Most web projects that get off to a troubled start do so because site owners do not know what they really want or need. When they look for the right company to do their project, site owners often don’t know the qualifications of the design studio. Is it a company that designs web sites that also does marketing, or a marketing firm that also makes web sites? All these things make a difference. Most companies usually have one core competency.

A good idea is to prepare a document that describes the purpose of your site. Be as specific as you can. If you’re not sure about something, say so. Have a list that includes “must have” and “nice to have” items.

The more a designer understands the scope of the work, the easier it will be to do your project. You’re likely to get price breaks if you can really pin down what you need to have designed. When I go looking for a designer suitable for my clients’ projects, I use a Request For Proposal (RFP) as part of my method. It’s a way to ensure that studios are competing on a level playing field. It gives you a better chance to compare proposals on an “apples to apples” basis. My RFP is as specific as possible. Even small projects should have something like an RFP.

2. Know what deliverables you will need beyond the web site.

Too many businesses just don’t know what they are going to get once the site is launched. Maybe it’s because it is the first time that they’ve contracted to have a site produced for them. It could also be that they just don’t know what they want and/or what to expect from a design company.

If you’ve done a good job writing down and describing the specifics of what you want done, you’ll know what deliverables to expect from your vendor. In addition to the web site files, the following items should be included in your deal:

Artwork masters

Make sure it is clear that all artwork created for your project is handed over to you and that it is understood how the material can be used apart from your web site.

Documentation

The documentation can be done in several ways all of which needs to be discussed BEFORE the project begins. The vendor must document matters pertaining to design and programming, paying particular attention to workarounds which resolved issues. This is very important if you need to hire someone else to work on the site down the road.

Content Management System (CMS)

Most web sites are built with a CMS which enables a site owner to make changes to the site once the site is launched without having to be a web designer. While a CMS can be easy to use (that’s the beauty of it), some training is usually required to learn how to use it. Make sure you will be trained to use the CMS and that you understand the support commitment made by the design company.

3. Have a contract.

A contract is more than just a sign that a studio is professional and knows what they are doing. It’s the key to understanding the scope of the project and, hopefully, how it will be done.

Make sure you understand the contract. If you’re not sharp with the legal language, you might want to run the contract by an attorney. If you’re not familiar with the terminology of web development, design, and production, seek out the advice of someone who is.

Typically you’ll get a list of services that are included in the deal. Pay particular attention to the following:

A) Who owns the materials created for the project?

Do you have the rights to use anything created for the project in any manner for any media? That’s known as a “Work For Hire” contract which is most favorable to you. Designers can be reluctant to grant such terms but you’re likely to find flexibility through negotiation.

B) What design approval process does the studio use?

Typically, you’ll get two or three “back and forths” as the studio attempts to obtain your final design approval. Determine how many “back and forths” you get before any additional charges are incurred and what those fees will be.

C) What happens if the project is not completed on time?

Something you might need to have in the contract is a missed deadline penalty. If you have a time sensitive project which is not completed on time, you’re likely to miss sales opportunities. Designers don’t like this idea because delays are often caused by factors beyond their control.

4. Know how changes will be made to the site following its launch.

There are two ways to handle changes after the site is launched – pay the design company to do the changes or make them yourself. Most businesses today don’t like to be beholden to the studio to make updates. If your web site is rarely changed (which is not a good idea) then you might like to leave it to the designer to do the updates. If so, know the terms of this arrangement. Usually it’s a monthly fee or hourly rate. The biggest problem is that the updates do not take place on a timely basis, so get that all worked out in advance.

The “do-it-yourself” approach involves using a Content Management System as mentioned. The CMS provides pre-made templates for your site so you can add and edit content. This way you won’t have to rely on a vendor to do the work for you. If you are growing your business online, this is the preferred way to go.

Takeaway

When looking for a web designer remember the adage – Buyer Beware!! Learn all you can about the web development, design and production process or work with someone who already knows the ropes.

Ecommerce Pricing How to Price For Maximum Profits Online

Posted by admin – 28/01/2010

SEO shopping cart white backgroundPricing strategies are an extremely important part of running a successful business. In a competitive market, it is important to have a pricing policy that is able to attract the right customers at the right time and attract customers from other competing products. Here are some things to keep in mind when deciding on Ecommerce pricing:

When you are starting off your business, consider giving away samples for free. Ecommerce specialists the world over know that when customers search for products online, the phrase they are most likely to search for is “free”. You don’t have to give away your product forever, just for enough time to attract customers and drive away the competition.

You can also provide different versions of the same product at different prices. This differentiation is very easy as all you have to do is have a “free” version with multiple advertisements, and a “paid for” version which has no advertisements. You can also have a sampler which is free and valid for a certain amount of time or containing a certain amount of information and features with prompts to purchase a full version with the works.

Another popular Ecommerce pricing policy is to bundle two or more products together and have customers pay a lower price than they would pay for the two separately. This is useful as you don’t have additional costs from bundling the products but you are still increasing sales and building a customer base. These three pricing policies can really help you increase your online sales and build a customer base fast without much delay.