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Beginning XML - Part 1 (An Introduction)
Coming straight to the point, XML stands for EXtensible Markup Language. As the name suggests, it is a language that can be molded according to the need of the hour. Personally, I don't think calling it a language is justified, but I fanatically...
How to set up a professional website on your own using web templates
To create professional websites is not an easy task by any means. There are many things that you got to take into consideration like easy navigation, strategic links, clean coding, professional layout, easy downloading, scanability, usability and...
Website Design Strategies for Internet Marketer
You have no other choice. If you want to be successful online, you will need to build a website that serves the needs of your visitors in a manner thet is both user-friendly and easily understood.
I think this sound easy, right? But you need to...
Website Usability - How to Make Your Website User-Friendly
In this article we'll cover some basics of website usability, in other words, making your website user-friendly. This article in no way covers everything you should keep in mind prior to designing your website - there is much more. I have listed...
Why do you want a good web design & hosting on a good server..?
The answer is very simple for this question. Because a good web
design attracts user and some time visitor loves the design and
bookmark the same site for future visits or for future reference
or might be interested in making the same web design...
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from our sponsors
Internet Home Business Training Course
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Quality Web Design with Results - The Basics
Beyond Appearance: Every design has a "sales" potential.
Think about it, why do some websites sell better than others?
While every site needs to be visually attractive and pleasing to
the eye, effectiveness of the web site to perform for the
company is what the goal of the web site should be. The key to
effective web design is to convert visitors of your web site
into buyers of what ever your selling (products, information,
ideas, etc.) Even though we always need to keep in mind
important SEO and Marketing strategies when creating content
rich pages, we ALWAYS need to keep the visitor in mind to "close
the deal".
Rule I. Sacrifice Beauty for Effectiveness: While we want
the website to stand out on a visual level, we need to realize
that there are many factors to making a website a success on the
internet. Before we add a ton of great looking graphics we need
to ask ourselves if this is hindering the overall effect we are
trying to create with the viewer. Would we be better off using
text links to allow for better site navigation and usability?
Most times the answer is at least partially YES! Text not only
makes the page load faster, it also allows non conventional web
browsers to navigate the site more effectively. For instance,
when a search engine "spiders" (crawls through) your site, it
could care less about graphics and goes right for the text links.
Rule II. Less Is More: Unless a site is quick and easy to
use it will be a barrier rather than an open invitation to
users. Current usability standards suggest users spend on
average less than 2 minutes on a website. The key to engaging
visitors must therefore be simplicity over complexity. Keep in
mind that when using the word "simplicity" I am not talking
about getting rid of all of your content, in fact words are the
lest amount of problems. All pages should still have over 250
words on them to properly get your point across and for SEO
purposes. However less graphics, less flash and other memory
hogs need to be reconsidered. That's why you need to live by the
axiom that less is more - less clutter, fewer barriers. Let's
look at a few ways to obtain the results of this axiom:
A) Make pages easy to read and engulf. It's a well documented
fact now amongst designers that people rarely read pages online
- they "speed read". Therefore, if the information they need is
not easy to access they move on rapidly. Using easy navigation
techniques like proper heading placement will allow users to
access
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the information they find valuable from you faster.
Proper use of white space and overall spacing should be a must
in a webs design. Clearly differentiate thoughts with space and
borders making accessibility priority.
B) Follow Standards: When it comes to labeling headings, tags
and navigation links. It's imperative to follow industry
standards that have evolved on the internet. Not only will it
bring a sense of familiarity to the user, but also comply with
search engines and internet browsers.
C) Layout, Graphics and Colors: The web makes it easy for
designers to do some amazing things with graphics and colors.
The first portion of your site is similar to opening a letter
sent in an envelope. When you remove the letter that is folded
in three sections, you will see the top third of the page first.
Designs with a dramatic color can make compelling choices for
setting a mood, however reading on a computer screen demands
contrast, otherwise the web viewer will be dizzied by vision
fatigue. You do not want to irritate or tire your visitors in
any way to keep them reading on or coming back. Striking
graphics can be real eye-catching for viewers; however
successful internet marketers are pretty much agree that you
should avoid flash graphics as much as possible. Another
important factor to consider is that not all colors are viewed
the same way on all monitors, so here we revert to the KISS
policy of keeping it simple.
D) Copy Basics: You may not realize this but many of the
successful internet marketing businesses already figured out
that design and layout of the website should be as much of a
marketing decision as the ad copy on the website is. People feel
comfortable with words. Words are found and analyzed by the
search engines. Most importantly, words are what drive sales and
build confidence among web users. This has been true in other
forms of media long before the internet was born.
I will touch on all of these aspects and more in future
articles, but this is a great starting point when embarking on
your new web presence or a guide to recreating your current
site.
About the author:
Todd Levi is the owner of http://www.LeviSolutions.com. He
specializes in effective web design, hosting and marketing
strategies. With over 5 years of experience online he has
dedicated himself to enriching the web with qaulity. He also has
helps others do the same thing by focusing his efforts in his
online blog at http://seo-marketing.levisolutions.com
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