10 ways to prepare your website for Christmas

It's that time of the year again - with just 77 sleeps until Christmas, it's time for online retailers to start panicking about their key selling period.

While normal bricks and mortar retailers have the luxury of shutting up shop every night, the internet is open 24/7 and online retailers know their shopfronts require constant attention.

Good design, strong traffic infrastructure and perfect search engine optimisation are just a few of the problems online retailers face coming up to Christmas. Hal Pritchard, chief executive of online kitchenware retailer Everton Online, says e-retailers should already be thinking about their holiday strategies.

"Christmas is twice as busy as any other time, which makes it difficult from a logistical point of view. Preparations start during September and if you get that done, you'll survive. When you get into November and December, it's done, you can't change anything,"

Here are the top 10 tips from online retail experts in order to prepare your website for the Christmas season.

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Web Design Tips: Combining jQuery Effects and Plugins For A Great Marketing Effect

The lightweight (small file size) and concise jQuery library makes it relatively easy to add interactive effects and merchandising to just about any ecommerce website.

In this edition of "Web Design Tips," I will quickly show you how to combine a few jQuery effects and the jCarousel jQuery plugin to create a merchandising section near the top of a sample page. This merchandising section will show four products at a time and slide to the left, revealing additional products every three seconds. When a visitor aims his mouse pointer at one of the product images, the slider will stop and display a brief product description for that item.

Downloading jCarousel

For the example in the video, I used Jan Sorgalla's excellent jCarousel plugin.

To start, I downloaded the most recent version of the plugin (version 0.2.3 at the time) and got a zip file full of great stuff—CSS, a couple of images, and three JavaScript files, including the jQuery library version 1.2.3.

The most recent version of jQuery at the time of writing was version 1.3.2, but unfortunately jCarousel did not function as expected when I tried to use it with the newest jQuery library. This incompatibility is not a huge problem, but can come into play if we were making use of other plugins or effects that specifically relied on the newer version of the jQuery JavaScript library

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Web Design Tips: Three Ecommerce Web Design Trends

Like fashion and architecture, web design enjoys an ever changing ebb and flow as trends become popular, become mainstream, and then become passé. To maintain a modern and aesthetically-pleasing look, web designers should examine current trends, estimate their staying power, and implement those techniques that will have the best and longest effects.

In this edition of "Web Design Tips," I am going to share some trends that I think are worth following.

Content Sliders

Content sliders, which are also called slideshows or carousels, have been around in ecommerce for a few years (i.e., box store behemoth Walmart has had a slider on its website since 2007, if memory serves). Content sliders are great for at least three reasons.

First, content sliders provide interaction. Adjusting a slider gives customers an opportunity to interact with the site.

Next, content sliders convey professionalism. As simple as content sliders are to implement, they demonstrate a level technical prowess, which many online shoppers equate with professionalism.

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Web Design Tips: jQuery UI Accordion Widget

Adding an interactive accordion widget to your ecommerce site can provide a great design feature that conveys professionalism and makes your content more readable.

There are plenty of instances in website design when we would like to have a lot of content on a page, but, unless you are creating articles or blog posts, too much text causes the pages to scroll, which makes the content less readable.

As an example, imagine that you have a product detail page with a product description, product image, 20 or more customer reviews, washing and care instructions, inventory availability, related products, and shipping options. That can be a lot of text on a page type (i.e. a contact page or even a product detail page) that does not usually scroll well. So how do you manage all of that copy?

One solution is to use what designers call an accordion, which simultaneously shows some bit of content while hiding other content. You can think of it as a vertical tab.

In this edition of "Web Design Tips," I am going to show you how to very quickly implement an accordion widget based on the jQuery library.

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Google Reveals Web Design Tips

An expert from Google has revealed a series of design tips for maximising the chances of a website’s success.

When designing a website, the key aspect is to focus on the needs of the consumer, according to user experience researcher Ricardo Prada, writing for Google’s AdSense blog.

“Think about tasks on your website first and layouts second,” he stressed, meaning that a fancy layout is no good if it does not enhance the user experience.

Website owners should always bear in mind the “specific goals” of visitors to their site and “design to make those tasks quick and efficient”, Mr Prada added.

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Annoying Website Design

Have you ever considered that your website may be annoying? When it’s comes to website design, knowing what visitors hate most is a must, unless you don’t want them to visit you again. This article describes what you should exclude from your website. If you know about an annoying website, feel free to send this article to its webmaster.

A few weeks ago I received an email from a colleague asking me to check one of the website he had developed. He is a web designer and his client wanted a nice attractive flash header. The flash header was great. You can’t miss it at all. Some nice graphics elements were flying in while sound effects created just the right atmosphere. However, after starting to explore the website, the header became very annoying because every time you clicked on the website the header restarted. What was pleasant initially became very annoying very quickly, disturbing your concentration and making it difficult to read what was on the page.

He is not the first to create what I like to call – "annoying website design". Many webmasters, especially new webmasters are totally “in love” with their ideas and tend to go overboard with their design in one way or another. It’s nice to have an attractive header, but is it really necessary to assault the visitor’s mind with it? In my opinion, absolutely not!

Webmasters sometimes forget that their website design should send a message to the visitor that should reflect the website topic and not the programmer’s skill level.

Is Your Website Design Annoying?

Well…. It’s not that hard to be annoying. However, some webmasters are much better than others at annoying their visitors. Check my top 5 list and decide for yourself whether you have been annoying your visitors.

1. Background music – Unless you are operating an online internet radio station or sell music CDs, why play a midi/wav file in the background continuously on every page?
2. Huge font size – If you are designing a website for people with a disability then you are doing the right thing, but if not then you are shouting. People don’t like it when someone shouts at them.
3. Small font size – Do you want to be heard? Keep a normal tone, don’t shout but "speak" in a reasonable volume.
4. Overlapping layers – Layers can be very useful up to the point. But not when they are being used to put an annoying message in the visitor’s face. Don’t try to force your visitor to read your messages. Try persuasion instead of brute force.
5. Popup windows – Even though popup windows are now blocked by many add on tools, webmasters keep using them. The annoying part of popups is sometimes we actually miss important information because of those anti popup tools. Haven't you heard the old phrase "if you can’t beat him, join him”? Don’t use pop up windows. Put your important messages in a central place on your website.
   

Most likely each one of us has our own private top five lists. You probably have many more annoying design cases in mind. Well, you’re right, the list is much longer then that. I just wanted to describe some of the highlights in order to bring this important subject your attention.

Some of you are probably reading those lines and smiling while some others have a feeling a deja-vu. Keep in your mind that as a webmaster the last thing you want to do is put lots of effort into your website and then find out that your visitors hate it. It's not a matter of taste, it's more about being the same polite person we all try to be when we go to a party.

I tried to point out a few things that might be useful to some web designers and webmasters. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to send this article to my friend, hopefully he’ll send it to his client :)

About the Author:
Warren Baker is an Internet business consultant for WebDesigners123.
WebDesigners123 connects the Web Designers with Webmasters who need their services.

10 best practices for horizontal web design

Some people don’t care for rules when it comes to usability, and with good reason. Not all sites are equal, and more importantly, not all audiences are the same. What’s right for a 15 year old might be very wrong for a 70 year old.

Personally I believe in a hybrid approach, whereby some of the fundamentals of web design should be set in stone, and adhered to. After that, it’s a horses for courses approach, where recommendations trump rules, which are in any case there to be challenged. Apart from white text on a white background of course. That would be stupid.

One of those rules that I would have until very recently placed in my top 25 usability fundamentals would be to avoid horizontal scrolling, at all costs. However, there seems to be a growing trend towards horizontal web design.

What we’re talking about here isn’t so much a problem where web designers have opted for fixed width layouts that are too wide for most people’s screens, but where sites have been designed to specifically provide a horizontal experience for users.

Horizontal design can work well in a number of circumstances. I have seen this approach used best for gallery sites, portfolio sites and – occasionally – for ultra niche retailers.

The control issue

There is a problem with horizontal sites, and it's to do with navigation and movement. In the same way that we do not always use the vertical scroller to navigate vertical websites, we do not want to be limited to hovering over fiddly horizontal scrollbars to move through a horizontal website.

For vertical sites I use the spacebar (which acts as ‘page down’) and the arrow keys more than I use the vertical scrollbar. The latter works (poorly) for horizontal sites, but the spacebar is redundant. On top of these controls we use on-page navigation aids to move around websites, and we use the mouse scroller. There are also page up and page down buttons to factor in. And no doubt a bunch of others that I don't personally use.

So at this point it is worth remembering Steve Krug’s ‘Don’t Make Me Think’ mantra. I'm normally forced to think each time I visit a horizontal website. Before figuring out whether or not it is a good idea to reinvent the wheel it is worth considering whether or not you actually need a horizontal website. I mean, do you? Really? While I admire anybody who wants to step away from the flock, the user experience should not be compromised on the basis of simply wanting to do something different.

What can you do?

Many horizontal websites simply rely on the browser’s scroller. In my world this sucks. But what’s worse is to kill the browser’s scroller altogether (as many do), leaving the user to figure out exactly how to use a website. That sucks even more, especially when the navigation controls appear are also AWOL. We're all cognitive misers, remember, and we won't jump through too many hoops.

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Web Design Tips: Cufón is a Fast Font Replacement Solution

An easy-to-implement JavaScript called Cufón allows web designers to quickly embed visually interesting fonts on their web pages, opening up new opportunities for typographical design elements.

Every medium has constraints. For print, there are things like size, ink density, and paper quality. For video, even the best available HDTV only musters up about 2.1 megapixel resolution (HD 1080p is 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels). On the Internet, those constraints can be things like bandwidth, screen size, or—today's topic—fonts.

Every computer has some number of fonts installed. The most common of these are generally referred to as "web safe," meaning you can be pretty sure that if you specify one of these common fonts in your CSS or HTML, the person who visits your page will see the font face you defined. But this can be limiting. What if you want a custom font that almost no one will have installed?

In this "Web Design Tips," I am going to describe one possible way to do font replacement, and show you how to implement it with Cufón.

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10 Usability Principles to guide you through the Web Design Maze

1. Motivate
   Design your site to meet specific user needs and goals. Use motivators to draw different user "personae" into specific parts of your site.
   
   
2. User task flow
   Who are your users? What are their tasks and online environment? For a site to be usable, page flow must match workflow.
   
   
3. Architecture – it's 80% of usability
   Build an efficient navigational structure. Remember – if they can't find it in 3 clicks, they're gone.
   
   
4. Affordance means obvious
   Make controls understandable. Avoid confusion between emblems, banners, and buttons.
   
   
5. Replicate
   Why reinvent the wheel? Use ergonomically designed templates for the most common 8-12 pages.
   
   
6. Usability test along the way
   Test early in design using low-fidelity prototypes. Don't wait until the end when it's too late.Know the technology limitations Identify and optimize for target browsers and user hardware. Test HTML, JavaScript, etc. for compatibility.
   
   
7. Know the technology limitations
   Identify and optimize for target browsers and user hardware.Test HTML, JavaScript, etc for compatibility.
   
   
8. Know user tolerances
   Users are impatient. Design for a 2-10 second maximum download. Reuse header graphics so they can load from cache. Avoid excessive scrolling.
   
   
9. Multimedia – be discriminating
   Good animation attracts attention to specific information, then stops. Too much movement distracts, slowing reading and comprehension.
   
   
10. Use a stats package
    Monitor traffic through your site. Which pages pique user interest? Which pages make users leave? Adjust your site accordingly.
    

Good luck.

Source : http://www.humanfactors.com/

Principles of Creating A Good business Website

It would become reflection of your business, the quality of your product, and your brand.

Therefore, your website should look professional and well done. It does not need to be fancy, flashy and expensive though. All that your site requires is a clean design, a simple layout and it should be well-structured and easy to navigate.

A simple exercise that would help you to differentiate between good and bad web design is to surf and browse the sites in your niche.

There are some websites which would appeal to you and you would like to stay longer. And there would be others which you would like to run away from.

You just know when you see a good page, and a bad one.

Analyze the pages. Note what you like and what you do not as you surf. Identify the problems and note them down.

Take a special note of the big professional websites are doing.

Most of them would have a simple layout!

While creating products we had kept into mind people needs. While creating website we must take into account the surfing habits of people. On internet, the people mostly to search for the information. Most of the information is text based. If a fancy page has no information or substance, it delivers no value.

With these things and your research in mind, here are few other important points that you must take into account while planning your website design.

• Keep page size as small as possible. This can be achieved by using smaller and minimum graphic files i.e. using a small logo, and images only if absolutely necessary.
• Maintain Consistency throughout the site. Keep the same font throughout. Your website should bear same or similar look throughout the page and every page. Different colored background for every page is kind of unprofessional.
• Be Generous With White Space. Do not clutter or congest your page. Format your page well. Leave a reasonable amount of margins on each side and center your text. line breaks and paragraphs! People scan the web pages rather than reading, therefore splitting your text into paragraphs would let your visitor to absorb more with less effort!
• Don use cute fonts, background and graphics. Do not use fancy animations or effects. Your page should look sincere, straightforward and easy to navigate.
  

Before you publish your page, you should see how does your page actually look in the the web browser. You should at least see your page in internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator and Mozilla Firefox.

Source : http://www.msokorea.com/

Increase your sales by improving your Web site design

Getting Web design right is both hard and controversial. If you ask a cross section of the population their opinion of a particular design, there are usually as many opinions as the number of people. To try to understand design in a business context, I think that it's worth asking what the difference is between design and art? I would define design as the constrained application of art. Good designers are interested in the practical application of their creative output. And design is not just about aesthetics, it also embraces usability, cost and other more prosaic factors.

Designing a Web site that can sell successfully has many of the elements of ordinary sales and marketing, combined with creativity.

Design basics

The aim of design has to be to support the objectives of the site. In the case of ecommerce sites this is primarily to sell.

How can design help? First of all we must communicate the brand message that the company wishes to convey to the target demographic. If there is any disconnect between these two, this will jar with prospects and significantly reduce their likelihood of buying. To use an extreme and silly example, the brand communicated for extreme sports will be different from insurance sold to over-50 Saga types.

The next objective of design, and closely related to brand, is the prime message. Maybe the site wishes to communicate freshness, maybe stability. Whatever it is, it's the objective of the designer to create an emotional reaction in the people engaging with the site.

Design has the chance to bring clarity to what is offered on the site, establish trust and clearly explain how the offering can be accessed. The topic of usability merits a whole section.

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Web Design Tips: Compatibility with Older Browsers

As web technology advances and development standards evolve some web browsers are falling behind. Many lack the ability to support new technologies and file types or even provide the best available user experience. These lagging browsers put ecommerce businesses in something of a quandary. How do you offer customers the best possible user experience without leaving some of those customers behind?

In this edition of Web Design Tips, a recurring Practical eCommerce feature, I will (1) introduce and explain the trouble with old and noncompliant browsers and (2) describe two ways to manage browser compatibility issues, particularly for older versions of Microsoft's popular Internet Explorer web browser.

Thankfully there are a lot of web browsers available to suit the tastes and web surfing habits of just about any consumer. I like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. But I have friends who swear by Maxthon, Opera 9.6, or Safari (Safari 4 does have some nice features). And about 44 percent of Internet users surf using one of three available versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE).

While I like all of that variety, having so many browser options can be troublesome for web designers and developers since each browser could render your web site differently. What's more, as browsers change and improve over time they begin to manage JavaScript, deal with server calls, or render images differently, making it even more complex to design websites that look good on most browsers. And while Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome all do a great job of keep users up to date, some browsers don't offer automatic updates, so that some users are still puttering around the web in IE 6. And this is the problem with older browsers.

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Web Design Tips: Basic CSS for Headers

How your site looks matters. Even subtle improvements—like using fonts or colors that compliment your theme—can have a positive effect on how consumers rate the trustworthiness of your store.

According to a 2003 Stanford University study of 2,440 people, 46.2 percent of online shoppers gauge the credibility of an ecommerce site by how professional and eye-pleasing the site looks. In fact, rightly or wrongly, appearance is even more important to shoppers than the presence of a security banner promoting hacker or credit card safety.

In this edition of Web Design Tips, a recurring Practical Ecommerce feature, I will show you the ins and outs of basic header formatting using a cascading style sheet (CSS) and HTML. This feature is aimed at HTML and CSS novices who have very little design experience.

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43 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid

here are several lists of web design mistakes around the Internet. Most of them, however, are the “Most common” or “Top 10” mistakes. Every time I crossed one of those lists I would think to myself: “Come on, there must be more than 10 mistakes…”. Then I decided to write down all the web design mistakes that would come into my head; within half an hour I had over thirty of them listed. Afterwards I did some research around the web and the list grew to 43 points.

The next step was to write a short description for each one, and the result is the collection of mistakes that you will find below. Some of the points are common sense, others are quite polemic. Most of them apply to any website though, whether we talk about a business entity or a blog. Enjoy!

1. The user must know what the site is about in seconds: attention is one the most valuable currencies on the Internet. If a visitor can not figure what your site is about in a couple of seconds, he will probably just go somewhere else. Your site must communicate why I should spend my time there, and FAST!
2. Make the content scannable: this is the Internet, not a book, so forget large blocks of text. Probably I will be visiting your site while I work on other stuff so make sure that I can scan through the entire content. Bullet points, headers, subheaders, lists. Anything that will help the reader filter what he is looking for.
3. Do not use fancy fonts that are unreadable: sure there are some fonts that will give a sophisticated look to your website. But are they readable? If your main objective is to deliver a message and get the visitors reading your stuff, then you should make the process comfortable for them.
4. Do not use tiny fonts: the previous point applies here, you want to make sure that readers are comfortable reading your content. My Firefox does have a zooming feature, but if I need to use on your website it will probably be the last time I visit it.
5. Do not open new browser windows: I used to do that on my first websites. The logic was simple, if I open new browser windows for external links the user will never leave my site. WRONG! Let the user control where he wants the links to open. There is a reason why browsers have a huge “Back” button. Do not worry about sending the visitor to another website, he will get back if he wants to (even porn sites are starting to get conscious regarding this point lately…).
6. Do not resize the user’s browser windows: the user should be in control of his browser. If you resize it you will risk to mess things up on his side, and what is worse you might lose your credibility in front of him.
7. Do not require a registration unless it is necessary: lets put this straight, when I browse around the Internet I want to get information, not the other way around. Do not force me to register up and leave my email address and other details unless it is absolutely necessary (i.e. unless what you offer is so good that I will bear with the registration).
8. Never subscribe the visitor for something without his consent: do not automatically subscribe a visitor to newsletters when he registers up on your site. Sending unsolicited emails around is not the best way to make friends.
9. Do not overuse Flash: apart from increasing the load time of your website, excessive usage of Flash might also annoy the visitors. Use it only if you must offer features that are not supported by static pages.
10. Do not play music: on the early years of the Internet web developers always tried to successfully integrate music into websites. Guess what, they failed miserably. Do not use music, period.
    

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How To Design a Good Website

• Your Web site should be well organized -- Create an outline before beginning the design process.
• Web design tips Every graphic on a web page should be necessary -- Each graphic should relate to the text on that page, to the message being communicated, and to the audience.
• Web design tips Background color should be easy on the eyes -- Some colors hurt the eyes and visitors to your site will leave quickly.
• Web design tips Colored text should contrast with the background so that it is readable -- Don't lose sight of the fact that text on a page should be able to be read.
• Web design tips Do not center all text on a page -- A large amount of centered text is difficult to read.
• Web design tips Keep your copy short -- People don't have the time or patience to read large amounts of text from a computer monitor
• Web design tips Keep width of text to about five inches -- Wide columns of text are difficult to read.
• Web design tips If using audio files, or movies, give viewers a choice whether or not to use them.
• Web design tips Don't use blue for regular text color -- Blue usually denotes links and can confuse the reader.
• Web design tips Don't underline text for emphasis -- Underlined text usually signifies a link.
• Web design tips Use motion sparingly! -- Motion should only be used when necessary to convey a message!
• Web design tips Check readability of text -- Cut it and paste it into a Word document. Check for grammar and spelling.
• Web design tips Always ask WHY you are putting certain information on the web -- Keep information short and sweet. If you want to give your viewers more information, create a pdf file for them to download.
• Web design tips Always have contact information on your site -- Put your e-mail address, phone if necessary in a prominent location on your site.
• Web design tips Use links to other sites that are relevant to yours -- You don't have to reinvent the wheel. There is a lot of information on the web that is relevant and can be helpful to visitors to your site.
• Web design tips Include the webmaster's e-mail address on the contact page -- Viewers can report missing links or other problems. Nothing is more frustrating than links that don't work.
• Web design tips Make sure your site is accessible to everyone regardless of the browser they are using -- There are no standards-no common denominators for the internet yet. Viewers have different equipment--modems with low baud speeds. Keep this in mind when including graphics and some of the bells and whistles you would like to use.
• Web design tips Do not forget that your web site can be viewed by anyone, anywhere -- If you are trying to reach a global audience make sure your graphics can be translated and understood internationally.
• Web design tips Check out your site on different browsers -- Colors will look different on a Mac than a PC.
• Web design tips Look at other sites -- you can get ideas for your site: good design, good navigation, graphics by looking at other sites.
  

Source : http://www.graphic-design.com/

Basic Seo Tips for Web Designer

After designing a layout for a web site, we obviously start converting it into HTML during this session as a web designer we mainly concentrate on cross browser compatibility but we also need to concentrate on some basic seo things like…

1. Using Correct Doctype.
2. Using Meta Content and Meta Keywords.
3. Using Alt tags for Images.
4. Using Valid HTML and CSS code.
5. Make your web site load fast.
   

1. Why to Use Doctype and what does correct doctype means?

Document type defination(DTD) is also know as Doctype, doctype informs the browser how to interpret the content of the page. If the the doctype is not declared, the browser assumes you don’t know how to code, and goes into quirks mode. If you know what you are doing and include a correct HTML doctype, your page will be rendered in standards mode.

Some Recommended DTDs to use in your Web document.

Use correct doctype, for example your using strict doctype and you use used align in in div tag or in p tag then doctype you used is not correct because align attribute is deprecated in strict doctype.

2. Using Meta Content and Meta Keywords.

Use proper keywords and content relate to your web site, that helps search engine to crawl your web site.

3. Using Alt tags for Images.

Specify alt tag for image and that alt tag should be a keyword related to web site, because images you have placed on site can be seen by visitors but not by search engines, so alt tag help search engines to read, with the help of alt tags search engines display the image results.

4. Using Valid HTML and CSS code.

Validate your html and css code and make your code w3c standard.

validate your html code here

http://validator.w3.org

validate your css code here

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator

5. Make your web site load fast.

Don’t mess up your site with heavy images that makes your site heavy and slow, try to optimize images that reduces weight and helps to load fast.

Source : http://webdesigninfo.wordpress.com/

Advantages of a custom website versus using a Website Builder Tool

The internet has revolutionized business all around the globe. Almost every competent new or existing business wishes to exploit the incredible potential of the internet, and the first step is to have a web site designed done and maintained by a professional web site design service or build and maintain it yourself. One of the first things to consider is your computer ability. If you despise computers and software and find them confusing and frustrating then building your own website can be quite a task. One that you may not want to undertake. However, if you enjoy working with computers and learning new things or if you just have the patience to stick with it, then building a website is within your grasp. You may also decide to do it yourself to save cost. If you still feel that you want to build your own site you should choose software that is easy to use and user friendly.

Your website should be as unique as you and your business. You should select the website that is specialized in what will meet all your needs, both now and in the future. Custom based websites are for those who already have a website but are looking for those special finishing touches that quality custom graphics can provide. Designer graphics can make your website stand out above the rest and a custom website specializes in taking your original graphic or photo and turning it into a unique work of art. Quality graphics make an incredible difference in the visual appeal of your website.

Actual site "content" continues to be essential to the success of a website. More often than not though, visual appeal is the determining factor as to whether or not a client or customer will remain on a website long enough, to actually see the product or service the business is providing. Custom websites are for those who don’t have the time to design or create, but want to get things mush better and fast with a nice graphics.

Web site builders are online tools which anyone can use to build a professional looking Web site without programming and have it hosted instantly. No software to buy, no code to learn, all you need is to be a little Internet savvy and know how to click your mouse.

Most business owners today know that having a web site is an essential component of marketing. In the past, the choices were to hire a professional web designer, hire a local teenager to create a site for mall money, or learn to do it yourself. The last two options, are the least expensive, and were the preferred method for small businesses. The results are often not what businesses need to grow, reach, and impress new potential customers, however. They seem good at the start but quickly become limiting.

If you operate or manage a business, you surely must realize the increase in e-commerce taking place today. Many businesses find themselves searching for the best way to increase their exposure on the internet, and for most a website is the first course of action. As most businesses operate on firm budgets, finding cost effective solutions are usually one of the first thoughts when looking to make new purchases. When it comes to creating a website there are many affordable software programs that can produce professional results. Business software should be capable of handling your needs today and in the future. Business are always changing, adding new products, changing or removing old products, offering specials, having sales, etc. By choosing a business website builder over a professional web designer you will be able to make changes to your website whenever you want to. Another benefit is that you will be avoiding the high costs associated with developing the website and costs for making any necessary changes.

Website Builder tools advantages to you are increased revenue, cost control, caters to the large demand existing for web designing in the SME sector and can increase the client base without adding to your overhead. The advantage that your customers gets is a professional quality website, up and running in minutes and a User friendly and easily customizable interfaces that gives a complete website with all its frills and features and a nice attractive design. The downside is that you are limited to the look and functions of the tool and the templates or designs they provide.

On of the advantage of a custom website design is that the web site will look and function exactly as you want. A custom made web site can promote your brand and increase sales. The functionality and design of your website is important, because the images and text on the screen can make an indifferent visitor turn into a keen client, and the goal is to optimize your site to evolve maximum traffic conversion.

As more and more people are starting their own small home business many are finding that having a website is an important factor to consider. When one starts to consider building a website, especially the novice, many questions arise including can I create a website myself or should I hire a professional?

Hiring a professional is a great way to go if you can afford it. Although there are several things to keep in mind: how much will it cost? How much will ongoing maintenance cost? What will changes cost? How long will changes take? etc. As a result, many people opt to build their own website and begin searching for software that can easily help them.

Source : http://www.promotionworld.com/

Advantages of a custom website versus using a Website Builder Tool

The internet has revolutionized business all around the globe. Almost every competent new or existing business wishes to exploit the incredible potential of the internet, and the first step is to have a web site designed done and maintained by a professional web site design service or build and maintain it yourself. One of the first things to consider is your computer ability. If you despise computers and software and find them confusing and frustrating then building your own website can be quite a task. One that you may not w0000ant to undertake. However, if you enjoy working with computers and learning new things or if you just have the patience to stick with it, then building a website is within your grasp. You may also decide to do it yourself to save cost. If you still feel that you want to build your own site you should choose software that is easy to use and user friendly.

Your website should be as unique as you and your business. You should select the website that is specialized in what will meet all your needs, both now and in the future. Custom based websites are for those who already have a website but are looking for those special finishing touches that quality custom graphics can provide. Designer graphics can make your website stand out above the rest and a custom website specializes in taking your original graphic or photo and turning it into a unique work of art. Quality graphics make an incredible difference in the visual appeal of your website.

Actual site "content" continues to be essential to the success of a website. More often than not though, visual appeal is the determining factor as to whether or not a client or customer will remain on a website long enough, to actually see the product or service the business is providing. Custom websites are for those who don’t have the time to design or create, but want to get things mush better and fast with a nice graphics.

Web site builders are online tools which anyone can use to build a professional looking Web site without programming and have it hosted instantly. No software to buy, no code to learn, all you need is to be a little Internet savvy and know how to click your mouse.

Most business owners today know that having a web site is an essential component of marketing. In the past, the choices were to hire a professional web designer, hire a local teenager to create a site for mall money, or learn to do it yourself. The last two options, are the least expensive, and were the preferred method for small businesses. The results are often not what businesses need to grow, reach, and impress new potential customers, however. They seem good at the start but quickly become limiting.

If you operate or manage a business, you surely must realize the increase in e-commerce taking place today. Many businesses find themselves searching for the best way to increase their exposure on the internet, and for most a website is the first course of action. As most businesses operate on firm budgets, finding cost effective solutions are usually one of the first thoughts when looking to make new purchases. When it comes to creating a website there are many affordable software programs that can produce professional results. Business software should be capable of handling your needs today and in the future. Business are always changing, adding new products, changing or removing old products, offering specials, having sales, etc. By choosing a business website builder over a professional web designer you will be able to make changes to your website whenever you want to. Another benefit is that you will be avoiding the high costs associated with developing the website and costs for making any necessary changes.

Website Builder tools advantages to you are increased revenue, cost control, caters to the large demand existing for web designing in the SME sector and can increase the client base without adding to your overhead. The advantage that your customers gets is a professional quality website, up and running in minutes and a User friendly and easily customizable interfaces that gives a complete website with all its frills and features and a nice attractive design. The downside is that you are limited to the look and functions of the tool and the templates or designs they provide.

On of the advantage of a custom website design is that the web site will look and function exactly as you want. A custom made web site can promote your brand and increase sales. The functionality and design of your website is important, because the images and text on the screen can make an indifferent visitor turn into a keen client, and the goal is to optimize your site to evolve maximum traffic conversion.

As more and more people are starting their own small home business many are finding that having a website is an important factor to consider. When one starts to consider building a website, especially the novice, many questions arise including can I create a website myself or should I hire a professional?

Hiring a professional is a great way to go if you can afford it. Although there are several things to keep in mind: how much will it cost? How much will ongoing maintenance cost? What will changes cost? How long will changes take? etc. As a result, many people opt to build their own website and begin searching for software that can easily help them.

Source : http://www.promotionworld.com/

Crawler Friendly Web Design

"I'm not designing my site for search engines," is a common designer objection to SEO suggestions. But when search engines collectively have more users than either Internet Explorer or Firefox, how can you afford to ignore how they interact with your site. Search engines are like the third major browser, and if your site breaks for them, it breaks for all those potential visitors from search engines. Search engine friendly sites aren't hard to create and can be attractive to both search engines and human visitors at the same time.

Moderator: Gillian Muessig, President, SEOmoz

Speaker:
Shari Thurow, Founder and SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive

Shari asks how many of us have heard this session before, and lets us know that the presentation has been changed. The presentation will be available for download. Do download – there's a lot of good information in the presentation.

Shari makes clear that this session is not based on her personal design preferences, but the session is based on statistics and data. She is getting PhD in HCI with a specialization in search engines. Many of the slides she shows today are not even from her clients, but ones that illustrate her points.

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Trekking through Web Design Tips

The majority of Flash movies end up on Web sites. To help ensure that your Web site is as attractive and useful as possible, consider these pearls of wisdom, some of which apply to all Web sites and others are specific to those sites using Flash movies.

Set your goal

A general principle of Web design is to know why you have a Web site. Write out one main goal and perhaps one or two secondary goals. For example, the main goal of your site may be to sell used music CDs. A secondary goal may be to provide viewers with music reviews so that they can decide which CDs they want to buy. Avoid putting material on your site that doesn't help you reach your goal.

How does your Flash movie help you attain your Web site's goal? Perhaps your movie displays the covers of your most widely sold CDs and plays some of the music, giving viewers an instant understanding of your site's purpose. On the other hand, if your Flash movie just displays an animated logo, it may even distract viewers from the important features of your home page.

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