Web Content: How Much Should I Pay?
Web Content Strategy
Web Hosting Basics
What is a Web Host?
A Web Host is simply a company that provides you with server space for your website. This includes all of your web pages, graphics, scripts and files.
When your web address is typed into a browser, your web host is being contacted to locate and display the requested page.
Free Vs. Professional Web Hosts:
All Web Hosts are not created equally. There are a number of free hosting services available on the Internet. However, if you're designing a website for business purposes, you should NEVER host your website with a free host.
In order to establish credibility, you must be willing to invest in your own domain name and professional web hosting. Websites hosted on free servers are not taken seriously and will suffer a serious loss of business.
Your visitors may feel that if you don't have your own domain, you may not be a credible company. They'll simply take their business elsewhere.
Not only is professional credibility a great reason not to host with a free service, but many Search Engines won't even index a site hosted on a free server.
In addition, free hosting services don't need to have a reason to shut your site down. You may get up one morning, try to access your site and instead of your site loading, you may receive an error message. There goes all your hard work, your website, your traffic, your Search Engine positioning, your customers -- all gone.
Free hosting services aren't interested in your business or how hard you've worked to design your website and create a steady stream of traffic. Their main concern is their business. That's why they're doing it. They display banner ads on every site they host.
If you're serious about your business and you have a sincere desire to succeed, having your own domain name is a must. It's not a luxury, it's a necessity. Businesses using the free services are not taken seriously. Having your own domain name is just as important as a professional looking web site. They go hand-in-hand.
The cost to register your Domain name ranges from $9 - $35 per year, very reasonable and well worth every dime.
Selecting a Domain Name:
When trying to select a good domain name, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration.
Try to select a domain name that contains your most important keywords, as some Search Engines place relevancy on them.
Although there are many new domain extensions available, .com or .net is still the best choice.
Example:
yourdomain.com
yourdomain.net
Keep in mind, it's usually best to select a web host prior to registering your domain name. Most quality web hosting companies will register your domain name for you.
Guidelines:
- Try to select a domain name that contains your most important keyword.
- Try to select a domain name that will be easily remembered.
- Try to avoid using abbreviations or anything that will be difficult for your visitors to remember.
- Try to keep your domain name as short as possible.
Take your time and select a quality Domain name that will grow with your business.
Selecting a Web Host
When selecting a professional web host, your first consideration should be the company. Check out their background. Talk to some of their customers and ask them if they've been satisfied with their service.
- Do they offer fast connections?
- Do they have a back-up system in place to protect your data in case there is a power outage?
- Do they require you to make payments in advance?
- Do they require a long-term contract?
- Do they charge set up fees?
- How is their customer support? Test them.
- Do they provide you with free access to a secure server for order processing?
- Do they offer shopping cart software to process your orders?
- Do they provide you with an online Web Site Manager?
- Do they provide you with an online support manual?
Ask for references. Talk with some of their customers and ask them if they have been satisfied.
Here are some basic features you should look for when selecting a web host:
- 24/7 reliable tech support
- Your own domain name (www.yourname.com)
- At least 10GB of monthly transfer (traffic)
- A minimum of 20MB - 50MB of server space
- Unlimited true POP email accounts - name@yourdomain.com
- Unlimited email aliases
- Email forwarding
- Unlimited auto responders
- Your own unrestricted CGI-Bin
- Access to SSL Encryption for secure transactions
- MySQL Database
- Perl
- htaccess password protection
- Server Side Includes (SSI) support
- Design (and upload to) your site using Netscape or other HTML editing software
- Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions for those utilizing FrontPage
- Unlimited free access to your server via FTP/Telnet
- Easy access to your log files
- Statistics on visits to your site
- Referral Program
When selecting a web host, you must look at the entire picture prior to making your decision. You may find a host that charges $5.00 - $15.00 a month to host your site, however, their technical support may be poor, or your web site may be slow or down a lot.
A lower monthly payment may look appealing, but how much is it actually going to cost you in lost sales? Most likely much more than the amount you'll save.
Web Hosting Woes for beginners
Every individual when it starts surfing the net for choosing its hosting partner get confused by variety of offers. Most of the beginners usually fall into trap of free hosting, cheaper hosting and other stuff that lead them to land in no man’s land later on. All there efforts and time goes in vein and he has a nightmare to restart working on things again. There is no doubt that every one out there on internet look for cheap or free hosting, it is very much important to make decisions thinking of long term prospects. Here are some reasons why:
1. Free sites or free hosting does not have any guarantee; there is a chance to be removed tomorrow. The most important reason I like to highlight that, it leads your site permanently removed from search engines too. There are billions of sites are coming up day by day. The popularity of site is much depend up the maturity of it and it place in search engines natural ways, once you get your site deleted from there it is very hard to bring back the new things again as the vacuum was immediately filled by others.
2. Free hosting or free sites are usually supported by advertisements and other stuffs. You have created a free site in sub domain and also find good free hosting. You have done offline and online promotions to your customer’s friends and other people who are known to you. Here you are falling in a trap, by promoting the ads and other stuffs of free hosting provider. Also the persons who have book marked your site will not find it again once it is removed by the host.
3. There are hell and heaven difference between a top level domain and a free sub domain. Domains are unique and represent the status of you. No other competitor of yours can steal your name and in matter of time your clients will memories the name. Where as any one can have any amount of free sub-domains, imagine your fate when your competitor starts doing that.
4. Imagine a good client found you on web and become interested it your product and services. Before hiring your services he definitely like know more about you or he will do a research first whether he should consider to contact you. If you hold a free hosting site the first impact of your will go in his mind that you are not a serious seller. To prevent this you should consider a personalized top level domain and consistent hosting services.
5. When you find a hosting company offers services extremely low price, consider twice before choosing. Do a small research to find out why it is so cheap, even below the industry standards. I always follow the principle that “Quality Never Comes Low.” When it comes to provide support or services it involve some cost in manpower and other stuffs which a company need to meet day today. Don’t fall in trap of fly by night operators, always begin with established and trusted providers in industry.
6. Other mistake usually most of the beginners do is, not keeping there backups at there own, but rely on hosting service providers. Imagine the host’s server went down or free host removed the site, you are all stuck and have no option to start again from scratch, which is extremely painful.
7. The most common mistake comes to my knowledge is, beginners are not clear about there requirements. It is obvious that no one knows what is required in future, but if your requirements are clearly documented it will be easier to analyze choosing the hosting services that suites your needs. Always consider that there may be a possibility of shifting from static site to a dynamic one or you may require using certain scripts. It is an ongoing process and if documented properly can help you a lot in near future.
Oops! Seems enough negative thoughts? Don’t get the wrong idea – consider following points also before taking the decisions:
1. Not all free hosts are bad or decisive, there may be an excellent host which is up-coming and can provide wonderful services. They may offer free hosting to promote there services so that they can have customers in there portfolio. But remember those are limited time offers and will be closed soon when they get there desired portfolio filled.
2. Cheap and affordable web hosting may turn to be a great deal, if you carefully compare some of the affordable type plans with some of the more expensive ones, you may discover that there are lots in common between them in reality. Here you always try select which host can have better server; updated software’s and provide you quality support in practical terms.
3. Not all the free websites are going to be removed without notice or provide a bad reputation for your company. There are services from giants like Google’s Blogger or Yahoo’s Geocities will help you to increase your link popularity if used effectively.
4. Also consider reading my previous article (a novice one) “choosing the right hosting solution” . example search term “how to choose the right hosting” which will give you an opportunity to read other articles written by experts in the industry.
Finally, when you choose a host – always think that it is the best friend of your site. When you make a friend in real life you always consider lot of things before choosing and also overlook minor mistakes to keep a long term relation. A web host is a real friend for you as it provides your business keep running online 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
Why to have a website for your company
After having decided to start a business, the next thing that arrives in your mind is How to market the Product/Service? How to create a brand? How to recruit people? How & where to advertise? etc… Next is creating departments like Marketing, Operations, Advertising, Branding and Human Resource. You need some way to represent each department…
For example Human Resource needs a way to represent the company to hire talents, marketing team needs someway to represent products/services, branding team needs a way to represent the company overall... As a startup you can’t make huge investment to represent your company by giving ads in news paper or through sign boards or through hoardings or any other means…
One of the cheap & efficient ways to represent your business is through a website… Let me tell you about the advantages of having a website
• It is cheap
• Your company goes global if you have a website
• Most online advertising is cheap
• Saves time
Likewise there are many more advantages… Ok let me take you in detail about the above mentioned points... To create a web site you need a domain name and hosting space (You can Google to find a cheap domain registrar & host), then the next thing is content (also there are many freelance content writers) or you can do it by yourself if you are good in it… Then you need to have a good web design (http://www.templatemuseum.com sells ready to use corporate designs)… With all these things you can launch a website for less than $50 - $100…
If you launch a prospectus representing your company its reach is only local, by having a website for the company you are going global & your reach goes beyond territories…
Unlike news paper advertising, sign board advertising, television advertising online advertising is cheap & worth it, because
• In online advertising you can advertise to your targeted audience
• Online advertising are global
Normally these are the steps that is involved in marketing
Step 1: Making appointments
Step 2 : Give an introduction about the company
Step 3 : Give a brief about the product / service
Step 4 : Show a demo
Step 5 : Close the deal
Also you are bound to get enquiries from search engines, online directories etc... So you have possibilities of getting new opportunities without any effort.
I’d like to make a point clear that having a website doesn’t mean you are done with everything, it is just a supporting medium to represent your company & can help in simplifying many process… So, it is recommended to use it as a support for your business & follow your traditional way of business too…
7 Reasons Why Using CSS is a Must
CSS is a new option for website designers that have been using HTML and tables for most of their web designing careers. Of course, it is a huge change and requires learning a new language and skill, however most people are saying CSS is worth it and it will give you more control, options, and is easier to edit. Consider the following 7 reasons why using CSS is a must and see if it convinces you to change your method of web design.
Reason #1 Present Data Logically
When you use CSS in the layout of your website you can present your data in a logical way and CSS can then manage how the information appears. This is significantly easier than other methods and is one reason why CSS is a must.
Reason #2 More Options
With CSS you have more options for changing the location of information on your screen. This is important for a variety of reasons, especially if you anticipate the need to change columns or links at some time.
Reason #3 Complements HTML
Another reason CSS is a must is because it complements HTML. HTML and CSS alone both have weaknesses, but when used together your website design will be significantly stronger.
Reason #4 Editing
You can edit your website design if you need to for whatever reason without that much hassle if you are using CSS. All you do is go in and edit the definition. This is a lot easer than searching and replacing of years past.
Reason #5 Faster
When you use CSS your pages not only load faster but they also can be scrolled quicker than ever before. This is a huge deal to most web surfers as well as webmasters because speed is a huge implication in whether someone stays on your page or moves on. CSS increases speed, and as a result is a tool you must learn how to use.
Reason #6 Print
When you use CSS you can also include a printer friendly version of the website that makes it easier to print and can eliminate color, images, and other things that do not print easily.
Reason #7 Control
If you have been working with tables for layouts you are probably tired of the guessing that goes on. However, with CSS you have more control and can issues commands and know exactly where the result will appear, rather than guessing. This is in itself makes CSS a must have.
Now that you have some information on CSS, you are probably interested in knowing more details about how it works and above all how you can learn to use CSS. Fortunately, there is tons of information available online that will provide you with the answers to your many questions on CSS and how it can help you.
Why Visitors Don’t Turn Into Customers
Every good Internet business understands the value of conversions versus hits received. Far too often, businesses become fixated on the hits they are receiving instead of monitoring their hit to sale conversion rate. This misguided focus is the road to ruin because it fails to take in the issue of abandonment.
“Abandonment” is one of those terms that has a unique meaning when applied to the Internet. The term refers to reasons why a user abandons a site before taking the action the site owner desires, typically purchasing a product or making an inquiry.
There are a number of beautiful sites on the Internet with unique innovations. Unfortunately, these sites rarely turn a profit or unnecessarily limit their profit potential. Site owners must focus on only one thing when building a site – converting visitors to customers. To avoid abandonment issues, you should focus on the following:
1. The site should always load as quickly as possible to accommodate visitors that are using 56k dialup modems.
2. The site should be designed for ease of use, not “what looks good.”
3. All advertisements must click through directly to the items that are being searched, not the home page of the site.
4. Site pages should be kept short to improve load times.
5. Information that is not germane to the product or service should be removed.
6. Flash, music and other “atmosphere elements” of the site should be removed or optional to speed up load times.
7. Signing up for the site newsletter must be incredibly easy.
8. Customers should be required to fill out the minimum of information to make a purchase.
9. Newsletters should be issued in HTML and text since some email systems do not accept HTML.
10. All images should be compressed for quick loading.
11. All links and emails must also include AOL friendly equivalents.
12. All emails must have automatic text wraps at 60 spaces so that the recipient does not receive a disjointed mess of code in their email box.
13. Email communications from the public must be responded to within 24 hours.
14. Communications made after business hours must be responded to first thing in the morning.
15. The site should offer accumulating bonus points for purchases that eventually lead to a “free gift”
16. When an order is shipped, an email should be sent to the customer telling them as much.
The list is fairly endless, but you should always view site designs and advertising from the perspective of the customer. The universal question for each project is, “How could we make this easier for customers?” By emphasizing this approach, you will bypass many of the problems you see on the net and avoid wasting your advertising dollars.
7 Must Have Scripts to Look for When Shopping for E-commerce Hosting
When shopping for e-commerce hosting there are a lot of things you need to keep and mind. When you know what to look for it is a lot easier to ensure you get exactly what you need and not leave any important information out. Consider these 7 must haves before you start shopping for e-commerce hosting so you will be prepared.
1. Storefront
Regardless of what software you are using, one of your main concerns should be the storefront. You want to be able to customize your storefront to your specifications, at least within reason, and certainly you want it to appear professional and well put together. This should be a main consideration when shopping for e-commerce hosting.
2. Support
Regardless of the hosting you are using you will want support, 24/7 if at all possible, and support that is real, live, and will help you with your problems. In addition to this, you should look for some self help support as well in the form of a FAQ area and support providing advice for when you find yourself in certain situations. Good hosts will provide you with a great deal of information so you can help yourself.
3. Building
With your e-commerce host you want to be able to build your site easily and to your specifications. So, you certainly want to use software that is easy to understand and implement. In addition, it is helpful if wizards are available to help you throughout the building process as well.
4. Integrated
You want to make sure the host is integrated and works well with all of the other systems that you need for your site to be successful. If it is not integrated you should strongly consider other options.
5. Tools and Functions
This is important because you want as many functions available from multiple currencies to a log of purchases, so your e-commerce host will need to be able to provide you with the space and tools you need to keep up with all of this information.
6. Software
When it comes to e-commerce software you can either buy from a physical store, buy online from your host, or create your own. The best option is to find a host that offers software that is of high quality and will help you with e-commerce.
7. Ease of Navigation
Your e-commerce software as well as your host should allow you and customers to navigate easily through all of the pages and all of the links without getting confused or backtracking.
Shopping for e-commerce hosting requires you know what you are looking for as well as what you need. As long as you choose an experienced host who has verified experience, you'll have a much better chance at making a wise decision.
Web site must haves
Books were the primary source of research before. With only these prints to attain information, people had no choice but to scan and even read through all its contents to find what they are looking for. Although there are indexes and page numbers indications, there is always a possibility that what is being said there does not correspond directly to what you are looking for. Bottom line, reading through.
With the internet at everyone’s disposal, researching and printing has taken a new perspective. Information getting is easier and much more efficient. With helpful and specific sites, what more could anyone ask for?
With the many companies using the internet for promotions and advertising, it is no wonder that the competition among them has become intense. More and more strategies are being thought of to gain advantage over another. What do these companies really need to keep people interested on their site?
Giving them the kind of content they cannot read anywhere else. In other words, try to be unique and different from the rest. Chances are, people would stay longer to read things they have not read before. And probably, even go back for more.
Remind people that your contents can be printed out. Any information that may seem important to them can be put in prints. Printing and browsing can be done all at the same time.
Get them to answer surveys about your site by offering rewards in return. Readers often disregard surveys that are made to help websites in their development. By offering them promos or small prizes, they would more or less spend a little of their time with these surveys.
Make use of directories where people can search for specific topics and information they need. This would insure time consumption and will be a relief to those in a hurry.
Be professional in your publishing. Grammatical and spelling errors are a major turn off to readers. Your website is being accessed worldwide by different kinds of people. Most of them are literate enough to understand and judge mistakes they will encounter.
Make your prints easy to read. Not too big or small for people to understand them easily. And not to bright or dark which is sometimes very irritating to the eyes. Using the right shade of colors in designs also needs consideration.
Use attention catching headlines, like a phrase or a sentence likely to arouse their curiosity. Graphic designs can also be a plus factor as long as it is related to your site and guaranteed to make people stop and stare and browse.
Web Site Questions and Answers
How should it be promoted? What should it look like? Can it be done on my own or should a professional be hired to do it?
These are just some of the questions that need to be answered first before designing a web site. Experts on this field can be turned to help and do the job for you. Doing it yourself would also be an option if you are taking into consideration the expenses and the time that can be saved by doing so. There are things that needed to be considered in designing your website. And questions, too.
What is the goal of the site? It would be helpful if you know from the start what you want your site to do. Simple as it may seem, you need to get ideas organized into clear details first. Think of the site in the point of view of others. The impressions that they would surely have upon seeing your site. Putting graphics and pictures into the site as attention-seekers is important to keep up with the many sites available nowadays. Having a site does not only mean having information to give and share. It also means creating an art work that people will be interested enough to see and read through.
What have the others got? By doing your homework and looking up probable competition sites, you can get an edge on what your site should possess. Do your homework. You can get lessons, feedbacks and even inspiration in seeing the works of other people. Looking them up does not mean you have to copy them. It means you have to think of other ways to get leverage over the others. Once this has been done, consider yourself on the frontline and be ready to set some trend.
How do you find a good designer? In this case, you have chosen someone to do the designs for you. In finding the right designer, choose someone who understands and is in harmony with what you want your site to be. It is important to note that some designers want their designs put into your site and not your designs into yours. Consider someone who is interested in what you’re doing, think your thoughts and makes them the center of their goal.
Is it accessible? Make it easy for people to see your site and contact you for any complaints or suggestions. Putting contact details would make it easier for people to not only get into your site but you as well.
What is there to remember? Keeping it simple. From the words to the logos to the graphic designs. People did not come into your site for those so stick to the more important things. Just KISS.
What is web site monitoring all about
What is web site monitoring all about? Here is Carl's story:
Carl returned to the office after a tough day of negotiations. He still was not sure if the crucial deal was on or off, but dinner would soon be waiting and he had just enough time left to check his emails and his phone messages.
He had twelve phone messages, every one of them urgent. Too late to call back right away; that would have to wait for morning.
His inbox held that familiar email report from his web site monitoring service. He smiled. As usual, there were no error alerts. That's what he liked to see -- his web site still performing well.
He looked carefully at the report. All the forms were functioning. The shopping cart, too. Password protection was functioning. At least he did not have to worry about his web site this evening.
There were still some download speed issues reported by the Hong Kong Monitoring Station. He made a mental note to raise the issue with his web host contact in the morning.
Just as he was putting on his jacket to leave, his cell phone rang.
A few minutes later, he called his wife. "Hi Ruby. How's dinner doing?"
"Great, Carl. You'll be home soon?"
"I was just about to leave when my cell phone rang. It was Dotcom-Monitor calling. It seems the web site went down. They were reporting from
"You mean your European customers can't access the site?" Ruby asked.
"That's what I thought at first. When the
"I guess that you won't be home for dinner."
"Sorry. I have to get on the line with the web host and straighten this all out."
"Hey, that's OK. I'm just happy you get instant those alerts. I would hate to see you get that call during our dinner and have to go all the way back into the office. Let me know when you're coming home."
"OK. I'll let you know as soon as I do. Bye."
Carl checked the more detailed report online. ( Here is an example: http://www.dotcom-monitor.com/AccessibilityCheck.asp )
As Carl dialed his ISP, he realized it would likely be a long evening. But not as long as if he received less frequent reports. And not as long as the next day would be if the web site had been offline for the next.
And that's what web site monitoring is all about.
Choosing a Right Domain Name
Domain names are no longer a web address these days. Many profitable companies have been built around their domain name making it the brand and the company. Choosing the right domain should be as important as naming your product. Given that status, here are some pointers how to find a name that will see you through it all.
The other group believes a webmaster should go for brand. Most successful companies start off with a brand, including online companies. Brands make the product memorable, create differentiation and encourage loyalty. In the early days of the Internet, everyone wanted a generic domain like searchengine.com, books.com, auctions.com and the likes. Today, very few of those are truly successful sites that rival Goggle, Amazon and eBay.
A branded domain also ensures consistency throughout your marketing efforts. As one web user describes, “Every time the company tells me to visit their generic website, they lose the opportunity to reinforce their brand name in my mind”.
Whether you use keywords or brand for your domain depends much on what you aim to do. If you plan to build a business or website that is going to have staying power, branded domains are a better choice. It might not be easy or cheap to build a brand but there are no shortcuts when it comes to branding either. It’s a slow process that can be very rewarding if done right. Don’t choose a domain simply because of its keywords. First class content, links in and clever optimization are more important to good ranking than anything else. Having said that, a brand name made up of keywords could be best, and you would have the best of both worlds – literally. Take CancerComforts.com. Owner Kathy Browning chose the domain because of its keywords. But apart from being keyword rich, CancerComforts.com is also very marketable and can be a strong brand.
If you are building a resource website, a website for affiliate programs or one that’s temporary in nature, keyword rich and generic domains would be a better choice. Finally, there is no harm in buying both branded and keyword domains that point to the same site. Just make sure you only use one for submissions, directory listings, link exchanges and promotion. This way you build your link popularity.
You should also, make sure the site title or name matches your domain. If your domain is ExtremeBiking.com and your site name is Smith Brothers Biking Tours this makes visitors and directory editors wonder if this is the correct website. It also causes confusion. People who know you tend to look for a domain that reflects your brand and not extreme biking. If you have yet to establish a company name or a site name, it might be a good idea to name it after you find a domain name. This is sensible, consistent marketing.
Just because a domain is a little longer doesn’t make it bad. For example, TrashToTreasure.com is meaningful, to the point and memorable even though it is rather long. On the other hand, ThisisAnExampleOfAVeryLongDomain.com is too long, difficult to remember and prone to errors. The other extreme is needless abbreviation. TTT.com is meaningless because TrashToTreasure.com works much butter. Aim for some balance while taking into account ease of use.
.Com, .Net, .Info:
Most people will agree a .com is best. A web user told us, “Whenever I can’t remember the domain name but I know the site name, brand or company, I’ll try for a .com first”. If you have no good .com alternative, start with .net and .org first. Also, be sure to consistently promote your website as a .net or .org whatever you may choose.
Hyphens, Suffixes and Prefixes:
Hyphens aren’t necessarily evil especially if it’s in your brand name or is the correct way to write a word. However, they are difficult to remember, type and prone to user input mistakes. Avoid them as much as you can.
Suffixes and prefixes are i’s, e’s, the’s and numbers usually suggested by domain search tools when your desired domain is unavailable. If you choose such a domain, be very consistent in your promotion. Promote the domain as a whole, do not leave out the suffix or prefix. You might also want to avoid domains with very little difference between them. These are usually between plurals and singulars. Aim for singular names whenever possible. For example, petfood.com and petfoods.com; if petfood.com is taken resist the temptation to opt for petfoods.com because people tend to leave out the s.
Can You Say It?
This isn’t always a top consideration but it makes sense you should have a domain name that can be verbally communicated. Take your list of chosen domains and tell it to someone. Does it confuse them? Do you find yourself having to constantly repeat it or spell it? If that is so, move on or go back to the drawing board.
Copyrights and Trademarks:
Expiring Domains:
Anyone who has looked for a domain name finds out soon enough more than half the desired names are taken. If you cannot find a suitable one despite numerous searches, why not explore expired domains? Expired domains are those whose original registrant fails to renew commonly are due to website closings or companies going out of business. Within the list of expired domains are some real gems. There are many services that allow you to monitor expired and soon to expire domains for a fee. Before you sign up for them, a good place to start researching for free is DeletedDomains.com.
Some believe recently expired domains with good traffic and rankings allow you to benefit from someone else’s hard work and give your site a head start. Theoretically, that may be true. Realistically, you shouldn’t expect that to last. People consistently return to a website for a reason. If your topic is very different from the original site, visitors will stop coming back because the information or resource they previously had access to be no longer there. If you assume such a domain and want to convert as many visitors as possible, make sure your content is very closely related or similar to that of the old site. You might want to also check that the old site has completely ceased operations. If the previous site still exists under a different domain, loyalists eventually find their way back there; Word gets around among them and could create a negative image on the old domain that’s now yours.
Ownership:
When you do register as domain, have it registered under your name or your company. If you are registering through your host, remember a lot can happen within a short space of time. Companies go out of business or you change hosts, scams, scandals and more. Making sure you own the domain reduces the risk of losing your domain name in the future. Check your host’s domain registration policy. If there are unnecessary expenses to transfer your domain, try to register it yourself instead. Registering a domain is a very simple and straightforward affair. Some good registrars to try are Enom and GoDaddy.
Finally, when you do find the best available domain, get it immediately. Any delays no matter how minor may cost you. Finding the right domain is not easy. It takes a lot of brainstorming, patience and creativity. Once you find it, don’t let it slip.
Browser Compatibility To See Your Site
Internet Explorer, created by microsoft has been the most popular web browser for many years. But the gap is shrinking with the release of Mozilla Firefox, by an open source community.
At the last count it is said that there are 64 million firefox users on the internet. Growing in massive numbers by the day.
So, the issue with browser compatibility is at its highest importance. The way browsers are constructed, they can show a webpage slightly differently.
For instance, the IFRAME tag shows perfectly in Internet Explorer but does not show in Firefox. This is only one of many instances of none browser compatibility.
Therefore, webmasters should be making sure their web page is viewable in both internet explorer and firefox equally. If it doesnt, then they risk loosing a large percentage of web users. There is nothing worse than surfing a web site and not being able to see it properly in a particular browser.
The solution for webmasters is to make all their pages XHTML transitional. Web sites that validate to this, have a higher chance of being viewed correctly in all major browsers.
XHTML is the next generation web language, and is said to replace HTML eventually. XHTML was released in January 2000.
XHTML is not a difficult language to learn, it is basically identical to HTML but the main difference is that tags in XHTML always have an end tag.
For example, a IMG SRC tag in HTML has no end tag. In XHTML the IMG SRC tag has the end tag of />
More information on learning XHTML can be found at http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/xhtml_intro.asp
Once you have constructed your XHTML web page then you can validate it at http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/xhtml_validate.asp
Further, to ensure near complete browser compatibility you can validate any stylesheet here : http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
10 Website Blunders Guaranteed to Send Your Visitors Elsewhere
When you build your website you need to have a plan first. The reason for this is if you do not have a plan you will likely make mistakes, forget to include information, and overall have an unorganized and not a well thought out page. While you might read the page and completely understand everything, remember that your website visitor did not design the page and needs a little more direction. Read the following 10 website blunders that are common and will make your visitors head to another site quickly.
Blunder #1 Contact Information
You need to provide your contact information, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and physical address if important. The reason for this is if a potential customer wants to contact you for whatever reason they can!
Blunder #2 Poor Organization
Make sure your website is well organized and that all links are obvious. You should even use subheadings to make it even more clear where information is. You don’t want to have to make people search.
Blunder #3 Checkout
Make the checkout process straightforward and easy. Too many times people get to the checkout and it is difficult, asks for a lot of unnecessary information, and generally takes longer than the customer wants to spend buying the product. As a result, the potential customer leaves your site to buy elsewhere. Don’t let this happen to you, make your checkout fast and easy!
Blunder #4 Typos
If your website has typographical errors, it will be noticed by your visitors. Many people consider this a sign of a novice, not a professional who is in business trying to make a living. If your website is full of typos, people are not going to believe that you take your site seriously and as a result they won’t either.
Blunder #5 Hidden Information
Do not hide information. You as a webmaster might not think the information is hidden, but if it is not readily visible it might as well be hidden. Make all information obvious and easy to find.
Blunder #6 Personal Information
Do not ask for personal information, and if you do explain why and do not make it mandatory. Many times people will want to buy your product and get to the checkout page only to have to answer lots of personal questions first. This will send people to other less interrogative pages.
Blunder #7 Too Many Forms
Keep it simple. If you are asking for memberships, checkouts, or anything that requires information, do not use a lot of forms. Figure out what questions you really need to ask and keep it short and sweet.
Blunder #8 You, not We
Focus on your customers, their needs, and what you can do for them. Your customer is not going to your page to find out about you, but what you can do for them. Remember this and if you have to put a web history about yourself, then do so in a special section where people can opt to read it.
Blunder #9 Help People Make a Decision
People might not know what they want when they go to your website. So, lead them, make suggestions about products, and provide backgrounds and uses for different products.
Blunder #10 Focus
Make sure the focus of your site is obvious and clear from the first page of your site and throughout.
10 Important Web Design Tips: To Make SEO Friendly Website
A website should firstly be searched out by visitors before talking about attracting or retaining those visitors. Nowadays, a well designed website does not only relate to a web sites visual attractiveness but more importantly, how friendly it is with search engines.
Below are 10 SEO friendly website designing tips where web designers should pay attention to during the early stage of their web designing process.
1. Avoid creating menu on the left-hand side of a website. If unavoidable, an alternative way is to put some text with rich keywords at the top or above the left-hand menu so that this text will be the first thing to be read by search engines.
2. Headlines are rated more important than the rest of the web page by search engines. To take advantage of this, you should have your keywords in the page headline. Since the header tag (h1) is quite large, you should format it to make it smaller.
3. Every page should contain the title and description tags with good keywords to describe the page content. The number of words for the title should not exceed 9 and that for the description should not be more than 20 words in order to keep within the limits of most search engines.
4. Try not to use Flash when possible. Flash cannot be read by the search engines to date and will cause slow page loading time and make people run away. If you really have a reason to use flash, try to make it smaller (e.g. as a flash header) and leave other area of your website for keyword-rich content.
5. Think twice on how to use graphics. Make them relevant to your content and use an alt tag with relevant keywords for search engines to read as they cannot read graphics and also for your visitors so that they can have something to read when waiting for the graphics to load.
6. Do not only use images to link out. You should always use text links to link out to important content on your web site. Spiders can follow image links, but like text links more though.
7. Avoid using frames. Some search engines cannot spider web pages with frames at all. For the other search engines that can, they can have problems spidering it and sometimes they too cannot index the web page.
8. Avoid using too complex tables when laying out your page but to keep them simple for the spiders. There are some engines which find it difficult to navigate through to the other pages on your website if the navigation bar is too complicated.
9. Use external Cascading Style Sheets and Java Script files to reduce page size and make the download time much faster . It will allow the spider to index your web page faster and can help your ranking.
10. Use standard HTML . Software such as FrontPage, Dreamweaver or a WYSIWYG editor will often add unnecessary scripting codes that will make the page larger than is needed and make it harder to crawl. It will sometimes add codes that cannot be read by search engines, causing the spider not to index the page or even the whole website. If to use, you should use those web page creator software wisely with a good understanding of html so that you may manually avoid or even delete those unnecessary scripting codes.