There is no arguing that if you want to survive in this economy you have to put your business into cyberspace and your business website design is the first step to marketing your company online. Business has changed in the last 20 years and if you want to stay a player you need to take advantage of all that the internet has to offer. In this global economy the reach and scope your marketing campaigns can reach is astounding and can be the difference between growing your business and shrinking to the point of dissolution.

Consider your business website design your defining marquee in your particular industry. Look around at your competitors and see what kinds of sites they have created to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. Then take all of the good parts of their website designs and add in your own ideas to create a great online presence. It is not enough to just have a website. You need to have a great website in order to compete in today’s markets. Carefully planning out and constantly rethinking your business website design will keep you relevant in the market and could skyrocket your company into an internet success story.

Your business website design should be a reflection of the values of your business as well as a showplace of why your particular company is different. Presence in cyberspace is everything and creating a lasting impression is what you should be seeking to do.

Luckily, in today’s internet world you can create whatever design you like. The limits are endless and you can have something amazing up and running in no time. You can make your site as intricate or as simple as possible depending on the demographics of your customer base. Let’s not forget all the new customers you will get once you launch your website.

There is one very important thing to absolutely keep in mind always when creating your business website design and that is ease of operation. You want your customers to be able to easily access and operate all aspects of your website from the initial contact on your home page to the point of purchase page of the site. Everything should be easy to understand and use. Nothing turns off a potential customer like a hard to navigate website. Business website design is the first step to a successful business.

Please go to our contact page. http://www.notiondesigngroup.com/contactus.html and drop us a line. We will meet with you and discuss your ideas.

Thanks,

Chad

Notion Design Group

In this article we are going to be take a look at how search engines work and what they are looking for in order to get top (page 1) rankings in the search results. We will be going over the most popular search engines individually but the basic principles are the same for all of them.

Before you begin the task of optimizing your website for search engines it is important to have an understanding of how they work. It would be almost impossible to optimize a website and achieve top search engine rankings without having some idea as to how they work and what is a search engine is trying to do when it ranks a site. It will also save you a lot of time and effort since you will know where to focus your efforts. If you know what a search engine is looking for your job is going to be that much easier.

The first step is to know how a search engine will “read” and index a website. This process allows a search engine scan the content of a site to find out what that site or page is all about. This is done using search engine spiders (or robotic software) which crawls a website or webpage. Crawling is simply the term used to description how a search engine reads a site. How often your site will be crawled will depend on how often your content is added or updated and the number of links pointing to your site or importance. So how do they find your site in order to be able to crawl it. Links! Search engine spiders follow links from other sites that are pointing to yours.

If you’ve ever looked into optimizing your site before you have probably come across an e-mail of site that offered “…submission to 1000’s of search engines with guaranteed inclusion”. Avoid these search engine submission forms and sites like the plaque. They are a waste of time and money. That’s because you don’t need them. You can get your site indexed in Google in a few days by posting your site’s link on websites that are indexed often. Sites to look at are article or news sites. Being indexed though does not mean ranking on page 1 as that will take some more effort but having your site indexed will let the search engine know you exist and start having your site crawled.

Search engines use links and content to rank web pages. This is a very important to take note of. I said web pages and not websites. This means that you can rank a site for multiple keyword phrases. Next time you do a search take note of the page that the search engine is sending you to. It not always the home page. Having the ability to target and optimize web pages for different keyword phrases gives your site multiple points of entry. It is important to keep this in mind so that when you create new pages on your site you know that visitors may enter through this new page and never see you home page. If your home page contains all of your call to action content you may want to include it on other pages of your site.

Knowing how a search engine works and what they are looking for will greatly improve the success of the optimization campaign.

Chad

Notion Design Group

chad@notiondesigngroup.com

Keyword optimization if done correctly can significantly increase the flow of traffic to any website. In fact keyword research is one of the most critical aspects of preparing a website before it goes online.

To properly optimize your site for the search engines careful selection of the keywords you want to use is important. The right selection will result in a steady flow of traffic to your site. If however you choose words that are not relevant or perhaps overly popular your site can drown in a sea of obscurity.

Choosing the right combination of words around which you can build your site will require plenty of keyword research. Let’s have a look at certain specifics you’ll need to consider when selecting those keywords that will best benefit your site.

USE KEYWORDS ACCURATELY

Focusing on exactly what it is your site offers develop a list of words that describe your site, its content or its purpose. A keyword tool, many of which are available online for free, can help you dig further into this list with related words or terms. It is very important that the words you select ACCURATELY describe your site.

Consider this your # 1 rule when optimizing with keywords.

LONG TAILED KEYWORDS

To further develop a deeper list of keywords use your keyword tool to find phrases that may incorporate words relevant to your site. Instead of using a keyword like ‘find real estate’ you could use ‘find real estate in Chicago’. Keyword phrases or long tailed keywords like this are advantageous to use for a couple of reasons. These types of keyword phrases are more descriptive. Long tail keywords are usually less competitive since the description is more precise and not appropriate for a more ‘general’ search. Another advantage here is that anyone searching on a very clearly defined set of keywords is usually ‘HIGHLY TARGETED’ traffic. Yet another advantage is it is usually easier to rank higher with the search engines when using long tailed keywords due to the lack of competition.

APPROPRIATE DOMAIN NAME

The domain name of your site should again ideally be descriptive of your website. Online marketing involves quickly capturing the attention of potential customers before they click away. Having a domain name that is concise but descriptive of your online business would be great however it is sometimes difficult to find something available that would be appropriate. In lieu of the ‘perfect’ domain name again conduct a little keyword research here to find a phrase or synonym that would be both catchy and descriptive.

INBOUND LINKS

The use of inbound links benefits a website in two ways, additional traffic and a higher profile (and favor) with the search engines. Capturing this inbound traffic normally requires the use of links to your site located off site. You may put them in articles or perhaps have them in a signature file you use at a forum or social site.

Wherever you choose to place these links be sure to use a keyword from your website in the anchor text. Say for example you sell ‘dog food’ at your website you can use a link such as ‘Dog Food Depot’ to attract traffic to your site. Search engines love inbound links such as these that use both keywords and are descriptive. This ‘love’ usually results in a higher search engine ranking.

DON’T GO OVERBOARD

When conducting your website optimization with keywords avoid the temptation of using your selected keywords too often. Placing them where appropriate and when they look natural within the sentence structure is ALWAYS recommended.

If your keyword optimization is completed correctly you will see a boost in your traffic and search engine ranking. By choosing a list of descriptive words and phrases and using them wisely you will have established a solid foundation upon which you can build your online business.

Chad

Notion Design Group

chad@notiondesigngroup.com

So you want to have the best website possible, right? Then you need to understand the basic concepts of website design. Unless your website is simply for fun - or a hobby site - you want to entice your visitors to do something while they are surfing through your pages. Good website design will lay out your site so that it is easy to navigate through, is attractive, and provides you with functionality. In order to help you get your website up and running with the best possible results, you need to understand the concepts behind good website design.

The first key to a productive website is understanding the content that you include in the website. You want to make sure the information you use is reliable and accurate. If you are promoting a product or a business, you need to ensure that it is reputable and that all of your facts are right. You need to make sure that your website is presented as a credible source of information or else your visitors will go find the information somewhere else. Additionally, good website design includes making sure that the text is spelled properly and the grammar is correct. Misspelled words and improper grammar will make your visitors run away.

The next key to website design is making sure your website is compatible with the most popular and most widely used web browsers used today. In order to do that you need use text, graphics, and effects that are recognized and supported by these browsers. If you do not, then your website will not display properly for your visitors and that is another reason why they will move on to someone else’s website. Always make sure that your website displays properly in Firefox, Opera, Safari, Netscape - yes, there are still some people using this browser - and, of course, Microsoft Internet Explorer. Always view your website in these platforms before letting it go live to make sure your HTML coding is correct.

What other things do you need to know about good website design? Graphics and photos in your website are great, but unless they have been optimized to a small size without sacrificing the quality of the picture, they are detrimental to your site and not an asset. Not everyone has switched over to broadband or DSL and they are still using dial up to access the Internet. Photos and graphics take time to load, and if yours takes longer than 10 seconds to load then you could lose a visitor. Keep the pictures small and to a minimum, and always use an ALT HTML tag that allows people to turn off the graphics if they need to.

The same goes for background colours, multimedia, frames, and links. A good website design uses colours that all browsers can read. Multimedia - such as flash movies, video clips, and background music - should come with the ability to start and stop as the visitor sees fit, or if they are flash components, visitors should have the option to skip them. Frames are not always supported by your visitor’s web browser version, making them frustrating to view. Does this mean that you shouldn’t include these items? No. It just means that a good website design will limit how they are used. Only you can decide whether or not these items are integral to your website.

The last key to a good website design is making sure that all of the links you use throughout your site should work and not be broken. You will need to check them every so often to make sure they work and update them as needed. If you follow these suggestions for a good website design, then your website will be the best it can be.