Category: Uncategorized

  • Elementary Knowledge In Regards To WordPress You’ll Love

    Knowledge gives power. This is true in many situations, including starting a great blog. You have found a great resource for learning more about WordPress. The following article will show you how to begin. Make sure to take notes while reading this article.

    Choose a design that is relatively unique when making your WordPress blog; don’t just choose the design everyone else is using. While using something that others already have up is simple, it doesn’t create a great first impression of your site. You want to differentiate your website by enhancing the uniqueness of your business.

    TIP! Choose a design that is relatively unique when making your WordPress blog; don’t just choose the design everyone else is using. Although creating an individual design takes more time, it will make your website look more personalized.

    If your post has a long title, make sure your permalink is clean. Using too many words will make a clunky URL. Use just your keywords and improve your search engine rankings.

    Spend some time getting to know all of WordPress’s tools and options. Use the Kitchen Sink icon to see all the extra things you can do with your blog. Using this will help you better manage any formatting issues.

    TIP! Remember to clean up permalinks. Excessively long titles make for cumbersome, clumsy URLs.

    Remove any special characters in the URLs of your blog posts. This can hassle those search engines, so the characters are best removed. Use keywords and short URLs.

    Unless you modify it, all posts will be in chronological order. If you want to rearrange the list, you’ll have to change the date first. Open a post that you want to appear at the top and change the date located in the upper right corner. Change the date by clicking on it and saving it.

    TIP! Take special characters out of your URLs for your blog posts. These characters are hard for search engine spiders to decipher.

    Are your posts receiving a considerable number of comments? If so, it can be hard to weed through all of these comments. Install a plugin that adds page numbers to the comments section. It will make your site more organized.

    Better your search engine rankings by taking a couple minutes with pictures before uploading them. Always add in title and alternate text tags. If someone decides to pin your image to Pinterest, your title is what will display on the screen.

    TIP! You must specify if you want your post to appear in other than chronological order. You can change the order of this list by changing the dates on your blog posts.

    Better your greeting at the very top of your site in WordPress. This will make everything a little more personal when it comes to the visitors you have because you can make your site have a message to talks about how users have found blogs like yours. It personalizes the experience. Use WP Greet Box to do this.

    Reading this article has given you some new information, useful tips and helpful hints for creating and maintaining a successful WordPress site. Begin using it with your WordPress page today. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by what a huge difference it makes. Then, you’ll have more readers to your site. They will be return visitors if you continue to give them steady content.

    TIP! You can increase your rank by including keywords with your pictures. Make sure to use alternate text and title tags.
  • What is PageRank?

    As defined by Google “PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”

    Use THIS TOOL to check your Google PageRank.

  • When It’s Time to Redesign Your Website

    When It’s Time to Redesign Your Website

    Website redesign conjures images of horror. The sheer terror of taking down an existing site, retooling it completely and putting it back up without missing a beat is enough to get the majority of business owners to leave “good enough” alone. Unfortunately, the internet is an ever evolving place and website designs of the past won’t cut it as search algorithms change and consumers increasingly access the web via mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

    The process of website development takes into account these landscape sea-changes and the more modern a website design is, the better it will fare in search and functionality. What’s more, redesign incorporates the latest in an increasingly tech-savvy audience. The average visitor might not be intimately familiar with HTML, CSS, jQuery, LAMP and all the industry jargon but fully expect every site they visit to be fully viewable and functional regardless of how they access the web.

    Why Redesign Your Site

    There are a number of reasons to redesign a website. For instance, if your current internet property is centered almost entirely or even 30 percent around flash web design, then your site is little more than a hole in the web–flash is invisible to search engines. If your site is more than three to five years old, chances are excellent its load time is slow, increasing bounce rate and decreasing conversions.

    Perhaps your business or industry has undergone changes which aren’t reflected on your existing site. Or maybe your company has grown but your site is behind the times.

    …you may want to consider [redesigning] if you rely on your web site to provide a timely or even a cutting edge impression. For example, if your business revolves around technology, a three-year-old web site could harm your intent to be seen as an innovator. Again, it’s a good idea to thoroughly understand who you are as a business and make the changes necessary so your site reflects that to your customers. –Inside Indiana Business

    Other reasons companies choose to update their site because they need new elements put in place. Some businesses have increasing cause to utilize an ecommerce website design, a chat feature is becoming necessary, or their needs to be greater integration with social media. And there are businesses who’ve largely moved away from a brick and mortar whose current sites don’t support their transition.

    custom-web-design

    Choosing a NewCustom Web Site Design

    The first task once it’s decided to redesign is to find the right website design company. In this quest, its very important to understand some key facts about web site designers from team to team.

    To that end, your company ought to be aware that just because an individual or firm calls itself a website design entity, doesn’t mean they are actually designers, or they are qualified in all aspects of redesign to bridge the needs between a business and the search engines. Here are a few things to think about when choosing a person or team to redesign your business’ website:

    • Graphic designers aren’t necessarily website designers. Sure, a graphic designer can create a pretty website. But so can a draftsman can pencil home elevations. In other words, while a draftsman can “draw” plans for a home, they are not architects, hence, they don’t factor in things like building codes, intended use, electrical and plumbing loads, and all the other aspects that go into actually designing a home to be safely and comfortably habitable.
    • SEO teams which offer site design often outsource redesign projects. While SEOs certainly know how to up a web property’s organic search rank, they likely have little to no knowledge of coding, architecture, content strategies, and many other aspects that comprise the behind the scenes stuff which make a site functional, intuitive, interactive, and compelling.
    • You get what you pay for. Okay, it’s cliche, but it’s also a truism. If you choose the cheap route, you’ll get “good enough”. What you won’t get is any significant change from before. While the site might look completely different, chances are quite high it will be a type of copy-and-paste job, not a real site redesign.
    • DYI templates are rife with problems. Perhaps you’re savvy enough to work with a template. And you’re thinking about customizing something that’s readily available. Even if you pay a good chunk of change for a template doesn’t mean it won’t be stuffed with base64 code–and that will be a big problem.

    If you’re looking for professional web design to reinvent your cyber property, then contact us. We can redesign your site to make it pop and support a number of functionalities.

  • Social Media and Website Design

    Social Media and Website Design

    Social media and website design have become integrated so deeply, that it’s unlikely you would be able to find many sites on the Internet without social share buttons. Website development entails many things. From the initial concept to wireframes, to the rough build and testing, there’s a lot that goes into creating a quality website.

    But aside from the technical aspects, there’s something else that has to be addressed for a website to succeed–and that is a firm presence in social media. Any online community that has tens or hundreds of millions of users is a great resource to generate leads and increase conversion rates.

    There’s even a term for using social networks to help a business’ search engine optimization and its consumer visibility. That term is called “digital sharecropping”. And its wording is precisely what it means–third parties creating content on social media and other Web 2.0 properties in order to get more traffic. The result is these millions of third parties are building up those properties for free.

    Search Signal Changes

    online community web sites
    Companies utilize the power & influence of social media for marketing. Online community web sites get the most hits daily, which is why social media & social interaction is a prominent and powerful tool for any website or business.

    It’s community web sites which see the most daily traffic. People engage social media in a variety of ways. From desktop to tablets to mobile phones, people are signing into their social profiles millions of times per day. As a result, mega-corporations end their television advertisements with “Follow us on Twitter” or “Like us on Facebook”. Even news corporations are in on the act, from the largest circulations to tiny online community newspapers, social interaction is a powerful tool.

    In 2013, visual appeal will rule content creation. The popularity of info-graphics, image sharing and visual storytelling will increase as companies experiment with the visual side of social media. The networks that have been built around quickly uploading and sharing images and video will continue to grow. —Grand Rapids Business Journal

    Because of this larger than life scale of activity, Google and Bing have changed their search rank algorithms, making social activity more important than inbound or backlinks. That’s big news in the SEO and the web design community, where such changes can completely upend their practices.

    The underlying reason for this change in social signals is because quite simply, social engagement can’t be faked. It’s just not possible to create hundreds of social profiles and maintain them in a natural looking way. In fact, it’s been tried in test runs and has failed each and every time.

    Social Media Integration

    social media buttons
    Integrate social media share buttons to maximize web precense & visibility

    What does all this mean to your business? Well, it means having social media buttons conspicuously and strategically placed on your website is an absolute must. But it also has to be done in such a way that it’s effective without being over-the-top. To strike the right balance, all of your website’s social sharing buttons and social engagement has to incorporate finesse with functionality.

    Though you may have existing social profiles, your website is where you can best control and present your brand. Because your website is your proprietary cyberproperty, it has to include certain elements to make a good impression with first time visitors and be interesting enough to cause people to revisit.

    • Start with your social profiles. Okay, so you may not be able to completely customize your social profiles, but you can make them stand out. It’s important to give them a bit of pop, some flare and of course, bits of information that get shared.
    • Go beyond generic, cut-and-paste. Everyone knows what the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube logos look like. So, you won’t be able to trick those out because you want that immediate recognition when people see them on your site. The thing to do is put some sizzle around them–make them more than just a box full of buttons.
    • Put your social media interaction right on your site. A larger and larger trend is to include a feed that highlights your social activity on your website. If it updates live, that’s all the better. Another idea is to put an invitation right above the social feed–something like, “Join the discussion”.
    • Offer something for nothing. When you send out an email blast or newsletter, give some incentive for others to engage. Offer them a discount or something of value for liking you Facebook page or retweeting something from your profile on Twitter.

    If your website isn’t generating leads or capturing conversions via social media, then contact us for a free consultation. We can develop a comprehensive approach to bettering your social influence and increase your business’ reach.

  • WordPress Power: Get The Most From Your Blog

    The total accumulation of online blogs has gone up over the past few years. Lots of people are increasingly turning to WordPress for their blog publishing needs. The sheer number of plugins associated with WordPress can make the experience seem overwhelming. Keep reading if you want some tips on this great blogging platform.

    If your title is long, clean up your post’s permalink. For instance, a title such as “Top Ten Way To Tame Unruly Children” can create a long URL. Try using just the keywords for the best results.

    TIP! Don’t choose a design that looks like every other WordPress site. Though it is less time consuming, your site will blend in with other blogs.

    Learn what you can before installing WordPress. The more you plan in advance, the better you can start off. Discover all you can about SEO and how to build smart content with WordPress.

    Create a posting schedule for yourself. You will feel motivated to post regularly if you have a good schedule. You can site during a day and make posts for the entire week, and then you can schedule WordPress to post them for you.

    TIP! When using WordPress, you can even add videos to your site. Although this may take you some extra preparation, it is definitely worth it.

    Clean up the content and comments that do not add any value to your website. This keeps the site easily usable to the honest viewers. Akismet is a useful plugin to filter daily website spam.

    The URLs of your blog posts should not have special characters. This makes it harder for search engine spiders to index your site, so you should get rid of them. While utilizing keywords, make sure you keep those URLs short as well.

    TIP! Educate yourself on WordPress before you get started. If you plan ahead, things will flow better once you get started.

    When you take time to adjust a WordPress blog, you may not realize that your changes weren’t saved at all. That is probably not the case. You can solve this by clearing the cache of your browser. Refresh your browser while holding down your shift key to make your changes appear.

    Don’t choose a common term, such as “admin,” for your username. Doing so can make your site vulnerable to bot attacks. Then, your entire site is at risk. Take a look at the users page to get rid of any names such as “admin” or even “administrator.” Choose another username altogether.

    TIP! Eliminate any comments or content that detracts from your site’s purpose. This will ensure your site remains user friendly.

    Make sure you maintain an organized media library. Uploading images straight into the library is certainly appealing, but it does not take long for chaos to set in. Create several folders and place each image in the appropriate one. At later times, when an image is needed, your search time will be greatly reduced.

    Make sure you regularly update your plugins. One of the best ways to have a strong presence is through well-made, up-to-date plugins. However, they receive updates just like normal applications. If you don’t wish to keep up with the update installation, you may miss important upgrades, or they may stop working.

    TIP! Sometimes you spend hours changing your WordPress site, and then think that the changes have not been saved. If changes are not being saved, there is probably a different problem.

    You can schedule blog posts using WordPress. Post them at specific periods of time when you aren’t at a computer. Look for the Publish box on the Edit screen. Click “Publish Immediately” under that. You can input the date and time you want your post to be posted. Press OK. When a screen appears for the “schedule for”, check it on and press “Schedule” if the info is correct.

    This article should have taught you some about WordPress. It is amazing to see how many people use this platform, but how little they really understand about it. The ideas within this article can pave the way for your WordPress success.

    TIP! Do you have lots of comments? If so, going through all your comments might be tough for you and other people who are reading along. Consider a page number plugin to simplify this.
  • Finding Help With Common Website Development Issues

    Have you every visited a website that made you stare at it in awe of its greatness? From a good website layout to how it is designed, many important elements must be included in a great site. This article will give you some professional design tips. Keep reading for great tips.

    If you want your site to bring in more visitors, you should ensure it’s simple to navigate. Links need to be prominent and simple to find. Menus render your website easier for users to surf. Post links that lead back to the homepage on each page of your website to make navigation easier for your users.

    Unless your website can be viewed on a variety of browsers, it is unlikely to produce the desired results. Ensure that the site can be easily navigated on the most popular browsers. Different browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Chrome may not display content the same way; what works in one might not work in another. Test every page in each browser before you let your site go live.

    Be aware of your background. Your background should not be too distracting and allow your reader to read the text easily. Make sure your background doesn’t detract from your content, or make it hard for your viewers to read your font.

    A website that appeals to many is within your reach using the different types of programs available. These are easily used and can get you building sharp sites quite quickly. If you don’t have a good site, you won’t have a large number of visitors.

    Creating a newsletter can help you get repeat visitors. Giving your customers a reminder that you’re still online and have some great deals or new content that will bring them back to your site for more. Put the form for signing up in a prominent location, such as a sidebar, and use it to compile a list of visitors who opt in to your newsletter. Stay on the ethical path and only send newsletters to users who request them.

    Now you know a few things the pros do that you can use towards web page design. Keep a list of things you love about websites and try to fit them into yours. Be creative with it and have fun.

  • Turn Your Site Into An Internet Sensation With These Tips

    Website development is becoming more popular, but many people don’t really know what they are doing. Are you looking for a career change, or just improve a personal site? The information in this article will help you build and develop amazing websites quickly and easily.

    Look at your site in many different browsers. What you see on your screen may be different from what others see. Make sure to research the browsers available. You will also want to send your site to someone that’s using a different operating system so you can see that their browser is compatible with yours.

    Join online forums to learn even more about web page design. A Google search should reveal a wealth of good sites that can help.

    TIP! Try using fixed-position navigation to let your users navigate with ease. This involves the navigation panel remaining static as the user reads down the page.

    Smaller pages are better. If your pages take a long time to load, visitors with slow connection speeds will lose interest. You do not want your page viewers to be stuck waiting for every page to download, or they may end up abandoning your site.

    Be conscious of your background. Some sites use moving GIFs in the background, but that can make text hard to read. Choose a background that is not too distracting for your readers, and that goes well with the rest of your design.

    Regardless of your client or website purpose, you need to strive for loading times of less than ten seconds. A good site will appear before a visitor’s eyes within moments. Make sure online visitors obtain the information they need rapidly.

    TIP! Check for broken links before publishing a page. A visitor will get very annoyed when they click on a link that takes them to either a blank page or one that gives them an error.

    Use a newsletter to gain repeat visitors. You can keep your visitors informed about important events, updates, and changes when they sign up for a newsletter, and the flow of information will often tempt them to revisit your site. Stick the sign-up form in a spot that’s out of the way, such as in a sidebar, and keep good records of those who sign up. Just send your newsletter to subscribers.

    Keep your topics separated. Keep different topics on different pages. This ensures that no one ends up confused and leaves as a result. Search engines will also have an easier task of ranking specific pages.

    Be sure your introductory page is clean and simple. Your front page can be the determining factor whether a visitor decides to stay or simply exits without seeing more. While you should describe the purpose of your business and what it offers, reduce distractions be keeping all else to a bare minimum.

    TIP! It is important to have content on your site that is not only interesting, but compelling as well. Design is certainly important, but the content is the reason that people will come back to your site.

    Hopefully, you know understand more about website design. Use the information shared here and continue learning more and more.

  • Quick and easy ideas for getting started in web design

    Quick and easy ideas for getting started in web design

    Regardless of how experienced you are in the website development field, there is always more for you to learn. This is easier said than done when there’s such a vast amount of information to sift through on this subject.  If you’re designing a website, make sure the code you write has a valid HTML+CSS. Although most browsers can make sense of code that isn’t valid, it could be rendered correctly or incorrectly. Valid code will render the same way most of the time in modern browsers. You can check the validity of your HTML code with an HTML validator.

    It is always good to add a favicon to your website. The favicon is a 16×16 image file in the .Ico format. This image is the one you see next to the URL bar, next to the title of the page on an opened tab and is also visible on your bookmarks tab if you choose to bookmark a page. The favicon will help users quickly recognize your page in their browser without reading any text or directly viewing the page.

    Avoid trying to add every new gadget to your website. It can be tempting to make your site look cutting edge by including every new website creation option out there but it can end up turning people off. Simple will generally get the job done even better than a flashy layout.

    Incorporate a site map into your website. Site maps serve several purposes. First, they make navigation throughout your site much easier for visitors. Second, the major search engines can utilize it to index your entire site. This means your search engine optimization improves, and your website receives more exposure, giving you more profit-earning potential.

    Refrain from the overuse of Javascript. While it may offer many different ways to create a more transparent and responsive website, it can pose difficulties for some visitors. No two web browsers are the same, and each one offers up new versions on a regular basis. Not all visitors have the most current version of their browser. Also, everyone doesn’t enable JavaScript on their browsers. If you choose to use JavaScript every time, you will prevent some users from being able to effectively use your site.

    Test your website in the most popular browsers and platforms to make sure that it displays correctly. Sometimes scripts that work in one browser may not produce the same results in another browser. So you may need take extra measures, like adding a function for browser detection, in order to ensure that your website will display properly under most conditions.

    To help your website visitors easily navigate through your site, design it so that it becomes easy to find “stuff.” When you have a simple site that makes it easy to locate information, you keep your visitors there much longer. If you make it difficult for them, then they will get frustrated and leave.

    Be sure there are no broken links on your website. This should be done frequently, before uploading to the server. It is incredibly important to keep broken links to a minimum. If visitors encounter them often, they will disappointed and no longer come to your site. In order to prevent this from occurring, proactively test thoroughly for full functionality.

    When designing a website for a mobile application, it’s important that you pick the right screen resolution. From an Android to an iPad, the sites are going to be displayed on the devices differently. If you’re hoping for the best results, go with a screen resolution that looks good on any type of screen.

    If you become lost at all during your web design process then you might want to look up videos online. You can find a lot of videos on places like youtube which give you step by step tutorials on what you should be doing during your web designing processes.

    Task based usability tests are a great way to determine how effective the design of your website is. In general, the purpose of the tasks is to locate some information or functionality that is buried in your website. If your website is well designed, the user should have no difficulty completing the task. On the other hand, if it is not, the task can give you some insight as to which areas of your website could use improvement.

    If you want to design websites for clients, you must learn all of the platforms available. Your future efforts will be more productive the sooner you learn platforms like Java, PHP, and MySQL. Whether you intend to become a professional web designer, or you just want to do the best work you can for yourself and your friends, you should try to develop a diverse skill-set.

    You should set aside at least one day per week to update your website. If you’re not updating it, you should at least check up on it to make sure that it’s functioning properly. As a site designer, it’s up to you, and you alone, to ensure that your site is in perfect working condition. If you fail to do so, you could lose a lot of traffic.

    If your site has a logo, you need to ensure it links back to the home page. Over time, most people have started to expect to find a clickable logo that takes them to your main web page. These users will become frustrated if clicking your logo has no effect and they have to go hunting for a link elsewhere. Logos that you can click on will make the site more navigable.

    As you have read from the above article, it doesn’t matter what your skills are where web designed is concerned as you should be looking at the basics first. There are many sources that claim to show the basics, and deciding where to look can be difficult. Consider reading this article as the starting point in your efforts toward learning website development.

  • Ten Highly Effective Free Ways of Generating Traffic (SEO)

    Let’s face it, the world today is nothing like it was, say 10 years ago. Almost everything connects to the internet these days.  I mean, just the other day my toaster was displaying the worlds current events to me. Putting this all into perspective means that you need to target traffic to your website if you are going to make it in the digital age.  You can have the most beautifully designed website in the world, but if nobody visits it, then you might as well take it down.  Does this remind you of the saying, “If a tree falls in the woods does anyone hear it?” phrase?

    Most large corporations with unlimited marketing budgets have no trouble targeting traffic to their company website.  But if you are a small business what do you do?  You could hire a search engine optimization company..or an online marketing firm.  You can read about search engine optimization tips on blogs, in magazines, books, etc.

    If you know the right strategies, and where to find the proper techniques you can get plenty of targeted traffic without spending a lot of money.

    1. Build an E-Mail List

    This is a frequently overlooked technique that the small business minded individual forgets about.  If you are out on a job, performing one of the many services you offer to your clients, try to get your customers email address. Of course you can collect this information on the web with a simple contact form, but word of mouth works just as great.  When you are filling out the bill for your customer, kindly ask them for their email address.  If they get hesitant, explain to them that their email address will be kept private, for  your use only, and that you frequently send out coupons to loyal customers.

    2. Focus your efforts on Organic Search Results

    Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has the ability to pull in large amounts of traffic without pulling out your wallet (if you do it yourself, if you hire a company, it will cost money).  Organic search is the unpaid listings of websites that show up when someone performs a search on a search engine site like Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft Bing – basically it’s the “non-advertisement” links on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). With almost 80% of all online transactions starting out with an internet search, not only is your targeted audience ready to buy – but you have the potential to bring in more traffic then paid advertisement (search engine marketing) results have.

    Sometimes getting organic website traffic is easier said than done. And you should be aware that some companies will have a full-time employee, if not a team, of individuals who only focus on organic search engine optimization.

    3. Social Media Marketing

    Social media marketing is employing the use of social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook , YouTube or LinkedIn to connect with potential customers on a social level. Of course there are many Social Networking websites available, so choosing the ones that fit your company’s needs is also important. Social networking sites allow you to connect with and converse with other users who have similar interests as you.   This is the perfect opportunity to build brand awareness of your website, product, or service with your audience on a personal level which is more effective than a push media level (ie. radio advertisements, television commercials)

    Of course you need to remember that when you participate in social networking sites on a corporate level, you need to make sure anything you do, publish or say on these sites is done in a way that actually adds value to someone’s day. If you are going to sign up just to spam website links, or content, then you will likely have sub-par results.

    4. Develop Public Relations

    Public relations is a  valuable part of any marketing  campaign no matter how big or small your business is.  It can build traffic and awareness of your business, product or service.  There are public relations (PR) companies out there that can write articles about your business, website, product or service. PR News Online is a great resource of everything public relations. They offer all types of information relation to PR Firms, Article Writing and more, they are definitely worth a look.

    5. Add Value to Other Sites

    Have you heard the term, “Web 2.0”?  Web 2.0 is basically user created content on another site.  So contributing to forums, discussions or some other type of user-created content that is relevant to your business will help boost organic search results because of the back links that you are building and so on.  There is almost a niche forum site for any type of business industry out there, Lawyer Forums, Question and Answers, Ask a ______, whatever your flavor, there is something out there for everyone. For instance, XTELWEB is a website design and search engine optimization company – we provide help on a website developer forum called DaniWeb,

    6. Get Others Involved

    Sometimes the best way to build brand awareness is to focus on word of mouth tactics.  Word of mouth is actually a very effective form of marketing online and offline.  Word of mouth is actually not that far behind celebrity endorsement when it comes to marketing effectiveness.  This marketing method can drive traffic to your website by using both of these proven techniques.  When you get people involved in your website (either as guest bloggers, by giving them an interview, etc) you are doing two powerful things.  First, you are actually giving people a small portion of ownership in what you are doing.  When they invest the time to contribute and assist the site they buying into the idea that it is worth their time and effort, this will make them much more likely to want your website to succeed and tell other people about it.

    And if you can get a well-known figure to contribute to your website, you get their endorsement and it can boost your creditability (even to the point of matching their own). This tactic will subconsciously resonate with users and put the site at higher status than they would previously, making site visitors more eager to share your site with others, contribute to the site and return for future visits.

    7. Syndicate Your Content

    Creating high quality content is very important for this next technique to work.  First of all, high quality content creates a win/win situation for everyone involved. Your customers, or website visitors learn something from high quality content, and in turn will share your content with others. Approach popular websites and offer to publish (syndicate) your articles on their site.  Their websites win because you are providing high quality relevant content to their readers without them having to provide the work. And you are building brand awareness/traffic to your site through the article byline.

    Even if you can’t find a website that will allow you to publish on to theirs, don’t worry, there are plenty of directory websites that allow article publishing.  One thing to remember though, the article you write must be unique, relevant and useful.  You cannot copy and paste another person’s article, or an article you have already published somewhere else, and expect it to be re-published.

    technorati.com

    ezinearticles.com

    goarticles.com

    articlebase.com

    8. Offer Contests

    I know I said free ways to generate traffic, but this is a no brainer.  Contests are very effective any way you look at it. Everyone wants to be a winner, right? Offer contests on your websites, the prize can be a gift certificate to your company, a free service of some sort, or a free product.  Contests are great for everyone, and they usually get shared through social networking sites.  A contest can build brand awareness and interest for your company, product or service.  What do people have to do when they enter a contest? Fill out forms…right?… And what is on those forms?…email addresses!   This relates to seo tip #1, build an email list.  This is the perfect opportunity to collect information about your customers, by collecting their email addresses.  So even though you will be giving something away, you will also be receiving, so they cancel each other out, and this will end up being a FREE SEO technique to generate website traffic.

    9. Be Remarkable

    This next tip comes from a marketing guru who goes by the name, Seth Godin.  He often talks about the importance of “being remarkable”.  The idea to keep in mind is that if you are “the best in the world” at something it will naturally market for you.  The important part of achieving this status is by picking a very specific and narrow niche or specialty.  If you have a content focused website, what particular topic can you cover better than anyone else in the marketplace? If you run a company that provides services, what very narrow and specific niche can you serve better than any of the other companies in the market?

    By narrowly focusing your attention on becoming the best at this specialty you will become remarkable, and an expert too.  Your demand for YOU will increase and people will start finding your site naturally!  This is actually very effective and will generate traffic then if you try and be “good” in a market that is already saturated with those who can do a better job than you.

    Seth Godin : The Dip

    10. Start an Organization or Group

    Throughout the history of mankind we have always had a desire to belonging and community.  It does not take much looking to find a group of like-minded individuals that share the same interests you do.  By starting a weekly meet up through the use of online social networking, you can collaborate on business ideas, marketing ideas, and basically just brainstorm about things that work and do not work.  You will be surprised how quickly everyone in the group grows, and how much you can all help each other.  As the founder and head of the group or organization, you will receive a lot of notoriety and interest.  This will provide great opportunities for you to have links and advertisements for your company or website throughout the areas in which your group interacts.

    Conclusion

    It is always great to get something for nothing ( see #8 ) , and search engine optimization, higher organic rankings in the search engine results page (SERP) is no different.  If you market your website correctly, through the use of social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn, or one of the many social networking sites available, and combine several techniques together, you will find that search engine optimization is not that difficult.  One important, key factor to remember is that organic SEO takes time and also is not “one time”, meaning that you have to work on it monthly.

    If you feel like you don’t have the time for your own search engine optimization. Contact XTELWEB and we will be glad to give you a hand.

  • Design Your Own Sites: Website Creation Advice

    Trying to find the exact answers to your web page design questions can be frustrating. A lot of ideas are out there, but most of it is unusable. Follow the expert advice in this article and you will be more than happy that you took the time to do so.

    Avoid using a variety of fonts on your site. You need to also be mindful of how some fonts appear on monitors, since smaller serif fonts are difficult to read. Many sites make use of Verdana, as it can be read in many sizes and colors.

    TIP! Watch your color scheme on your site. It is important for the text to be legible when set on the background color you have chosen.

    Understand your subject. If you plan on using your site for a blog or similar endeavor, you should be sure to do thorough research on the subject before you post. When you post incorrect or unclear information, you will lose visitors. It is important to know what you are talking about.

    Whatever your design is like aesthetically, be sure all your files are small. Your file sizes have a lot to do with the speed of your site loading. Of course, having your website load quickly is the best scenario for visitors. Bear in mind that some site visitors are still using dial-up. Test your website to ensure that it loads quickly even on a dial-up modem connection.

    TIP! Keep your page sizes to a minimum. Not everyone online has a fast connection, and if your website takes too long to load, people will lose interest.

    Learning about web page design is a subject that becomes easier the more you work at it. Test out your basic chops with C+ and HTML by building yourself a few simple web pages. It’s never too late to start practicing, so start today.

    Design Tools

    TIP! Make your visitor’s life a little easier by preserving the content they enter into forms. When a user needs to enter their information multiple times to sign up for various options you give them, make it so that they don’t have to enter duplicate info from beginning to end on their own repeatedly.

    While utilizing the design tools of a host to get your website started is a fine idea, never rely on these tools completely. You need to incorporate your personality into the website, and that can be done by adjusting some stuff and adding others that the host design tools don’t offer.

    You shouldn’t host your site on your own server, even if you’re using your own money to set up a dedicated server and want to invest a large amount of money in your site. Do as much of the design yourself as possible, but if you hire someone to host it for you, you won’t have to worry about basic security.

    TIP! Always implement powerful site-searching capabilities when designing a large website. This is commonly located in the topmost-right corner of the screen as an empty bar, which users can insert a search term or phrase.

    Finding information on the Internet can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, near impossible. This article is a great resource for anyone that needs a little extra help with web page design. Begin making use of this advice and you will be glad you invested the time.