Mistakes That Make Your Website Hard to Read

This post is dedicated to some common mistakes that may make your website hard to read. A hard to read website can send your website visitors away to other pages listed in their index of search results. The idea of having a website is keeping your visitors on your page and getting them interested enough in your products or services to contact you. Avoiding these common mistakes that make your website hard to read may help.

Appropriate contrast between text and background is important so your content can be read easily. You don't want your website visitors squinting to see what you write, so make text as readable as possible with high contrast against the background.

Don't tire out your reader by writing long paragraphs. By breaking up the text into shorter paragraphs and using headings to break up the page, you give your reader the ability to scan your website page much easier.

Avoid using wide columns so your reader's eye doesn't get lost following a long line of text. Divide your text into multiple columns or use right and left margins to fit everything on the screen.

Highlighting with bold, italics, bullet points and hyperlinks can break up your paragraphs as well. Draw your readers into your website by linking to other pages that have a common theme with what you are writing about.

Avoid long website pages and using too many navigation links because this is just too much for the reader to take in. Keeping a minimum of links could keep your readers from being overwhelmed by so much to choose from.

Avoid these mistakes that make your website hard to read and you may find that your visitors will stay on your website longer when you track your stats. Visitors that stay on your website longer are more likely to use your products and services because they are impressed with how comfortable your website makes them feel.

Read more on related subjects on my blog:

Benefits of Blog Tags and Labels
Small Business Website Navigation
Stickiness for Effective Websites
Small Business Website Home Page Advice
The 7 Best Website Optimization Techniques
Tracking Website Statistics
10 Ways to Come Up With Blog Post Ideas
Networking to Boost Business
Choosing Proper Keywords and Key Phrases

Tags: mistakes text visitors website

Adding a Site Index to Organize Your Website

I've recently added a site index for the resources section of my website, seeing as it has grown to over 150 pages. A site index, much like a table of contents, has made navigation much easier because now you can see an entire section of my website at a glance.

The difference between a site index and a sitemap is that a sitemap is usually organized by importance or navigation, where a site index is an alphabetical order list index. This site index provides content overview at a glance to help my visitors navigate around my website. This way I could help engage my website visitors and interest them to navigate through other pages of my website.

By adding a site index to your website you offer easier navigation, more stickiness, increased SEO, and a clear layout of what your website contains. In turn, this could lead to greater traffic and more customers to your business. Have a look at my My Webdesign Resources Site Index.

Read my blog posts on:

Add a Google Searchbox to Your Website
Sitemaps For Your Website

Tags: navigate site index website

Tips Designing a Fast Loading Website

For effective website design I tend to follow these tips to design a fast loading website. Website visitors won't usually have the patience for a site to load and skip to the next one in search results. A fast loading website can help avoid missing out on potential customers who who don't want to wait for a website to load.

Minimal Number of Images
Minimize the number of images you use on a website and make them simple because load time is more important than a flashy site.

Optimize Your Images
Make sure images are in gif or jpeg format and minimize the image size for fast loading.

Minimal Animated Gifs
Animated gifs can take a long time to load and can distract your website visitors. Using smaller animated gifs could be used to redirect your visitor's attention to a particular section of your website.

Small and Simple Icons
Avoid large and bulky images because they slow down loading time significantly.

Background Images Instead of Big Images
Using background images for headers and footers reduces the size of the web page, and decreases loading time.

Use CSS Stylesheets
CSS stylesheets can create pleasant text effects and rollovers and still maintain a fast loading website with simple yet good looking text effects.

Utilize Flash Sparingly
Using minimal flash can help your website load faster as well. Flash may slow down loading time for your visitors, and they might just move on to the next website in search engine results.

Design Mostly With HTML
Use HTML as much as possible, using tables, simple fonts, CSS stylesheets and minimize gifs, Flash and bulky images.

Next you can check your load time and get a free evaluation of your website at WebsiteOptimization.com to improve website performance. This tool helps calculate download time, web page size and composition, and incorporates latest, best practices of optimization, web page size trends and guidelines, and website optimization techniques.

Have a look at my website for more about Websiteoptimization.com at my Website Speed Diagnosis Report page.

Also have a look at these other tips on my blog:

Tips on Writing Blog Posts
Tips on Using Twitter for Business
The 7 Best Website Optimization Techniques

Tags: fast loading fast loading website website

Use Different Browsers for Cross-Compatibility

Use different website browsers for cross-compatibility to see how a website will display differently in each. Have a look in my resources section at Different Website Browsers for Cross-Compatibility for options to download multiple browsers whether you use a Mac or a PC.

By using different website browsers surfing the internet you may find that certain features give you a more positive experience in certain website browsers.

Webdesigners utilize multiple website browsers to find out whether a site is cross-compatible, meaning it displays properly in each website browser. When your website displays properly in different website browsers, your visitor gets to see your site in the way you intended:

Downloadable website browsers for PC:
Internet Explorer 8
Google Chrome
Opera
Firefox
Safari

Visit Different Website Browsers for Cross-Compatibility for a list of alternate downloadable browsers including those for the Mac.

Have a look at these other Resources for Web Design:

Website Design Webmaster Tools
Website Design Tools
Useful Web Design Resources
Other Free Useful Resources Online
Useful Computer Maintenance Tools
Web Browser Add Ons

Tags: browser internet mac website browser website

Benefits of Using a Custom 404 Error Default Page

It's helpful to have a custom 404 error default page that allows the visitor to continue navigation on your small business website. Rather than having the default error page come up when a visitor types the address improperly, a custom error default page allows the visitor to continue navigation within your website instead of having them continue to the next site in search results. This may aid your website visitors by giving them the option to continue on to other sections of your website instead of continuing on to another site indexed in search results.

A custom 404 error default page can have the same look as the other pages of your website to keep visitors from exiting right away. By using a custom error default page that has the same links across the top, your visitor can continue naviation within your website. It's always better to have one more potential customer staying on your small business website instead of losing them.

By making a custom 404 error default page you'll increase stickiness, aid potential customers in navigation on your website on improper links, and hold the interest of your visitor with your own custom website page. This can keep small business website owners from losing visitors, and turn them into potential customers instead.

See My Custom 404 Error Default Page

Tags: business website custom custom 404 custom 404 error default page default page error default page error default potential customer small business small business website website

Color Reference Tools for Website Design

Color reference tools for website design can be useful to come up with color schemes for a website, names for hexadecimal values and vice versa.

Finding out HTML color values in hexadecimal notation, putting together color themes and identifying color names is necessary for coming up with website templates. With these free tools for website design you can easily pick and choose the hues that suit the color palette for your small business website.

By using color generators, schemers and color value identifiers you'll find coming up with an aesthetically pleasing website design can be fast and easy.

Have a look at the Color Finder page on this website for these and other color reference tools for website design.

Tags: color color generator color reference color reference tool color scheme color value website website design

Custom Small Business CMS Website Design

Custom small business CMS website design is what my business is all about. Whether you want to convert your existing website to a CMS Content Management System, or create a new custom small business website, I can help.

I specialize in natural methods to get small business websites on Google page one by using Whitehat SEO. By comparing Website Design Quality vs. Cost you'll realize that you get what you pay for, and that choosing my website design service is like choosing a Porsche over a Pinto. You can spend less for a website, but you need the engine to drive a Winning Website and get to Google Page One.

Custom small business CMS website design is all about giving the customer the ability to add pages in plain text, translated into perfect XHTML without code errors, and invest time instead of money hiring a website designer to add, edit or delete pages. By letting Coderepair handle your website design, you'll find you're getting a website worth $5,000 to $10,000 for a fraction of the cost.

Related Blog Posts I've Written on Custom CMS Website Design:

Ideas for Creating a Sticky Website
Website Design Quality vs. Cost
Comparison of Static and Dynamic Sites
Small Business Website Home Page Advice
Obtaining a Winning Website
How I Hit Google Page One in Two Months
The 7 Best Website Optimization Techniques
Advantages of CMS In Website Design
Custom CMS Website Design Advantages

Tags: custom business cms design perfect xhtml small business website website+design website designer website design service

Turn Pictures Into Artwork

Turn pictures into artwork at Befunky.com for interesting effects to your photos. This useful resource can be used to turn a picture into artwork such as a sketch, painting or cartoon with just one click. Application types include a cartoonizer, warholizer, charcoal, ink, line art, stencil art, sunburst and scribble art.

Simply upload your picture and start editing photos right away, it’s easy and fun to do. An easy way to save new artwork to your computer without having to make an account is by using ScreenHunter. Simply enlarge the newly made art by outlining the image and capture what is shown.

By turning your pictures or photos into artwork, you can put an interesting twist on your small business website. Give your site a special touch or flair and keep your visitors interested in what your website has to offer.

Visit my website page on how to:
Turn a Picture Into a Cartoon, Sketch, or Artwork

Tags: artwork cartoon photo picture small business small business website website

Blogger to WordPress Blog Conversion

The previous custom cms website launch for Masterson Construction earlier this month included an announcement that a matching blog was planned and involved performing a Blogger to WordPress blog conversion. The general contractor matching WordPress blog has been converted and launched.

During evaluation of the blog content it was decided to enhance the seo, or search engine optimization, of all the posts going back two years. Post headlines, URLs, and on page content was changed to improve the seo value. To maintain rank value of these aged pages, custom 301 redirects were included in the htaccess file to forward external links pointing to old file names to the new file names created in the redesign. In addition to posts, labels became categories, plus archive file names all required redirects to maintain the existing seo value, as well.

Moving the existing blog to WordPress provides ease of use and near perfect xhtml code quality, plus optional plugins that were easy to install for added functions of social bookmarks, seo automation, and automatic database backup operation. While Blogger is fine, and my choice for a blog platform, WordPress is considered superior especially for site owners without advanced technical skills.

Related Posts:

Custom CMS Website Conversion of Masterson Construction
Custom CMS Website Conversion of CodeRepair
Florida Aluminum Awnings Website Launch
Custom CMS Design LLC Family Sites
Custom CMS Redesign Project Launch

Tags: blog blogger design wordpress conversion web design news launch

Custom CMS Web Design Budget Tips

This recent article written by expert author Jim Degerstrom on a wide variety of Custom CMS Web Design Budget Tips could come in useful to have a great functional website and feel good about the price you paid for it.

Some excerpts from Jim's recently published article:

"Budget funds for as much quality as you can afford for the initial development and launch of your custom CMS web design."

"Evaluate your options for a source to create the custom CMS web design based on their quality and experience."

"Plan to add original quality content often to your new custom CMS web design to attract repeat visitors."

Finding the right website designer to handle your project for your small business may not be as easy as it sounds. Being able to have a site with the ability to add, delete or edit content in plain text without technical skills could be very valuable, and that's what Jim Degerstrom and myself at CodeRepair offer.

Read the entire article on Custom CMS Web Design Budget Tips

Tags: article custom custom cms small business web design website

Custom CMS Website Conversion of Masterson Construction

A new converted website design for Masterson Construction of Los Angeles and Orange County, California launched recently in a cms content management system. Jack Masterson wanted a well-designed layout with quality search engine optimization to attract visitor traffic. My intent is to eventually redesign the blog as well to match the "new look".

Masterson Construction is a licensed general contractor in California for residential and commercial construction, remodeling, and additions. The conversion of Masterson Construction has recently been completed from static pages to a custom CMS content management system design. Www.JackMasterson.com has been optimized for better search engine optimization by concentrating on how the competition hit google page one and focusing on what people search for to find this business niche.

Success online depends on a growing website. The benefit of having a custom CMS website design is that you can add content to your website without paying your designer for each revision. This allows Jack to upgrade his website constantly by investing time instead of money.

High quality similar to the revised design is what you can expect from CodeRepair. Learn more about the advantages of a cms custom website design by exploring our site, or email us from any page with questions about a new custom website redesign for your small business or for a prompt quote on your next web design project.

Related Posts:
Custom CMS Website Conversion of CodeRepair
Florida Aluminum Awnings Website Launch
Custom CMS Design LLC Family Sites
Custom CMS Redesign Project Launch

Tags: cms content management custom website redesign website website conversion website design

Add a Google Search Function to Your Website

Adding a Google search function to your website can be useful because finding something on a site that's large can sometimes be difficult. Google search functions give your visitor the ability to find exactly what they are looking for on your website without being discouraged by having to hunt for it.

Adding a Google searchbox to your website can make it easier to navigate your small business website. Visitors will tend to stay longer on your site if they can find what they are looking for easily. Adding a Google searchbox is as easy as copying and pasting the code into your HTML. If you don't feel comfortable with doing it yourself, just have your webdesigner do this for you.

By adding a Google search function to your website, visitors may stay longer, therefore giving you a better chance of turning them into potential customers, and perhaps even clients. Adding a Google searchbox may be the touch your website needs to keep the traffic that lands on your website coming back.

Let your users search your website with Google Site Search
Add a Google Map to your business
Learn how to Add a Google Searchbox to your website
More about Adding a Google Searchbox to Your Website

Also read my blog post on Site Maps for Your Website and Add a Google Map To Your Website

Tags: google search google searchbox searchbox search function website

Add a Google Map To Your Website

Add a Google Map to your small business website when you want your website visitors to be able to easily locate your business. Adding a Google map can have great benefits to your customers for your small business website because you will be easliy found when one of your website visitors wants to visit for your products or services. Not only can Google Maps give your potential customer a map of your business location, but you can show what the outside of your business looks like, aiding your customer in what to look for when they arrive in your area.

Besides adding contact information such as email, phone number and address, sometimes adding a Google Map to your website may be to the advantage to your small business website if your business depends on physical contact with your customers.

Adding a Google Map is easy to do. Simply find a map that pinpoints your business location and surrounding roads, then click on "link" for that specific Google Map. Then copy and paste it into your website to show your customer how to physically arrive at your business. Google Maps can make it easy for your customers to find your small business.

Let your users search your website with Google Site Search
Add a Google Map to your business
Learn how to Add a Google Searchbox to your website
More about Adding a Google Searchbox to Your Website

Also read my blog post on Site Maps for Your Website and
Add a Google Search Function to Your Website

Tags: business website customer google map map small business small business website website

Importance of Detail in Webdesign

The importance of detail in webdesign weighs greatly upon a successful website. Simple code graphics or file errors can be detrimental to a properly running website design.

One single incorrect character in code can cause validation errors, and even one pixel can throw off a well-planned layout. Attention to detail is undoubtedly not to be taken lightly because it can be the deciding factor in a webdesign and can make or break a project.

Spelling and gramatical errors in a website can ruin a perfectly laid out design, and make even the best structured layouts seem amateurish. Without paying close attention to detail, files will not be found properly upon website launch.

Paying attention to details for your webdesign project will play a vital role in getting the attention you need to be indexed by search engines and respected by your visitors.

Tags: design detail webdesign

Custom CMS Website Design Advantages

The custom CMS website design advantages offered by CodeRepair make us the obvious choice for website design. By choosing CodeRepair to handle your website design, you'll find the advantages far outweigh our competition. By using a custom CMS website design, you'll have more control over the look and content of your website.

CMS Website Design is short for Content Management System. Content management systems have many advantages over static web pages, and CodeRepair can make it a reality for your business.

Adding content often is important to have a well functional small business website. The idea is to be indexed by search engines, attract traffic to your website, and turn that traffic into paying customers. That's what custom CMS website design with CodeRepair is all about.

A custom CMS website design gives the small business website owner the option of adding pages without hiring a webdesigner, so you invest your time, not your money. Even if you don't have the time to write content, the option is still there for you to hire someone else to do so.

Custom CMS website design systems create web pages in perfect or near perfect HTML code, therefore enhancing your load time and search engine indexing. This can help you receive more traffic, and more potential customers.

By letting the experts at Coderepair handle your webdesign, you'll find you're getting a website worth $5,000 to $10,000 for a fraction of the cost. For more about our package options, visit our custom website design pages on this site.

Tags: cms content management system custom cms search engine small business small business website webdesign web page website website design

Choosing Proper Keywords and Key Phrases

Choosing proper keywords and key phrases for you small business website is important for your site to be found easily by search engines. By choosing appropriate keywords for your business, you can get more traffic to your website.

In order to use proper keywords, think about what potential customers would put in a search box to find your small business. Make a list, and choose the best ones which might be used most often. One way is to look at your competition's websites and view the source code to see what keywords and key phrases they use. Then choose the top ten keywords or key phrases you think people search to find your business niche.

By choosing proper keywords and key phrases you can increase traffic to your website, and get indexed more often by search engines. The more visitors you have then the more potential customers will visit your small business website. With proper keywords and key phrases turning visitors to customers can occur more often.

Read more about Search Engine Optimization and view these Keyword Research Resources

Related Blog Posts:
Benefits of Blog Tags and Labels
Keyword Optimization Tips
Stickiness for Effective Websites
Natural Methods for SEO
The 7 Best Website Optimization Techniques
Keyword Tracking For SEO
Web Design and Website Design

Tags: keyword key phrase proper keywords small business small business website website

Custom CMS SEO and Google SERPs

The custom cms web design launch one month ago for Haggetts Aluminum in Central Florida provides evidence of the value of natural methods of search engine optimization, or seo. The new site as launched in June 2009 proves the value of our custom cms seo and Google SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Some designers overpromise, yet we never tell clients we guarantee page one results in Google or the other major search engines.

After email feedback from the client about new sales, viewing site visitor statistics, and checking generic key phrase searches, the following search terms show the customer's website on Google page one:

• orange county aluminum awnings (#1 on page one)
  
• clamshell awning florida
  
• clamshell aluminum awnings
  
• osceola aluminum awnings
  
• osceola county aluminum awnings
  
• central florida aluminum awnings
  
• florida aluminum awning manufacturer
  
• kissimmee aluminum awnings
  
• kissimmee mobile home awnings
  
• mobile home awning installation in florida
  
• central florida awning factory
  
• pictures of aluminum awnings
  
  

This success is really remarkable when compared to 1-2 years ago when new websites faced what some call the "sandbox" or waiting period before a site becomes trusted. Obviously Google has fine tuned their algorithms to determine credibility and trust early in the life of a new website domain.

Our natural methods of seo means another happy customer success story when it comes to custom cms seo and Google SERPs.

Tags: benefit cms custom cms seo search engine optimization

Benefits of Valid Code

The benefits and importance of valid code may seem insignificant to websites that are in the top rankings, but think of how much better these websites would be indexed with perfect (X)HTML valid code.

Having valid code with no errors prevents browsers from auto-correcting your code, so you don't end up with a broken layout. Pages will load faster when a website has valid code because the browser doesn't have to think as much. Valid code ensures your website will display properly today and on future devices as well. Also, Google and other search engines tend to put websites with valid code higher in the rankings, above those that do not. Finally, websites with valid code are considered accessible to most types of platforms, browsers and screen readers.

There is no replacement for having perfect (X)HTML code in your website. When you run a check for validation and get that green bar, you know it's a job well done. Also, having valid code in (X)HTML on your website can give you that edge needed to place higher in the rankings of search engines. Giving my customers websites with perfect code is a practice I base my reputation upon.

Validate HTML and CSS with these websites:
CSS Validator
HTML Validator
W3 HTML Validator

For more on this subject read my article
"The Benefits of Perfect XHTML Code"

Tags: code html valid code website

Florida Aluminum Awnings Website Launch

A new custom website design for Haggetts Aluminum Awnings of Central Florida launched recently in a cms content management system. They wanted a well-designed layout with quality search engine optimization to attract visitor traffic. Their business is custom aluminum awnings manufactured and installed from their factory in Kissimmee, Florida.

The site features colorful awning photos in the top header, and a custom video tour of their factory on the home page to show how their custom aluminum awnings are manufactured. Other pages include product descriptions with photos, a photo gallery, and an awning colors gallery created in advanced web design techniques using xhtml with css instead of flash. Each page of this custom cms web design lists contact information and extra awning photos in the right sidebar, and a FAQs page with more aluminum awning information.

With a custom aluminum awning website in a CMS content management system, the website owner has the ability to add content without paying a web designer to make each revision. Learn more about the advantages of a cms web design by exploring our website, or email us from any page for a prompt quote on your next web design project.

Related Posts:
Custom CMS Website Conversion of CodeRepair
Custom CMS Design LLC Family Sites
Custom CMS Redesign Project Launch

Tags: aluminum awning awning website awning manufacturer cms content management system search engine optimization website web design

Custom CMS Website Conversion of CodeRepair

The conversion of CodeRepair has been completed from static pages to a custom CMS content management system design. Since I offer custom CMS webdesign to my clients, it made sense to convert my website to the same system that I sell.

The new look is designed with a 1600 pixel width background with all content centered so it will look great on any monitor size. In addition, the redesign includes a revised template with css so the blog matches the look of the main site.

Success online depends on a website that grows. The benefit of having a custom CMS website design is you can add content to your website without paying your designer for each revision. This allows you to upgrade your site constantly by investing your time instead of your money.

High quality similar to the revised design is what you can expect from CodeRepair. Email us from any page with any questions about a new custom website or redesign for your small business.

Related Posts:

Florida Aluminum Awnings Website Launch
Custom CMS Design LLC Family Sites
Custom CMS Redesign Project Launch

Tags: custom cms custom cms website design custom cms content management system content management custom website design website

The Benefits and Importance of Code Validation

Realizing the importance of code validation for website pages is very important for web designers. By realizing the reasons behind having perfect code, small business website owners can take advantage of the rewards of having perfect code in the HTML and CSS of their web pages.

Validation checks your documents for code errors from standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C. Browsers auto-correct website code, but each one does it in a different way, so web designers need to keep this in mind to avoid broken layouts in certain browsers. Pages render faster for websites with valid code, therefore the website pages tend to load faster, and websites with valid code are more accessible to all types of browsers, screen readers and platforms. Google tends index pages with valid HTML and CSS, so valid code is a good way to be higher in search engine rankings. Finally, having valid code today helps insure that your website will work with technologies that haven't even been invented yet.

Realizing the importance of code validation in webdesign can help small business website owners' websites load faster, be more accessible, get indexed more often, and work on devices invented in the future. Web design with proper code validation may help your website reap the rewards that could bring the traffic you need to succeed.

Validate HTML and CSS with these websites:
CSS Validator
HTML Validator
W3 HTML Validator

For more on this subject see "The Benefits of Perfect XHTML Code"

Tags: code code validation css html small business small business website valid code webdesign website website owner web page

Website Design Choices for Small Business

Website design choices for small business are very important to begin an online relationship with potential customers and clients. Using a large company for your website design project may not always be the way to go. I can't count how many times I've seen these corporates use bad SEO strategies to design websites for their customers. Sometimes they put the administrative contact in their own name instead of the website owner's and have multiple errors on webpages such as missing keywords, descriptions and titles. I've even noticed these company sites with errors and warnings on their own main page, something a common visitor wouldn't notice.

People get charged exorbitant amounts for monthly hosting, like $40 to $100, when it should that much should be for a YEAR of hosting. They see a website online and think it's the best thing since sliced bread, not realizing that it may not bring any traffic at all, and in Google's eyes is like a blank sheet of paper. People think "I got a big name company doing my work and they are in the top ten, they must know what they're doing", when in actuality, it's the small webdesign companies like myself who are going to take the time and effort to make sure your projects are done correctly.

Your website design choice for small business is not one you want to make more than once. In conclusion, be careful who you pick and don't be afraid to ask questions to your website designer. If they don't want to make you the administrative contact or discuss SEO value for your website, you may want to find someone else.

Tags: design small business website design website

Advantages of CMS In Website Design

The advantages of CMS in website design revolves around the option for a small business website owner to add content as often as desired. Unfortuantely, I find about 9 of 10 small business website owners do not add content even when given this opportunity, due to the busy schedule of running a business.

By using a CMS system to give small business website owners access to add original content as often as needed, the website owner can add or edit existing content to keep their website up-to-date. Adding content means more pages are added to the site, whether it's in a blog or main site content, and more pages helps a website rise up in the rankings of search engines. This feature of CMS can then only become a positive feature for a website owner is if it is taken advantage of.

By giving the small business website owner the option to add content as often as possible, new pages are added to the site. New pages means more indexing by search engines and therefore a better chance of rising up in search rankings.

Tags: cms content small business website small business website owner website website owner

Benefits of Perfect XHTML Code

The benefits of perfect code in XHTML are an unparalleled strategy in web design for small business website owners. By incorporating SEO strategies for improved page ranking, top search results and accessibility, a small business website can attain more business online.

Flash videos that have no video titles online cannot be read by search engines, therefore resulting in code errors. The same applies for pictures without titles associated with them because they aren't indexed with Google and show up as errors when you validate the code. When a website is written in XHTML with perfect code, the chance to receive more traffic increases, and potential customers can grow in number. Coding for the future to avoid deprecated code should decrease the amount of errors that show up on a website both today and tomorrow.

The benefits of perfect code in XHTML can increase traffic, page ranking, number of indexed pages in search results and decrease loading time. Since there is no substitute for writing websites in XHTML with perfect code, this practice can be deemed as very valuable.

Tags: perfect code small business website website xhtml

The 7 Best Website Optimization Techniques

The 7 best website optimization techniques for good search results involves many attributes of your website design. Marketing strategies for small business website owners begins with good writing techniques. Gain traffic and return customers by incorporating tips from professionals who have had good results.

Having good content that keeps readers interested gets people involved in what you write about. Getting your website bookmarked is a compliment that comes with fresh content.

Getting quality links from other related sites helps small business website owners gain popularity. Let other sites know you are there by linking to them and hope for reciprocation.

Appropriate website title, keywords and heading tags are heavily weighed by search engines. These should always relate to the on page content and be general enough to draw traffic for a wide variety of phrases.

Keyword Density is important for ranking better in search engines. Keep it an appropriate percentage and make sure your website uses relevant content as related to your keywords.

For larger sites, a sitemap is a good idea to help both visitors and robots find and index content on your website. Name it "sitemap.xml" and search robots will be able to find your files efficiently.

Meta tags do matter to rank well, get indexed, and for visitors to find your website. With appropriate page and post titles, small business website owners can get visitors to click on their search listings more often.

Age of a domain and keywords included within it matter as well. Having a domain that includes keywords you're interested in ranking for lets search engines know your content is relative enough for search engines to index often.

Some of the best website optimization techniques can help a small business website owner obtain a winning website to get more visitors and customers for their business. By incorporating these techniques, a website may rise in the rankings to be found by more people online.

Read more about Search Engine Optimization and read my entire article on Natural Methods Of Search Engine Optimization at Earticles Online.

Also have a look at these other tips on my blog:

Tips Designing a Fast Loading Website
Tips on Writing Blog Posts
Tips on Using Twitter for Business

Tags: keyword optimization search engine sitemap website website

Sitemaps For Your Website

A sitemap is a webpage list overview to aid in website navigation for visitors and search engine bots, usually for larger websites. It can be a webpage that lists the pages on a website, organized by importance or navigation order, rather than an alphabetical order list index which is known as a "site index".

Sitemaps improve SEO ensuring every webpage can be located, and provide content overview in a glance which helps visitors navigate around your website. They are particularly useful for stickiness because instead of a visitor arriving and "bouncing" from your website, a sitemap may help engage your visitor and interest them into other pages of your site.

Sitemaps for your website offer easier navigation, more stickiness, increased SEO, and a clear layout of what your website contains. Once a website reaches 50 to 100 pages, it is recommended to add a sitemap in order to give it effective navigation.

Have a look at my Webdesign Resources Sitemap for this website.

Related Resource:
"Add a Google Searchbox to Your Website

Tags: navigation seo sitemap website

The Top Websites Indexed by Google

I recently did a project analyzing and comparing some of the top 10 websites indexed by Google with certain key phrases. The purpose of this study was to figure what key factors affected a high page ranking in Google, and how to tweak my own website to gain a competitive edge over the competition.

In taking each website, running it through Website Grader, validating the code, and reviewing the results, a few factors were consistent. The top sites had hundreds, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of pages and inbound links, and maintained top positions in Google despite of missing or too many keywords and descriptions. Also noted were sites with an older domain age and longer time until expiration were given higher priority in Google indexing. These factors seemed to affect a website in a positive manner, despite imperfections in code.

Regardless, my theory is that optimizing the source code for as few errors as possible and correct numbers of characters and keywords contained is important to obtain a winning website. Combining this with a pleasant layout, color scheme, and effective business strategy can turn more of your visitors into repeat customers.

Tags: code google keyword website

Custom CMS Redesign Project Launch

Recently I helped in the launch of a custom CMS (Content Management System) website redesign for CDAAlliance by collaborating on this rather large project with my father, Jim Degerstrom. This website contained almost 100 pages, and their direction of business had also recently changed. As a result, a major overhaul of the site was required to reflect their new business model and their new future direction.

CDAAlliance's redesign collaboration between myself and my father had text content that had to be edited and updated. From Joomla we converted it to a less complicated custom CMS package by doing text rewrites and seo revisions to this site prior to launch, and then 301 redirects from the old page names to new ones.

Now that the site has been converted to a custom CMS system, it's usability is enhanced, page load time is faster, and the website owner can easily take it over to add and edit content.

Update Aug 2009: This redesign in a green color scheme has been transferred back to JimDegerstrom.com and changed again. He will manage a family of 3 websites created by him and redesigned for the client with a new matching look similar for each one.

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Custom CMS Website Conversion of CodeRepair
Florida Aluminum Awnings Website Launch
Custom CMS Design LLC Family Sites

Tags: cms custom cms content management system website

Web Design and Website Design

"Web Design" and "Website Design" key phrases come up as 2 different indexes in a Google Search. Deciding on which website key phrase to use depends on what traffic you want it geared for, and can affect how much traffic your website receives. The same is true for any business niche. By using a more popular key phrase, your small business website can get more traffic and most likely receive more potential customers.

Since more people search on Google for "Web Design" rather than "Website Design", it would make more sense to use the shorter version (if your small business website was geared around this type of business). The reason for this is because those searching for this type of business are more likely to use the shorter key phrase, rather than the longer one. This factor can help decide what key words and phrases to incorporate on your small business website design. Strategize key words and key phrases for your website, search them, and see what keywords are used by your competition.

For small business website owners to understand which keywords and key phrases to use, it makes sense to choose some of the most common searches done in Google within one's niche. By using more popular keywords and key phrases, a small business website owner can drive more traffic to their website.

Tags: business website keywords key phrases niche small business small business website traffic web design website design website

The Importance of Market Branding

The importance of market branding revolves around understanding, choosing, and marketing your business logo and motto, or your "market brand". Market Branding is a name, term, symbol, sign and/or design to differentiate and identify goods and services of a seller or group of sellers.

Market branding is about getting your potential clients to think you are the only one with a solution to their problem. Your logo's colors should convey the nature of your business. Using a matching design and color scheme on your website, business card and printed materials can make your company's market branding more effective and increase it's market value. Your business logo design should give a positive first impression to attract new customers with a unique look that is simple and makes a statement. Your market branding should deliver your message clearly, confirm credibility, motivate the buyer, and establish user loyalty. Your market brand is your source of promise to the consumer, and the foundation of marketing communication that business should not be without.

The importance of market branding involves multiple considerations. By choosing appropriate designs, colors and logos, a small busniess owner can effectively portray the business they are in. Consider what the customer is going to see, because when you have a positive first impression, you may find that potential customers may become clients.

Tags: design market branding small business website

The Difference Between HTML and CSS

Understanding the difference between HTML and CSS may be complicated to most people, but a standard for website programmers. The following will outline differences for small business website owners, to be comfortable with the terms when discussing HTML and CSS.

HTML handles the structure, or construction and output of webpages, and CSS decorates, aligns and positions the elements in HTML, taking the normal HTML output adding display rules. The three sections of HTML source code include inline, internal and external markup.

HTML inline markup defines the webpage layout and structures the output for tables, divisions, forms, links, buttons, text and images, such as video and flash documents.

Internal markup, unseen by visitors, declares character set and document declarations and keywords. It links languages such as CSS or Javascript used for decorating, aligning and inserting dynamic items.

External markup isn't contained in the HTML, but is in a different file affecting the webpage a variety of ways. It's contents are called up by the internal markup section.

CSS, on the other hand, doesn't "create" anything. CSS takes HTML output and adds display rules by editing element height and width, background color, border, visibility and alignment. HTML does some of these things, but the methods are usually "deprecated", or soon to be. Deprecated code refers to features of software which are superseded and can be avoided, because their use causes warnings that recommend alternate practices, indicating the feature's future removal. Labeled as deprecated instead of removing this code gives programmers time for bringing the code into compliance with new standards, and provides backward compatibility.

By understanding the difference between HTML and CSS, and how they interact, may simplify discussion of small business website design projects. HTML and CSS, when used in conjunction, can aid small business websites in keeping up with today's standards for website design.

Tags: css deprecated html small business website website

Attaching Blog Posts to External Sources

Attaching blog posts to external sources can add value to your blog posts for various reasons. By realizing that blogs add pages to a website, small business website owners can gain ranking with Google even more by linking those posts to multiple other blogging websites.

Once a website is added to external blogging sources on the web, this links posts to other websites, just by adding a single post. Add a new post every two or three days, and now a small business website owner could potentially gain a dozen links in a single week. I use Zimbio and Blogflux myself, and have found that by doing a Google search of my name, now links to these sites are provided in connection with my business name, Coderepair. Just by adding to a couple weblog posting sites has improved my accessibility online with Google.

Attach a blog post to external sources on the internet to add value, page ranking, and accessibility to your small business website page, and eventually, those increased website page visitors may have a greater chance of being converted into customers.

Look at our Custom Blog Design Prices and Low Cost Website Design Prices on this website.

Tags: blog blog post small business website website

Social Media Marketing to Improve Traffic

Using social media marketing to improve traffic to a small business website can be both advantageous and profitable. Some approaches include the small business website owner to write about what people care about, start a buzz on Twitter and Facebook, use social bookmarks, and share with like-minded individuals.

If you write about something that interests people, your post may have a better chance being picked up on the internet. Posting on Twitter, an amazing resource for spreading news, links and current events, can incorporate small business website owners into a web of followers. Using social bookmarks such as Digg, Zimbio and Blogflux will incorporate multiple blog resources to bring small business website owners traffic to their site. Sharing content with like-minded individuals may translate to greater traffic to a small business website also. Video, linking, email and podcasts are some other good media devices which can spread your word as well.

Using social media marketing to improve visitor hits is helpful to increase internet traffic to any small business website. A small business website owner should include as many types of media that is relevant to aid in the constant forge ahead to page one of Google.

Tags: business social media marketing small business website twitter website

Obtaining a Winning Website

Obtaining a winning website invloves consideration of multiple factors. With well over 150 million websites online now, trying to come up with a winning site is close in comparison to winning the lottery. Some try to see the forest through the trees, while others spend their time studying the individual atoms that make up the bark. The trick is finding a balance between the two, combining them and perhaps raise your chances of ranking close to page one.

Sometimes finding a niche that has little competition may aid in receiving a decent page ranking, and other times techniques to increase SEO can help too. With about 1.3 billion internet users to date (doubling every 5.32 years), chances are someone will find your website. Balancing pleasant design, creativity, perfect code, accessibility, and adding content often, both original and high quality, can greatly increase a website's SEO. Combine these attributes and control the "lottery" to increase your small business website's chances, keeping in mind that the objective is getting to Google page one.

Obtaining a winning small business website involves an immense combination of criteria for any site owner. The balance of webdesign techniques may aid in the traffic and page ranking a site receives. Though there is no magic formula for the perfect webpage, incorporating multiple techniques can help small business website owners turn their site visitors into customers.

Tags: business small business website website

Recent Review of a Friend's Website

After recently inviting a friend to join Twitter, she replied with an invitation to visit and join her website as a member. I did so, but upon navigating about the site, noticed some things to fix, and upon viewing the source code, realized that there was more wrong than meets the eye.

During this website review, the first thing I noticed was a title description with ".net" in it. Also a metadescription of over 400 characters displayed as three sentences. I continued viewing the code and realized there were more errors the more I looked. I then decided to run her website through Website Grader to see what it would come up with, and found that she scored a 15/100, after being online for a couple years. "Why?" I asked myself, and realized she had let it sit there without adding any content to it since the day it launched.

One thing many small business website owners do not practice, is adding content as often as possible, to give search engines what I like to call "Google Fuel". They launch a website and think they can kick back and watch money roll in, but that's not how it works. Regardless of what other web designers say, having a quality website that attracts traffic and repeat visitors to convert to paying customers takes hard work. Adding content often may seem like a chore, but it helps in making a static site more well known with search engines and visitors alike.

This recent website review gave me insight of small business website owners' tendancy to leave a site sitting idle expecting traffic to come to them. Adding content can be vital for the life of a website, and should be updated regularly.

Tags: business small business website website website review

Review of Website Grader

I recently visited a site known as Website Grader. I found it as an extremely useful tool telling me of what needs to be improved, and what is appropriate in MY website. Though I was disappointed with the score, it helped me realize what needs improvement.

Using Website Grader gives a small business website owner insight on the properties of a website that can be improved. I've read reviews that website designers wrote saying a high grade could give small business website owners a "false sense of security". Point taken. Regardless, the grader site gives a view of many factors necessary to be monitored in order to have an efficient running website. Some of these factors include: Domain stability, readability, page rank, traffic rank, inbound links and a final grade. By studying the report, small business website owners can see where their website excels and where it is lacking, and try to correct those errors.

By checking your small business website on Website Grader, small business website owners can gain perspective on what's right and wrong with a site. This information can be used to improve the accessibility of a website, and enhance a website's page rank with Google. I advise running your small business website through website.grader.com in order to find out where your website ranks.

Read more about how to Analyze a Website with Website Grader

Tags: grader small business website website website grader

Natural Methods for SEO

It is very important to use natural methods for search engine optimization because Google could give penalties for doing otherwise. In order to avoid penalties by search engines, it helps to understand what methods are frowned upon.

Correct methods for increasing search engine optimization include adding content as often as possible, keeping track of your keyword density in the process. Adding too many instances of keywords and key phrases is called "Stuffing" and search engines don't regard it well. Having too few keywords in a page can make a website virtually "invisible" to search engines, so avoiding that is a good practice. Finding a good balance may help improve a small business website's page ranking and reputation with Google, and around a 4 percent keyword density is recommended. This can be optimized in a downloadable program known as DupeFree Pro. Simply copy and paste the text, type the keyword in the box and click "Keyword Density".

Having duplicate content online is HIGHLY frowned upon in Google and other search engines. Copying copywritten material WILL GET CAUGHT and penalized, so avoiding this is mandatory. Again, using DupeFree Pro can help small business website owners avoid duplicate content by copy and pasting text in the text box, and then click "online".

Another mistake made by small business website owners is "Blasting" their website, sending your website link to thousands of emails. Blasting is an improper practice which can get your site considered as "spam" or unsolicited bulk email. Search engines pick up on this, and next thing your website may be "Blacklisted" putting your site at the end of the list in search engines. Avoiding this can keep your small business website online and aid in the increase of search engine optimization.

Practicing natural methods for search engine optimization like using optimum keyword density, avoiding duplicate content, and not blasting your website may give small business website owners the edge other sites online. Keep your content informative, original, and keep it coming in order to let your visitors know you are there to help by using natural methods of increasing search engine optimization.

Read more about Search Engine Optimization or read my entire article on Natural Methods for Search Engine Optimization.

Tags: blasting DupeFree Pro duplicate content keyword density search engine search engine optimization small business website website

Small Business Website Home Page Advice

One of the first decisions to make when beginning a small business website design is considering the creation of a home page. There are many options and techniques to attract website traffic. It is important for visitors to be interested in your product or service, and making a positive first impression should be taken into consideration to improve online traffic and search engine optimization.

An attractive home page helps draw online traffic to your small business website. Sharp graphics and layout should be appealing and to the point giving a positive first impression. Appropriate fonts and colors to match your business card or printed material may impress your visitors. Potential customers should be able to
gather information quickly and easily on your small business website's main page and easily discern the products and services offered.

A small business website's home page will be the first thing a visitor sees, and should incorporate techniques that attract online traffic. After all, bringing repeat customers is an advantage of having a small business website, and visual appeal will encourage them to tell a friend, or bookmark your site.

Tags: home page online traffic page ranking search engine optimization small business website website

Website Age for Page Ranking

Page ranking can be directly proportional to website age, and is a key for increasing wesite search engine traffic. The longer that a website page is online, the more prestige it receives with search engines. Therefore, the sooner a company gets up and running, the more of a chance it has receiving a better page rank.

In order to have an aged site, the sooner your small business website appears online the better. If you are not online yet, there is no better time than now. Page ranking is an indication of how well search engines can index you when people search online. Older sites gain seniority, and increased page ranking is an indication of popularity.

By having an aged website, and inserting creative quality content often, a small business website can increase in page ranking. This takes having a user-friendly design, an attractive home page, appropriate tags, labels and keywords, and constant blog posting with valuable information on interesting topics. Keep these tips handy and don't waste any time without a website.

Check the Page Rank for a Website

Tags: page ranking small business small business website website

Keyword Optimization Tips

Small business website owners may have difficulty incorporating the appropriate keywords and key phrases to accurately describe their small business website. By choosing the appropriate keywords and key phrases, search engines can index your website better, faster, and perhaps give the edge needed to raise website ranking.

Choose keywords and key phrases that accurately describe your business. Don't use pronouns or vague descriptors such as this, that or it. The words in your title are should be included in the body of your website page or blog to positively influence how well search engines index and find your website.

Another tip is to make a list of keywords possibly entered to find your website online. Then by researching those keywords online at a site known as Keyworddiscovery.com, you can find out what the best possible keywords are to target your website. You can integrate their data into your own tools and search terms that drive traffic to websites by specific categories.

Proper keyword density is also important to gain a competitive edge over the competition. Download a program known as DupefreePro to check for duplicate content online and how many times keywords appear in each webpage by number and percentage. Keyword density should fall within 2% to 6% for optimum search engine results.

Using proper keywords and keyword density for your website can give the edge needed to succeed over your small business website's competition.

Read more about Search Engine Optimization and use these Keyword Research Resources

Tags: key phrases keyword keyword density
small business website website

Small Business Website Navigation

One problem a user may find on a website is difficulty finding the information desired in a timely fashion. It is the function of the designer to make website navigation simple or else site visitors may leave quickly, eliminating the possibility of becoming a potential customer.

The main object of a website's main page is to invite the visitor to continue searching within your website. The first impression is detrimental to keeping a visitor on your website. Making navigation buttons and photos clearly visible may help make the visitor's experience interesting. Make the main page about the visitor's need, and your desire to fulfill that requirement, because web surfers don't always search for a certain product or service, but when they arrive there, they may come to a realization that they require what you offer.

Objectively develop your website with the visitor in mind, and you could increase your traffic, improve your search engine optimization, and your online business online may become more popular. By word of mouth, your website could exponentially grow. The next thing you know, your small business website gains more attention by visitors and search engines alike.

Tags: navigation search engine small business website website

Comparison of Static and Dynamic Sites

One of the first obstacles to overcome upon beginning a small business website, is the creation of your main page. You only can make one first impression, so the challenge is to make a positive one and draw your potential customers into your small business with good search engine optimization.

Depending whether you need a dynamic or static small business website will determine the work or cost it will take to launch. Static websites generally just sit there and have no options for interaction except for email. Static sites may not generate traffic, but are cheaper to run. Dynamic small business websites include secure and advanced online functions such as ecommerce, shopping carts, secure login, and generally need maintenance such as adding products and adjusting prices.

Important content contained in dynamic small business websites may include text, graphics, photos, audio, video, music, logos, trademarks and other artwork. You may or may not need all of these types of media, but you should maintain a simple message, positive first impression and a professional design. If you do, you may need a dynamic website design, and the proper decision may improve search engine optimization.

Deciding between a static and dynamic small business website depends on how much information, time and effort you want to put into your site. Static sites generally are for information purposes and just sit there, where dynamic ones usually use more functions. Gearing your small business product or service accordingly will determine whether you get the search engine results you desire.

Tags: static dynamic website search engine site small business

Benefits of Blog Tags and Labels

Deciding what tags and labels to include on your small business website log, or blog, is one of the first challenges to face. First, understand the difference between the terms: Tags and Labels, and secondly use that knowledge to direct more traffic to your small business website, thus increasing usability and backlinks for search engine optimization.

A blog should be an informal account of your thoughts of the day, talking to your audience like you would to a friend. The tags and labels within your blogs are used primarily to aid your website visitors. Blogs contain tags and labels, which are important key words and phrases that assist with navigation either to or around your website pages. Tags lead visitors to your small business website and are a link to Technorati that create backlinks for bringing traffic to your website, adding promotional value to your blog. Blog tags should be simple, 3 words or less using key words, because keyword tags are more likely to attract visitors to your blog.

Once visitors arrive on your small business website, labels are keywords within your site which organize your posts and refer visitors to other pages in your website with related topics. Like a filing system, labels group your blog posts into categories, and both tags and labels should be contained in the content body of the blog post they are in.

Using tags and labels can facilitate navigation within your small business website, and help search engines find you easier as well. Using appropriate tags and labels for your content will aid search engines in finding you on the internet, and help navigation of your web pages to your visitors once they arrive there.

Read more about Search Engine Optimization
Look at our Custom Blog Design Prices on this website.

Tags: advice blog label small business tag website

Website Design Quality vs. Cost

There is a direct relationship between website design quality and cost. There are many factors to consider when understanding that just because a small business website owner may spend a great deal on a site design, that doesn't necessarily mean that he has a site of high quality. Simple aesthetics and look of a site does not mean that it is running at optimum performance, because a lot of what the search engines see is invisible to the common visitor.

When my Dad told me that he writes in perfect HTML code, I didn't realize how impacting that really is in the web design world. To have a site run with NO errors and absolutely NO warnings is no menial achievement to accomplish in website design. Many sites run just fine without having perfect code, but search engines don't always see a website the same as visitors do.

For example, I checked the HTML code on various quality websites that ran just fine using a code checking toolbar. To my surprise, the pages were loaded with errors and warnings. Although some errors appear due to Flashplayer buttons and simple forward slash problems, there is no replacement for perfect code. Even the page that checked the code of other pages came up with multiple warnings and errors. The quality that I offer is the reason that I can charge the amount that I do.

Consider multiple options before jumping into a project with a web designer, and research the fundamentals of website design quality versus cost, and you may find that the quality of the site created for you was undoubtedly worth the cost.

Tags: web website design quality cost fundamentals

Key Fundamentals of Website Content

The importance of website content is nothing to overlook when deciding what should be included in a website design to attract search engines, and attain more traffic with Google. Many times the aesthetics of a website design may be correct, but the website content may still be lacking in several areas. As I've mentioned before, one of the most important keys to a website design is that it needs optimum performance by having a satisfactory search engine optimization, or seo. The key fundamentals of website content will help a site owner maximize the search results received.

One very important factor for a site to improve seo is having the content linked to the internet by using keywords and labels. These are keys to make your site more visible for search engines, improve search engine optimization, and attract more traffic. The title of the page should be included somewhere in the content of the web page itself. If not, the site may end up invisible to search engines such as Google.

Another fundamental key for website content is a snappy first impression or image design that the visitor will see. Make it easy for a person to be able to tell what service or product is offered, right away. Make buttons and key phrases large enough for the public to see.

Giving proof of reputation on your site is also fundamental for your website design. For example, if you have a business installing screenrooms, show examples of your work right on the website in order to uphold your reputation to visitors.

Using key fundamentals of website content will not guarantee page one of Google or other search engines right away, but it will most likely give your website design that edge needed over your competition.

Tags: website design design website content site fundamentals search engines seo search engine optimization