Are you finding it difficult to keep track of your site's performance in the search engines? Aside from having to download software that offer to keep track of your website's SEO performance, Google now has a newly integrated service especially for SEO people out there concerned with their web site's performance.
This Google tracking service is known as the Google Analytics. It is a powerful service that keeps track of your web site's success on organic and paid search res...
Are you finding it difficult to keep track of your site's performance in the search engines? Aside from having to download software that offer to keep track of your website's SEO performance, Google now has a newly integrated service especially for SEO people out there concerned with their web site's performance.
This Google tracking service is known as the Google Analytics. It is a powerful service that keeps track of your web site's success on organic and paid search results. Google Analytics gives you better understanding on how your web site's web visitors react on your site. It gives you no-holds barred and detailed experience of your web site visitors.
You will also be aware and know what key words users in relation to your web site frequently use. You will be educated on the best link text that brings in the most prospects.
True to its name, the Google Analytics shares with you analytical data that will help you greatly on being aware about your web site visitors and target visitors' preferences.
Google Analytics provides free information about the way visitors to your site interact with it. By taking a good evaluation of Google Analytics, webmasters will realize how it is an invaluable tool they can and should use especially if they do not have some form of visitor tracking solution.
Google Analytics shares with you which of your SEO campaigns deliver the best ROI or return on investment. If you are not confident on the software you use in finding out your internet marketing results, Google Analytics is good in tracking down results of your internet marketing campaigns. Now alongside the Google AdWords, you can be certain of obtaining significant information about your web site.
Google Adwords is an equally powerful service for placing your web site in search results based on certain key words related to your site. Google Adwords take note of your major web site's key words and efficiently guarantees that your web site appears in search engine results.
Google Analytics was once named as Urchin visitor tracking by Google. It was last November 16, 2005 when Google renamed this service into Google Analytics. It is free for everyone's use and those who have signed up during its early stages are offered with a completely new set of significant and consequential information regarding your web site visitors.
Still, those who are late in signing up for this service can wait until Google offer new sign-ups to the Google Analytics system.
Google Analytics works with tracking codes that will guarantee to track down important user information for you. It uses codes in the destination URL’s that facilitates the web site visitor tracking mission by Google Analytics.
Here are some of the most important reasons why you need Google Analytics as part of your website visitor tracking and have it on your site:
1. Its functionality equals most expensive visitor tracking services, even if it is free.
2. The service is your solution to identify where visitors leave your check-out or sign-up process. Identifying this will help you make amends and modify your sign-up process that is user-friendly. You will then be prevented from losing leads
3. Utilizing Google Analytics will help you identify the pages and links your web site visitor’s click on most. You will also know which page your visitors spend most their time on. You can therefore improve these pages properly and position them and their link texts appropriately.
4. Wondering the previous site your web site visitor logged on to before coming to your site? Google Analytics will tell you all about it.
5. You will also be provided with the most popular keyword users type in the search bar of the search engine in finding web sites associated/related to your website. Knowing these popular keywords is a great boost for your SEO efforts and performance, even on other search engines.
6. Google analytics conduct visitor segmentation. It classifies new and returning web site users, their geographical information and the referral source they use. This provides you with invaluable insight if you are planning on a setting up a new online business.
7. For search advertising results, Google Analytics and Google Adwords guarantees you with end-to-end visibility
8. You can even track other non-search-engine marketing media
9. Overall, Google Analytics provides you a very cheap service on gaining more customers, if you utilize its results.
Like most search engine services, Google Analytics has its own advantages and disadvantages.
• Its setup is very straightforward. You do not have to waste time waiting for results
• It is quite flexible, provides great solution and a wide range of significant and valuable reports
• You can login once and track multiple sites. You have more than one web site to track.
• Google tracking makes it possible to track campaigns even on other media
• You need not be confused of the A/B ad testing
• Its integration with all marketing media so as you can use only single portal to track multiple campaigns is ingenious
• You will get In-depth reports on site navigation of users you never dreamed you could have
• It also has Ecommerce tracking features
However, Google Analytics package falls behind two very important features most search engine marketers need. This is the ability to track down individual user activities and trace activity back to an individual user level. Another is the ability to track fraudulent online activities so as your site will be safe from it. Even if there are the eCommerce tracking features, it cannot completely provide this important tracking capability.
The free web site analytics solution, is Google's statement regarding their supremacy among other search engines.
Article discusses Google Analytics and how powerful it can be to marketer's keeping track of their site's performance in the search engines.
Sabtu, 24 Desember 2011
Google And Your Domain Name
Many people overlook the importance of their domain name when trying to optimize their website for Google. With the amount of competition out there this may give you the edge.
Google, being the largest and most used search engine and is extremely important to optimize your website for. As a matter of fact, if you optimize your website just for Google you’d find your rankings in Yahoo! and MSN will jump up higher than your ranking in Google. I’ve optimized many websites that show up in at least the top 20 listings in Google and found that in each case they ranked higher in Yahoo! and MSN usually in the top 3 positions with most in the number one spots.
Most everyone agrees that with Google content is king. So writing good copy with just the right amount of keyword phrases, for keyword density is important. And natural anchor text links is second to the throne, which takes lots of work and proper timing to do properly.
Third in line are keyword phrases (notice I said phrase because single keywords are almost impossible to optimize for), which need to be researched to find the right phrase for you and not used to often in the content/text to get the right density. Used to often and you’ll hurt your ranking.
Fourth in line are the Meta Description Tag which when used properly can actually bring visitors to your website who wouldn’t normally come there. Of course there are several other factors involved with getting that elusive number one spot.
But what most everyone often overlooks is what I call the fifth element which Google uses to determine their ranking of a website and that's the domain name.
People, even SEO companies, don’t either know the importance of the domain name to Google or take the time to chose the proper name for the website. Most just use their company name or what they conceder a "Cool" name for their websites. Now, unless your company is well known or at least well known in its field, using a basically unknown company name is pointless. Even more pointless is the "Cool" name.
The entire reason you optimize your website is to get visitors from search engines, so why not use all the tools available to get the best ranking possible for your website.
Use your domain name as one of those tools. Instead of your company name or the "Cool" one, use a keyword phrase, one that describes your product or service. Take your time in choosing the proper name. Make sure that it will work best for your website. If you not sure ask your friends and relatives what keywords they would use to find your product or services on the Internet. You might be surprised at what they would use.
You have the keyword phrase that you know will work. But before you jump online and get that domain name there are a couple of things you may still need to do.
Let's say you're the owner of Mike's Bikes and you specialize in Colorado Mountain Bikes so you figure to kill two birds with one stone and use the domain name mikescoloradomountainbikes.com to keep your name in it along with using the keyword phrase. Now this might make sense to you but you’re not Google. You're not going to like it but you need to drop the mikes out of the name because it's dead weight.
So now you've got coloradomountainbikes.com but wait before you burn up the keyboard use Colorado-mountain-bikes.com instead. Why? Because Google sees this as three different words and would see coloradomountainbikes.com as a single word. When people are doing a search they will not be using coloradomountainbikes, they are going to use Colorado mountain bikes. The bonus is that your domain name now becomes a keyword phrase used by Google when it performs a search.
Google, being the largest and most used search engine and is extremely important to optimize your website for. As a matter of fact, if you optimize your website just for Google you’d find your rankings in Yahoo! and MSN will jump up higher than your ranking in Google. I’ve optimized many websites that show up in at least the top 20 listings in Google and found that in each case they ranked higher in Yahoo! and MSN usually in the top 3 positions with most in the number one spots.
Most everyone agrees that with Google content is king. So writing good copy with just the right amount of keyword phrases, for keyword density is important. And natural anchor text links is second to the throne, which takes lots of work and proper timing to do properly.
Third in line are keyword phrases (notice I said phrase because single keywords are almost impossible to optimize for), which need to be researched to find the right phrase for you and not used to often in the content/text to get the right density. Used to often and you’ll hurt your ranking.
Fourth in line are the Meta Description Tag which when used properly can actually bring visitors to your website who wouldn’t normally come there. Of course there are several other factors involved with getting that elusive number one spot.
But what most everyone often overlooks is what I call the fifth element which Google uses to determine their ranking of a website and that's the domain name.
People, even SEO companies, don’t either know the importance of the domain name to Google or take the time to chose the proper name for the website. Most just use their company name or what they conceder a "Cool" name for their websites. Now, unless your company is well known or at least well known in its field, using a basically unknown company name is pointless. Even more pointless is the "Cool" name.
The entire reason you optimize your website is to get visitors from search engines, so why not use all the tools available to get the best ranking possible for your website.
Use your domain name as one of those tools. Instead of your company name or the "Cool" one, use a keyword phrase, one that describes your product or service. Take your time in choosing the proper name. Make sure that it will work best for your website. If you not sure ask your friends and relatives what keywords they would use to find your product or services on the Internet. You might be surprised at what they would use.
You have the keyword phrase that you know will work. But before you jump online and get that domain name there are a couple of things you may still need to do.
Let's say you're the owner of Mike's Bikes and you specialize in Colorado Mountain Bikes so you figure to kill two birds with one stone and use the domain name mikescoloradomountainbikes.com to keep your name in it along with using the keyword phrase. Now this might make sense to you but you’re not Google. You're not going to like it but you need to drop the mikes out of the name because it's dead weight.
So now you've got coloradomountainbikes.com but wait before you burn up the keyboard use Colorado-mountain-bikes.com instead. Why? Because Google sees this as three different words and would see coloradomountainbikes.com as a single word. When people are doing a search they will not be using coloradomountainbikes, they are going to use Colorado mountain bikes. The bonus is that your domain name now becomes a keyword phrase used by Google when it performs a search.
5 Basic Rules of Web Design
5 Basic Rules of Web Design the most important rule in web design is that your web site should be easy to read. What does this mean? You should choose your text and background colours very carefully.
5 Basic Rules of Web Design the most important rule in web design is that your web site should be easy to read. What does this mean? You should choose your text and background colours very carefully. You don't want to use backgrounds that obscure your text or use colours that are hard to read. Dark-coloured text on a light-coloured background is easier to read than light-coloured text on a dark background.
You also don't want to set your text size too small (hard to read) or too large (it will appear to shout at your visitors). All capitalised letters give the appearance of shouting at your visitors.
Keep the alignment of your main text to the left, not cantered. Centre-aligned text is best used in headlines. You want your visitors to be comfortable with what they are reading, and most text is left aligned.
Your web site should be easy to navigate
All of your hyperlinks should be clear to your visitors. Graphic images, such as buttons or tabs, should be clearly labelled and easy to read. Your web graphic designer should select the colours, backgrounds, textures, and special effects on your web graphics very carefully. It is more important that your navigational buttons and tabs be easy to read and understand than to have "flashy" effects. Link colours in your text should be familiar to your visitor (blue text usually indicates an unvisited link and purple or maroon text usually indicates a visited link), if possible. If you elect not to use the default colours, your text links should be emphasized in some other way (boldfaced, a larger font size, set between small vertical lines, or a combination of these). Text links should be unique - they should not look the same as any other text in your web pages. You do not want people clicking on your headings because they think the headings are links.
Your visitors should be able to find what they are looking for in your site within three clicks. If not, they are very likely to click off your site as quickly as they clicked on.
Your web site should be easy to find
How are your visitors finding you online? The myth, "If I build a web site, they will come," is still a commonly held belief among companies and organisations new to the Internet. People will not come to your web site unless you promote your site both online and offline.
Web sites are promoted online via search engines, directories, award sites, banner advertising, electronic magazines (e-zines) and links from other web sites. If you are not familiar with any of these online terms, then it is best that you have your site promoted by an online marketing professional.
Web sites are promoted offline via the conventional advertising methods: print ads, radio, television, brochures, word-of-mouth, etc. Once you have created a web site, all of your company's printed materials including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, etc. should have your URL printed on them.
Not only should your web site be easy to find, but your contact information should be easy to find. People like to know that there is a person at the other end of a web site who can help them in the event that:
1. They need answers to questions which are not readily available on your web site;
2. Some element on your site is not working and end users need to be able to tell you about it, and
3. Directory editors need you to modify parts of your site to be sure that your site is placed in the most relevant category.
By giving all relevant contact information (physical address, telephone numbers, fax numbers, and email address), you are also creating a sense of security for your end users. They can contact you in the way that makes them feel the most comfortable.
Your web page layout and design should be consistent throughout the site
Just as in any document formatted on a word processor or as in any brochure, newsletter, or newspaper formatted in a desktop publishing program, all graphic images and elements, typefaces, headings, and footers should remain consistent throughout your web site. Consistency and coherence in any document, whether it is a report or a set of web pages, project a professional image.
For example, if you use a drop shadow as a special effect in your bullet points, you should use drop shadows in all of your bullets. Link-colours should be consistent throughout your web pages. Typefaces and background colours, too, should remain the same throughout your site.
Colour-coded web pages, in particular, need this consistency. Typefaces, alignment in the main text and the headings, background effects, and the special effects on graphics should remain the same. Only the colours should change.
Your web site should be quick to download
Studies have indicated that visitors will quickly lose interest in your web site if the majority of a page does not download within 15 seconds. (Artists' pages should have a warning at the top of their pages.) Even web sites that are marketed to high-end users need to consider download times. Sometimes, getting to web sites such as Microsoft or Sun Microsystems is so difficult and time consuming that visitors will often try to access the sites during non-working hours from their homes. If your business does not have good brand name recognition, it is best to keep your download time as short as possible.
A good application of this rule is adding animation to your site. Sure, animation looks "cool" and does initially catch your eye, but animation graphics tend to be large files. Test the download time of your pages first. If the download time of your page is relatively short and the addition of animation does not unreasonably increase the download time of your page, then and ONLY then should animation be a consideration.
Finally, before you consider the personal preferences of your web page design, you should consider all of the above rules FIRST and adapt your personal preferences accordingly. The attitude "I don't like how it looks" should always be secondary to your web site's function. Which is more important: creative expression/corporate image or running a successful business?
5 Basic Rules of Web Design the most important rule in web design is that your web site should be easy to read. What does this mean? You should choose your text and background colours very carefully. You don't want to use backgrounds that obscure your text or use colours that are hard to read. Dark-coloured text on a light-coloured background is easier to read than light-coloured text on a dark background.
You also don't want to set your text size too small (hard to read) or too large (it will appear to shout at your visitors). All capitalised letters give the appearance of shouting at your visitors.
Keep the alignment of your main text to the left, not cantered. Centre-aligned text is best used in headlines. You want your visitors to be comfortable with what they are reading, and most text is left aligned.
Your web site should be easy to navigate
All of your hyperlinks should be clear to your visitors. Graphic images, such as buttons or tabs, should be clearly labelled and easy to read. Your web graphic designer should select the colours, backgrounds, textures, and special effects on your web graphics very carefully. It is more important that your navigational buttons and tabs be easy to read and understand than to have "flashy" effects. Link colours in your text should be familiar to your visitor (blue text usually indicates an unvisited link and purple or maroon text usually indicates a visited link), if possible. If you elect not to use the default colours, your text links should be emphasized in some other way (boldfaced, a larger font size, set between small vertical lines, or a combination of these). Text links should be unique - they should not look the same as any other text in your web pages. You do not want people clicking on your headings because they think the headings are links.
Your visitors should be able to find what they are looking for in your site within three clicks. If not, they are very likely to click off your site as quickly as they clicked on.
Your web site should be easy to find
How are your visitors finding you online? The myth, "If I build a web site, they will come," is still a commonly held belief among companies and organisations new to the Internet. People will not come to your web site unless you promote your site both online and offline.
Web sites are promoted online via search engines, directories, award sites, banner advertising, electronic magazines (e-zines) and links from other web sites. If you are not familiar with any of these online terms, then it is best that you have your site promoted by an online marketing professional.
Web sites are promoted offline via the conventional advertising methods: print ads, radio, television, brochures, word-of-mouth, etc. Once you have created a web site, all of your company's printed materials including business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, etc. should have your URL printed on them.
Not only should your web site be easy to find, but your contact information should be easy to find. People like to know that there is a person at the other end of a web site who can help them in the event that:
1. They need answers to questions which are not readily available on your web site;
2. Some element on your site is not working and end users need to be able to tell you about it, and
3. Directory editors need you to modify parts of your site to be sure that your site is placed in the most relevant category.
By giving all relevant contact information (physical address, telephone numbers, fax numbers, and email address), you are also creating a sense of security for your end users. They can contact you in the way that makes them feel the most comfortable.
Your web page layout and design should be consistent throughout the site
Just as in any document formatted on a word processor or as in any brochure, newsletter, or newspaper formatted in a desktop publishing program, all graphic images and elements, typefaces, headings, and footers should remain consistent throughout your web site. Consistency and coherence in any document, whether it is a report or a set of web pages, project a professional image.
For example, if you use a drop shadow as a special effect in your bullet points, you should use drop shadows in all of your bullets. Link-colours should be consistent throughout your web pages. Typefaces and background colours, too, should remain the same throughout your site.
Colour-coded web pages, in particular, need this consistency. Typefaces, alignment in the main text and the headings, background effects, and the special effects on graphics should remain the same. Only the colours should change.
Your web site should be quick to download
Studies have indicated that visitors will quickly lose interest in your web site if the majority of a page does not download within 15 seconds. (Artists' pages should have a warning at the top of their pages.) Even web sites that are marketed to high-end users need to consider download times. Sometimes, getting to web sites such as Microsoft or Sun Microsystems is so difficult and time consuming that visitors will often try to access the sites during non-working hours from their homes. If your business does not have good brand name recognition, it is best to keep your download time as short as possible.
A good application of this rule is adding animation to your site. Sure, animation looks "cool" and does initially catch your eye, but animation graphics tend to be large files. Test the download time of your pages first. If the download time of your page is relatively short and the addition of animation does not unreasonably increase the download time of your page, then and ONLY then should animation be a consideration.
Finally, before you consider the personal preferences of your web page design, you should consider all of the above rules FIRST and adapt your personal preferences accordingly. The attitude "I don't like how it looks" should always be secondary to your web site's function. Which is more important: creative expression/corporate image or running a successful business?
4 Steps To Success In Web Development
If you are planning to become a serious player in the webdesign world, you should now what to learn and discover. Here's a short list that gives you an overview of your needs.
If you are planning to become a serious player in the webdesign world, you should now what to learn and discover. Here's a short list that gives you an overview of your needs.
1. Learn HTML
Before you start creating websites you should master HTML. This is the key element to even start publishing documents on the web. This sounds pretty obvious but there are some elements that you should understand like the label element which will add great usability to a form.
2. Master Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
I can't stress this enough. DO NOT USE TABLES FOR YOUR LAYOUT!
Is it clear? Don't, just don't. Why? Because they work against you instead of for you. You can have so much more control of your layout, design and colors if you use 100% CSS.
1. CSS is easy
2. CSS is fast to create
3. CSS is lightning fast when your website loads
4. CSS is easy to modify
So forget table layouts and start using stylesheets. You will really like the things you can accomplish once you master them.
3. Learn A Server Side Language
This is needed to make dynamic websites like forums. PHP and ASP are a great example. You will need to understand what you can do with these languages and start using them.
Without a server side language your websites are really hard to maintain and will give you a hard job in creating an efficient website structure.
4. Learn A Database Language
I recommend learning MySQL since this is an open source database and is installed on most hosting providers in combination with PHP.
A database is nothing else then some tables with data. You can select data with queries like:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE ID = 3;
Now everything is selected from table when the ID equals three. It's not hard to understand SQL, you just need to know how it works. PHPMyAdmin can help you a lot when you are creating your database.
So, start with step 1, and stick with CSS as long as you don't master it. CSS is huge, and you will love it once you know how it works.
For application development you can't do without a language like PHP and a database like MySQL.
If you are planning to become a serious player in the webdesign world, you should now what to learn and discover. Here's a short list that gives you an overview of your needs.
1. Learn HTML
Before you start creating websites you should master HTML. This is the key element to even start publishing documents on the web. This sounds pretty obvious but there are some elements that you should understand like the label element which will add great usability to a form.
2. Master Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
I can't stress this enough. DO NOT USE TABLES FOR YOUR LAYOUT!
Is it clear? Don't, just don't. Why? Because they work against you instead of for you. You can have so much more control of your layout, design and colors if you use 100% CSS.
1. CSS is easy
2. CSS is fast to create
3. CSS is lightning fast when your website loads
4. CSS is easy to modify
So forget table layouts and start using stylesheets. You will really like the things you can accomplish once you master them.
3. Learn A Server Side Language
This is needed to make dynamic websites like forums. PHP and ASP are a great example. You will need to understand what you can do with these languages and start using them.
Without a server side language your websites are really hard to maintain and will give you a hard job in creating an efficient website structure.
4. Learn A Database Language
I recommend learning MySQL since this is an open source database and is installed on most hosting providers in combination with PHP.
A database is nothing else then some tables with data. You can select data with queries like:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE ID = 3;
Now everything is selected from table when the ID equals three. It's not hard to understand SQL, you just need to know how it works. PHPMyAdmin can help you a lot when you are creating your database.
So, start with step 1, and stick with CSS as long as you don't master it. CSS is huge, and you will love it once you know how it works.
For application development you can't do without a language like PHP and a database like MySQL.
4 Stages of Website Design
Stage 1 - Style over substance
The first stage is to design a site that the chief executive officer, venture capitalists, and ad agencies like to see. There are all types of "bells and whistles" in this design. An entire site might be a Flash animated site. Or there might be some beautiful JavaScript mouse over effects or drop-down menus in the design. It's always a pretty design, but the message is clear - style over substance.
Stage 1 - Style over substance
The first stage is to design a site that the chief executive officer, venture capitalists, and ad agencies like to see. There are all types of "bells and whistles" in this design. An entire site might be a Flash animated site. Or there might be some beautiful JavaScript mouse over effects or drop-down menus in the design. It's always a pretty design, but the message is clear - style over substance.
Stage 2 - Designing for online visibility
In Stage 2, the reality of an ineffective web design begins to hit, usually around 3-6 months after the initial launch. A site will typically get rejected by many of the major directories, not be indexed by the major search engines, or not get the traffic or sales that were projected based on the various types of marketing strategies used. Typically, that's when companies decide that they will try to hire a professional online marketer to promote the site. Doorway page companies, in some way, shape or form, rear their ugly heads. Unfortunately, many web site owners fall for a doorway page company's pitch because the beautifully designed site couldn't possibly be the problem with low site traffic. Yahoo might have rejected a site, or the site might have been listed in Yahoo and the company cannot understand why they have no description next to their company name. But in no way would many ad agencies or doorway page companies want to tell potential clients the truth -- they simply did not design and write an effective web site -- because it would mean losing thousands of pounds in business
Stage 3 - Designing for your audience
By Stage 3, after spending an exorbitant amount of money on pretty web site designs and various marketing strategies, web site owners generally figure out that they did not design or write an effective Web site for their target audience. Typically, web site owners will bring in a usability expert to analyze potential problems and present various solutions. Bringing in a search engine marketing expert to help with search-engine friendly web designs &templates early in the design phase can save a company thousands of pounds in online marketing costs.
Stage 4 - Site redesign
After careful usability and search engine visibility analyses, web site owners finally have an effective web site. A site that is written, coded and designed for user friendliness and search engine visibility generally gets the most traffic and resulting sales because it was written, programmed, and designed for end users.
Conclusion
Web sites should always be designed with your target audience in mind, not your own personal preferences. Colours have meaning. Professional designers understand the psychology of colour and the use of white space to best project the image your audience wishes to see. (For example, try not to use the colour red on a financial site.) Understanding the products/services/information your target audience is searching for is paramount to designing and maintaining an effective web site. When you launch a site, you might have to make an educated guess as to what your target audience wants. After that, tools such as site statistics software and reporting from site searches tell you exactly what your visitors are looking for. Then content and marketing strategies can be adjusted accordingly. Unless the advanced technology clearly benefits end users, do not use it on your site. If your venture capitalists or CEO's or lawyers like the site, ask if they are going to spend the thousands or millions of pounds to keep you in business.
They're not. Your target audience who will ultimately determine the success or failure of your site.
The first stage is to design a site that the chief executive officer, venture capitalists, and ad agencies like to see. There are all types of "bells and whistles" in this design. An entire site might be a Flash animated site. Or there might be some beautiful JavaScript mouse over effects or drop-down menus in the design. It's always a pretty design, but the message is clear - style over substance.
Stage 1 - Style over substance
The first stage is to design a site that the chief executive officer, venture capitalists, and ad agencies like to see. There are all types of "bells and whistles" in this design. An entire site might be a Flash animated site. Or there might be some beautiful JavaScript mouse over effects or drop-down menus in the design. It's always a pretty design, but the message is clear - style over substance.
Stage 2 - Designing for online visibility
In Stage 2, the reality of an ineffective web design begins to hit, usually around 3-6 months after the initial launch. A site will typically get rejected by many of the major directories, not be indexed by the major search engines, or not get the traffic or sales that were projected based on the various types of marketing strategies used. Typically, that's when companies decide that they will try to hire a professional online marketer to promote the site. Doorway page companies, in some way, shape or form, rear their ugly heads. Unfortunately, many web site owners fall for a doorway page company's pitch because the beautifully designed site couldn't possibly be the problem with low site traffic. Yahoo might have rejected a site, or the site might have been listed in Yahoo and the company cannot understand why they have no description next to their company name. But in no way would many ad agencies or doorway page companies want to tell potential clients the truth -- they simply did not design and write an effective web site -- because it would mean losing thousands of pounds in business
Stage 3 - Designing for your audience
By Stage 3, after spending an exorbitant amount of money on pretty web site designs and various marketing strategies, web site owners generally figure out that they did not design or write an effective Web site for their target audience. Typically, web site owners will bring in a usability expert to analyze potential problems and present various solutions. Bringing in a search engine marketing expert to help with search-engine friendly web designs &templates early in the design phase can save a company thousands of pounds in online marketing costs.
Stage 4 - Site redesign
After careful usability and search engine visibility analyses, web site owners finally have an effective web site. A site that is written, coded and designed for user friendliness and search engine visibility generally gets the most traffic and resulting sales because it was written, programmed, and designed for end users.
Conclusion
Web sites should always be designed with your target audience in mind, not your own personal preferences. Colours have meaning. Professional designers understand the psychology of colour and the use of white space to best project the image your audience wishes to see. (For example, try not to use the colour red on a financial site.) Understanding the products/services/information your target audience is searching for is paramount to designing and maintaining an effective web site. When you launch a site, you might have to make an educated guess as to what your target audience wants. After that, tools such as site statistics software and reporting from site searches tell you exactly what your visitors are looking for. Then content and marketing strategies can be adjusted accordingly. Unless the advanced technology clearly benefits end users, do not use it on your site. If your venture capitalists or CEO's or lawyers like the site, ask if they are going to spend the thousands or millions of pounds to keep you in business.
They're not. Your target audience who will ultimately determine the success or failure of your site.
4 Secrets of a Great Page Layout
When it comes to web development, one of the most difficult things to do is the lay out.
Designers especially the newbies go frantic on how to go about it. It has to be attractive, engrossing, user-friendly and functional. Thus, unraveling the secrets will definitely bind the website.
So, what are these layout secrets?
Together let us unfold them one after another…
1. Centering it all is no good. The secret is doing the contrary and not centering everything. The latter will just make the page disorganized, strewn and drab. The alignment may also seem weak and wanting.
2. The use and mastery of contrast is indispensable. Contrast is one thing that makes the page attractive. The use and mastery of it in color, value, size and weight will greatly affect the site’s appearance and edge. In fact a typeface may appear bigger with the use of contrast in color. The latter can also affect the look of organization of the page. At a glance, a page may appear organized or the exact opposite. That is the secret of contrast.
3. Apply deviations if necessary. Most of the designers practice nowadays is to develop a ‘uniform-pages’ look. They try to use same background colors and other peculiarities to establish similarities to the homepage or other pages. But the fact is that viewers can be easily bored with that scheme. Viewers always want something new and by giving them a repetitious work, they are pissed off and transfer to another site where they can feast both their eyes and mind.
Placing lines in between contents also manifests division. Instead of using these lines, use blank ‘buffer zones’. This way what are created are invisible lines to make the effect subtle.
4. Do not forget that functionality is the king of web development. Moreover, keep the content and information full, tight and pretty useful. Use the space, don’t waste. Only leave a small percentage for blank spaces. Use the space cleverly in order for the website not to look crowded at the same time loose. Multiple columns are also advisable in order to maximize space.
These four topmost secrets in page layout are so crucial that to break them may spell disaster or the end of your precious site.
Designers especially the newbies go frantic on how to go about it. It has to be attractive, engrossing, user-friendly and functional. Thus, unraveling the secrets will definitely bind the website.
So, what are these layout secrets?
Together let us unfold them one after another…
1. Centering it all is no good. The secret is doing the contrary and not centering everything. The latter will just make the page disorganized, strewn and drab. The alignment may also seem weak and wanting.
2. The use and mastery of contrast is indispensable. Contrast is one thing that makes the page attractive. The use and mastery of it in color, value, size and weight will greatly affect the site’s appearance and edge. In fact a typeface may appear bigger with the use of contrast in color. The latter can also affect the look of organization of the page. At a glance, a page may appear organized or the exact opposite. That is the secret of contrast.
3. Apply deviations if necessary. Most of the designers practice nowadays is to develop a ‘uniform-pages’ look. They try to use same background colors and other peculiarities to establish similarities to the homepage or other pages. But the fact is that viewers can be easily bored with that scheme. Viewers always want something new and by giving them a repetitious work, they are pissed off and transfer to another site where they can feast both their eyes and mind.
Placing lines in between contents also manifests division. Instead of using these lines, use blank ‘buffer zones’. This way what are created are invisible lines to make the effect subtle.
4. Do not forget that functionality is the king of web development. Moreover, keep the content and information full, tight and pretty useful. Use the space, don’t waste. Only leave a small percentage for blank spaces. Use the space cleverly in order for the website not to look crowded at the same time loose. Multiple columns are also advisable in order to maximize space.
These four topmost secrets in page layout are so crucial that to break them may spell disaster or the end of your precious site.
3 Ways Coaches Can Use Their Site To Get More Clients
Trying to get clients can seem like a catch-22. In order to hire you, they need a strong sense of what you do. But to get that sense they need to work with you first! It's because of this hurdle that direct selling or direct response methods like cold calling or placing ads don't work. Those channels don't get you clients directly. So how can coaches deal with selling the unknown? Make it known and use your web site to do it!
Coaches have a big challenge when seeking clients. They are selling the unknown.
By unknown, I mean that most people who can benefit from coaching, whether it be business coaching or personal coaching, either never heard of it or don't really understand how it works.
When people work with a coach for the first time, there usually comes a point when they say “a ha!” and are better able understand the value they can get.
So trying to get clients can seem like a catch-22. In order to hire you, they need a strong sense of what you do. But to get that sense they need to work with you first!
It's because of this hurdle that direct selling or direct response methods like cold calling or placing ads don't work. Those channels don't get you clients directly.
Dealing with this challenge can be frustrating for many new coaches. They really want to help their clients succeed in their business or in their life, but getting the prospect to sign on the dotted line doesn't happen as often as they would like.
So how can coaches deal with selling the unknown? Make it known and use your web site to do it!
Here are 3 ways:
1 – Write web site copy in terms of “what they do know.”
Prospective clients can relate to their pains and troubles. Their pains and troubles might include not having enough time in a day, trouble sleeping at night, or not making enough money.
They can also relate to where they want to be in the future. Some examples could be having lots of income, having peace of mind and having a happier life.
So when you are writing about your services, be sure to start with things your prospect already knows about, such as their pains and their desires.
Additionally, case studies and testimonials of others you have helped would further your prospect's understanding of what you do. These examples are most effective if they are written in terms of initial problems and end results.
By explaining what you do in terms they know directly, you better communicate what you do. When prospects clearly see what they can get from working with you they are more excited and more interested in working with you.
2 – Give away free information.
Compile an article or report that is helpful to your target prospects. Choose a topic that is directly related to their problems or situations. Then make that report available on your web site for download.
This strategy has a lot of value:
• Everyone likes free helpful stuff, so they will take action to get it.
• Once created, giving it out takes almost no time to do.
• It tells the the prospect that you know their about their business, thus making you a good choice for helping them.
• Sending people to your web site creates another relationship building “touch.”
• People can refer this report to other people, increasing your visibility.
3 - Give away a free online assessment.
Create a series of questions on your web site. Then invite your visitor to answer them in return for a score and an interpretation of that score. This gives them helpful information about themselves and gives them a sample of what you do.
This technique has a lot of value similar to the report idea. It's free, doesn't take a lot of time or money to implement, it is automated, it gives value, and it can be referred to others.
Additionally, you can determine which prospects have stronger needs based on their responses. With that information, you can target your sales efforts towards them and increase your closing rate.
In conclusion, use your web site as a tool for educating your prospects. Doing this will gain more trust and grow the relationship until they eventually become your paying client.
Coaches have a big challenge when seeking clients. They are selling the unknown.
By unknown, I mean that most people who can benefit from coaching, whether it be business coaching or personal coaching, either never heard of it or don't really understand how it works.
When people work with a coach for the first time, there usually comes a point when they say “a ha!” and are better able understand the value they can get.
So trying to get clients can seem like a catch-22. In order to hire you, they need a strong sense of what you do. But to get that sense they need to work with you first!
It's because of this hurdle that direct selling or direct response methods like cold calling or placing ads don't work. Those channels don't get you clients directly.
Dealing with this challenge can be frustrating for many new coaches. They really want to help their clients succeed in their business or in their life, but getting the prospect to sign on the dotted line doesn't happen as often as they would like.
So how can coaches deal with selling the unknown? Make it known and use your web site to do it!
Here are 3 ways:
1 – Write web site copy in terms of “what they do know.”
Prospective clients can relate to their pains and troubles. Their pains and troubles might include not having enough time in a day, trouble sleeping at night, or not making enough money.
They can also relate to where they want to be in the future. Some examples could be having lots of income, having peace of mind and having a happier life.
So when you are writing about your services, be sure to start with things your prospect already knows about, such as their pains and their desires.
Additionally, case studies and testimonials of others you have helped would further your prospect's understanding of what you do. These examples are most effective if they are written in terms of initial problems and end results.
By explaining what you do in terms they know directly, you better communicate what you do. When prospects clearly see what they can get from working with you they are more excited and more interested in working with you.
2 – Give away free information.
Compile an article or report that is helpful to your target prospects. Choose a topic that is directly related to their problems or situations. Then make that report available on your web site for download.
This strategy has a lot of value:
• Everyone likes free helpful stuff, so they will take action to get it.
• Once created, giving it out takes almost no time to do.
• It tells the the prospect that you know their about their business, thus making you a good choice for helping them.
• Sending people to your web site creates another relationship building “touch.”
• People can refer this report to other people, increasing your visibility.
3 - Give away a free online assessment.
Create a series of questions on your web site. Then invite your visitor to answer them in return for a score and an interpretation of that score. This gives them helpful information about themselves and gives them a sample of what you do.
This technique has a lot of value similar to the report idea. It's free, doesn't take a lot of time or money to implement, it is automated, it gives value, and it can be referred to others.
Additionally, you can determine which prospects have stronger needs based on their responses. With that information, you can target your sales efforts towards them and increase your closing rate.
In conclusion, use your web site as a tool for educating your prospects. Doing this will gain more trust and grow the relationship until they eventually become your paying client.
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