by Saniya

Achieving optimal web site design

To succeed at your online business you need a Web design must be just for that – a simple, focused site. One that is easy to build, maintenance-free, low cost, credible, and a powerful traffic-builder and customer-converter.

Having the right tool and the right product alone doesn’t insure the success of your website. There are many factors to be considered in effective website design

1. Build It for Speed
It’s a fact of modern life – people are in a hurry. This means that you have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customer’s attention. To minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy technology (java script, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is important to your presentation.

2. Target your Market
Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers. Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key here is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.

3. Focus the Site
Make certain your web site is focused on the goal, selling your product or service. A site offering many unrelated products is not necessarily unfocused, but this is often the case. If your business does offer many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page.

4. Credibility Is Crucial
The most professionally designed site won’t sell if your customers don’t believe in you. A clear privacy statement is one way to build your credibility. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide legitimate contact information on line.

5. Navigation should be simple
Make site navigation easy and intuitive. Simple and smooth navigation adds to the convenience of the visitors. Add powerful search and catalog features. Many times a lot of visitors do not have the patience to navigate through the whole website to find what they are looking for.

6. Consistency is the key
Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.

7. Make your site interactive
Make your website interactive. Add feedback forms as well as email forms that allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they might have pertaining to a product.

Personalization of your website is another key element that can lead to customer delight and can increase your sales. Personalization technology provides you the analytic tools to facilitate cross-selling and up-selling when the customer is buying online. It would give you an idea of what products to cross-sell and up-sell.

8. Content is King
Good content sells a product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.

These eight, simple rules will go a long way toward an effective website design, and most importantly, turning visitors into customers.

01.23.13

by Saniya

Essential Web Development Tools

Developing a successful website design takes a great deal of planning and preparation. An important part of your preparation is obtaining the essential tools of the trade.

HTML Editors: – An HTML editor is a software program used to create and edit HTML documents. Although some Internet marketers prefer to write their own HTML code, most prefer to use an HTML editor, as it can greatly simplify a somewhat difficult process.

Here are some popular HTML editors:

Macromedia Dream weaver
http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/
A popular WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) HTML editor. Great for beginners and advanced users alike.

Coffee Cup
http://www.coffeecup.com/html-editor/
A popular HTML editor that’s great for beginners as well as advanced users. Includes a built in browser that will enable you to instantly preview your HTML as you go.

Hot Dog Professional
http://sausage.com/products/index.html
Three HTML editors, including Hot Dog Junior for children, PageWiz for the novice user and Professional for advanced and budding webmasters.

Text Editors: – A text editor is a software program used for editing plain text that doesn’t add any special formatting. If you’re considering writing your own HTML code, you’ll need a good text editor. Although it will certainly be more time consuming, your code will be much cleaner and can reduce your file size considerably. FTP: – File Transfer Protocol, better known as FTP, is a procedure used to upload and download files to and from your web server. Although many HTML editors will enable you to edit and transfer pages to your server, an FTP program is still an essential tool, as you must have complete control over the files on your server. An FTP program will enable you to upload scripts, set file permissions, create folders and transfer files to and from your server. Graphics Editor: – A graphics editor is a software program that will enable you to design and edit graphics. Graphic design is an intimidating subject for many Internet entrepreneurs. However, most of us must learn some basic design techniques in order to avoid the high costs of hiring a professional designer.

A Zip file is an ‘archive’ of one or more files compressed into one file for easy distribution. Zip files are used to compress and transport file archives over the Internet. It is the preferred method used for electronic file distribution, as rather than downloading several different files, you can simply download one Zip file. In addition, the download time will be minimized, as the files within the Zip archive are compressed.

Email: – Although most Internet Service Providers include email accounts for their customers, these accounts aren’t adequate for an Internet business — especially if you get a large amount of email. Not only do the email addresses contain your ISP’s name, but they are also very limited on features and options. The two most popular email clients used online are Outlook and Eudora. These programs will enable you to download email from your server and offer features, such as sorting and filtering, and will enable you to easily organize your email messages. What’s more, your email address will be your own domain – not someone else’s. Your webmaster toolbox will play an important part in your success. Take the time to ensure your toolbox contains these essential tools and you’ll be well on your way to designing a professional web site.

01.22.13

by Saniya

Hosts, Website Design and Trust

Business or buying decisions based on the beauty of the website are not unheard of. I’ve even read statistics indicating that website design is one of the most important reasons for which people choose one host over another.

That may have something to do with the fact that many of those searching for hosting take things for face value. Most consider that complicated, beautiful, expensive web design is a mark of seriousness and success.

Unfortunately, web design beauty has very little to do with the quality of the hosting service. A nice design basically signals two things: the hosting company knows how a great website looks like and – maybe – was so concerned about it that it did what had to be done to have a great looking site.

Also, what some may regard as exquisite web design others might perceive as pure ugliness. It all comes down to each person’s taste, background and experience, which, needless to say, vary enormously among individuals.

What you see is not necessarily what you get-
Nicely designed websites are not necessarily expensive because they’re not necessarily unique.

A cheap website template is the solution found by most new hosts. Now, you’d think that a cheap template must be screaming ‘cheap’ and be ugly too, but that’s not the case.

One odd thing has to be noted: most hosts go for a web design that also has a flash presentation. That supposedly makes the site seem more professional and although this might’ve been true sometime ago, it has become now somewhat of a kitsch, which is also true about those pictures of servers taken from all kinds of angles.

Flexing the financial muscle-
Some hosts realized that web design plays a very important role in driving sales, establishing trust, projecting an image of success, branding and other things. That’s why many hosts choose to pay for a breathtaking original website design as soon as they can afford it.

No company will spend tens of thousand of dollars to go out of business the next day. Also, if the company has a history of a few years and is quite successful, it may very well be that the expensive web design was purchased because the company felt almost compelled to reveal its new status. If you’ve got the money you almost have to move to a bigger house. You might think that’s something only a snob would do, but it’s not really true. Say you know someone who has a lot of money; you expect him/her to have a higher standard of living, otherwise you’d call him/her a cheapskate. It’s just human nature.

No financial muscle to flex, but no eyes to see?-
At the opposite pole are the hosts with no budget and basically no idea of how things work on the internet. However, they insist on having a web based business and not just any business – a hosting business! They decide to spend $0 on web design and build the website on their own or ask a good friend do it for them.

A decent person with a bit of Internet knowledge would definitely know better. It’s generally easy to spot clear ugliness or outdated web design if you have a bit of ‘net surfing experience.

A host is supposed to know how the Internet works intimately and at the surface, so they should have an eye for web design. Rather than having an ugly but original website design, a free template that looks acceptably should be preferred in my opinion.

They can’t they spell either?-
Mistakes can happen to the best of us, but unreasonably repeated grammar and/or spelling mistakes signal lack of professionalism and even more than that. They’re a sign of carelessness and lack of respect towards potential customers, both of which I find very dangerous.

So? What to do then?-
My opinion is that generally website design is just a marketing related thing. There’s no direct relation between it and the quality of the service. Quality hosting, trustworthiness and quality website design don’t always go hand in hand.

Thus, website design is not a reliable measure of service quality. One should try very hard to not take this factor into account at all, with a big exception: when the design is obviously unprofessional. I expect quality web design because I think it’s a form of respect towards potential customers and a sign of thoughtfulness, which I like in a host. But that’s it!