Content is King! If you want a website to generate back-links and have quality content the search engines love, be sure to make it readable by both people and search engines. Search engines are working to give people quality results. Thus, they are looking for sites with quality content. So by building site content for people, not only are you getting back to basics (information dissemination to people via the Internet), you are creating a site search engines will love. So, build sites for people and the search engines will come.
When creating a new website or redesigning an existing site, there are four critical rules which should be followed to make the site effective, functional, loved by search engines - and successful.
Easy to Read
When building a website, the first thing you need to be sure of is that your website is easy to read. When you write content, remember that most web site visitors don’t read every word of a page - in fact, they only scan pages to find what they want.
Break up Your Content
Break up your pages and use headers between major ideas so people scanning your site can find what they want quickly. Use meaningful headers between each paragraph or major idea this helps with SEO. Headers should be created with the H1 through H4 tags for SEO. Always use good writing structure. Additionally, avoid long paragraphs that run on. You should break up any long paragraphs.
Color and Fonts
To help readability, use high contrast colors between font and background. Black text against a white background may seem stark, but it is very readable. To make a website easy on the eyes, try an off-white background and a dark gray (almost black) text color.
Things to avoid with content color:
Avoid vibrant background colors like purple or yellow. Such back colors make text difficult to read.
Avoid using an image behind your text.
Avoid using bright text colors on bright backgrounds.
Standard Compliant Browser for Development
When developing and testing your site, use a Standards compliant browser like FireFox. If you develop your site to be standards compliant, it will work in most browsers, including MS Internet Explorer (IE). It is recommended that you test your site using the latest and last browser versions of IE (IE6 and IE7). To run multiple versions of IE on the same machine, TredoSoft.com has a free installer that will install multiple versions of IE. It works great!
Keywords in Content
Of course, when writing content, not only should it be formatted to be readable, but it must also be consumable by not only people, but by search engines. One way to make the subject of the content known to search engines is to use the keywords that people use to search for your site in your content. Be sure to use keywords in your header tags, your first paragraph and throughout your text. The keyword density should be between 4% and 7% - but any more than that could 1) be hard to read and still make sense and 2) be considered spam by search engines and banned. Keywords should also be used in your TITLE tags and your Meta description.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
วันอาทิตย์ที่ 20 มกราคม พ.ศ. 2551
No Longer Alone With E-Learning By: David Madison
In past, online learning programs suffered high dropout rates and poor satisfaction of students because of the tedium of endlessly sitting alone at a computer working through exercises without social stimulation. But with the advent of inexpensive, robust and feature rich Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and video conferencing software that situation is very rapidly changing.
More and more frequently, institutions are brining an animated, personal element to their electronic learning programs through the use of voice to voice communication of electronic video conferencing. With the continuing growth of faster, less expensive video-conferencing hardware and software and the rapid expansion of broadband access has made video conferencing for educational purposes more accessible than ever before.
The equipment requirements of online learning and video conferencing continue to drop, giving the flexibility of using a $30 web camera or the most expensive networked video camera that a user cares to purchase. This technology is now being utilized by many other sectors, but its broad applicability in the online learning field is very clear.
Giving the ability to co-operate in new and unique ways, through new concepts such as “Wiki’s” which allow users with correct access to edit and re-edit information on a subject, as well as virtual whiteboards on which many users can work at once, technology is providing online learners with engagement and co-operative learning advantages not even presently available to institutional students.
Because of the new methods of collaboration offered by distributed internet technology, video conferencing, “Wiki’s”, and other advancements, some believe that online learning is becoming more relevant than institutional coursework for many kinds of graduate and post graduate studies. Time-crunched business people trying to juggle family, career and learning are increasingly making use of online MBA programs as well as online language courses as a way to simultaneously hone their technology skills and to accomplish more in the small windows of time that they have available for study.
Many students of online learning institutions are interested in pursuing education while maintaining a career, family, or both. Because of these technological advances, electronic learning is coming to be regarded as highly as institutional education despite early resistance from traditional bricks-and-mortar educational institutions. As technology continues to advance, the lines between online and offline worlds continue to blur, with full-time institutionally enrolled students taking electronic courses over the summer or in addition to their regular courseloads as a way of fast-tracking through a degree program. Online learning is definitely the wave of the future, and as technology advances it becomes more accessible and more enjoyable for potential students the world over.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
More and more frequently, institutions are brining an animated, personal element to their electronic learning programs through the use of voice to voice communication of electronic video conferencing. With the continuing growth of faster, less expensive video-conferencing hardware and software and the rapid expansion of broadband access has made video conferencing for educational purposes more accessible than ever before.
The equipment requirements of online learning and video conferencing continue to drop, giving the flexibility of using a $30 web camera or the most expensive networked video camera that a user cares to purchase. This technology is now being utilized by many other sectors, but its broad applicability in the online learning field is very clear.
Giving the ability to co-operate in new and unique ways, through new concepts such as “Wiki’s” which allow users with correct access to edit and re-edit information on a subject, as well as virtual whiteboards on which many users can work at once, technology is providing online learners with engagement and co-operative learning advantages not even presently available to institutional students.
Because of the new methods of collaboration offered by distributed internet technology, video conferencing, “Wiki’s”, and other advancements, some believe that online learning is becoming more relevant than institutional coursework for many kinds of graduate and post graduate studies. Time-crunched business people trying to juggle family, career and learning are increasingly making use of online MBA programs as well as online language courses as a way to simultaneously hone their technology skills and to accomplish more in the small windows of time that they have available for study.
Many students of online learning institutions are interested in pursuing education while maintaining a career, family, or both. Because of these technological advances, electronic learning is coming to be regarded as highly as institutional education despite early resistance from traditional bricks-and-mortar educational institutions. As technology continues to advance, the lines between online and offline worlds continue to blur, with full-time institutionally enrolled students taking electronic courses over the summer or in addition to their regular courseloads as a way of fast-tracking through a degree program. Online learning is definitely the wave of the future, and as technology advances it becomes more accessible and more enjoyable for potential students the world over.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
Word to the wise if you are web design developer By: John Smith
Are you finding yourself in a position saying to yourself, my goodness why are all of my client’s getting rich and I am still working my butt off doing the same thing every day? If you are a web developer and are so good at what you do? Then why don’t you stop serving clients? You are reading this and have just been struck by lightning because you haven’t thought of this yet or maybe you have but you just haven’t put a solid plan together.
I have one question for you. “If you are so darn good at producing professional websites and making them successful, why haven’t you built an empire of your own?”
It’s simple. You never set a goal. You must first have a goal; tell yourself “I am ready to be successful.”
Success can be defined in many different ways, the way you define success is the first step. If you define success by running a web development business and pleasing your clients and you make 15% of the gross sale per job and it covers just enough to pay your utility and mortgage bill then that’s it, you are successful and that’s all you will ever need.
Or if success for you is, running your own web development business, expanding to 30 employees by the end of the month, opening a call center to take all of the call’s pouring in for web development and there are so many call’s to take you don’t think you will ever get to them all, then this can be your definition of success for you too.
First step is to define success
Second you will need to wake up and smell the coffer. Realize that you have been the one sitting across this table you are at now and helping and watching all of your client’s get rich quick because you can.
Third, you will need to find something of your own to marketing, and develop for yourself since you are so good at it.
Fourth, thank me for sending the lightning bolt to your address
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
I have one question for you. “If you are so darn good at producing professional websites and making them successful, why haven’t you built an empire of your own?”
It’s simple. You never set a goal. You must first have a goal; tell yourself “I am ready to be successful.”
Success can be defined in many different ways, the way you define success is the first step. If you define success by running a web development business and pleasing your clients and you make 15% of the gross sale per job and it covers just enough to pay your utility and mortgage bill then that’s it, you are successful and that’s all you will ever need.
Or if success for you is, running your own web development business, expanding to 30 employees by the end of the month, opening a call center to take all of the call’s pouring in for web development and there are so many call’s to take you don’t think you will ever get to them all, then this can be your definition of success for you too.
First step is to define success
Second you will need to wake up and smell the coffer. Realize that you have been the one sitting across this table you are at now and helping and watching all of your client’s get rich quick because you can.
Third, you will need to find something of your own to marketing, and develop for yourself since you are so good at it.
Fourth, thank me for sending the lightning bolt to your address
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
ASP Hosting By: Kistina Robin
The websites you browse online are classified into two categories. These are static and dynamic websites. The static websites are purely Hyper Text Mark Up Language (HTML). Web hosts can publish static websites by merely using a web server like Apache, Personal Web Server Services (PWS), Internet Information Services (IIS), etc. On the other hand, dynamic websites use server side scripting. They are considered interactive websites because they can generate outputs given inputs from online users. Static websites are not interactive. You can change the content of a static website if you change the website manually. To publish dynamic pages, web hosts must run these pages using a web server and a web scripting language. ASP hosting can run dynamic pages.
ASP stands for Active Server Pages. It is a Microsoft technology to display dynamic websites. It is a proprietary application. The default scripting language for writing ASP is VBScript, although you can use the Microsoft based scripting language Jscript. Writing ASP requires programming skills and familiarity with the ASP syntax. ASP runs well under its partner web servers PWS and IIS, both of which come free with Windows operating system. PWS is an add-on feature of Windows 98 while IIS is included in the feature of Windows200/XP Pro. For the NT4/95 version, you can get hold of IIS by downloading the NT4 option pack.
If you open an ASP website, you can identify as such by its extension .asp. If the extension is .html, that is a static webpage HTML. ASP hosting is a requirement for ASP web pages. Otherwise, if you have your ASP website hosted in a non-ASP hosting provider, you are knocking on the wrong door. Your ASP website is non functional in a non-ASP hosting.
How do you know whether you are on the right ASP hosting provider? Various web host providers offer ASP hosting. You probably heard of web hosts like StartLogic, BlueHost, iPowerWeb, Hostgator, Dot5Hosting, MidPhase, Lunarpage, Infinology, hostmonster, midphase, inmotion, an hosting, PowWeb, Globat, yahoo hosting, Host Excellence to name a few. These are all popular web host providers. But not all of them offer ASP hosting.
Among those offering ASP hosting include iPowerWeb, Hostgator, Lunarpages and HostExcellence. They vary though in their ASP hosting features. The ASP hosting providers HostExcellence, iPowerWeb and Lunarpages use Windows as their operating system. Hostgator offers ASP hosting without using the Windows operating system since it makes use of ChiliASP. Another technology, which runs ASP without Windows, is InstantASP. It can also be noted that no one among these ASP hosting providers offer ASP hosting exclusively. The trend is ASP hosting is just one of the services of web host providers.
The rest of non-ASP hosting providers offer the open source PHP as the scripting language. Relatively ASP hosting is higher in rate because it makes use of a proprietary operating system. ASP hosting can be possible with some limitations if is paired with non-Windows operating system like Linux or Sun Solaris.
With new ASP features and upgrades available, ASP hosting using Windows should be a wise move because these are built to run under this environment. ASP hosting is possible using non-windows operating system but you may face incompatibility problem.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
ASP stands for Active Server Pages. It is a Microsoft technology to display dynamic websites. It is a proprietary application. The default scripting language for writing ASP is VBScript, although you can use the Microsoft based scripting language Jscript. Writing ASP requires programming skills and familiarity with the ASP syntax. ASP runs well under its partner web servers PWS and IIS, both of which come free with Windows operating system. PWS is an add-on feature of Windows 98 while IIS is included in the feature of Windows200/XP Pro. For the NT4/95 version, you can get hold of IIS by downloading the NT4 option pack.
If you open an ASP website, you can identify as such by its extension .asp. If the extension is .html, that is a static webpage HTML. ASP hosting is a requirement for ASP web pages. Otherwise, if you have your ASP website hosted in a non-ASP hosting provider, you are knocking on the wrong door. Your ASP website is non functional in a non-ASP hosting.
How do you know whether you are on the right ASP hosting provider? Various web host providers offer ASP hosting. You probably heard of web hosts like StartLogic, BlueHost, iPowerWeb, Hostgator, Dot5Hosting, MidPhase, Lunarpage, Infinology, hostmonster, midphase, inmotion, an hosting, PowWeb, Globat, yahoo hosting, Host Excellence to name a few. These are all popular web host providers. But not all of them offer ASP hosting.
Among those offering ASP hosting include iPowerWeb, Hostgator, Lunarpages and HostExcellence. They vary though in their ASP hosting features. The ASP hosting providers HostExcellence, iPowerWeb and Lunarpages use Windows as their operating system. Hostgator offers ASP hosting without using the Windows operating system since it makes use of ChiliASP. Another technology, which runs ASP without Windows, is InstantASP. It can also be noted that no one among these ASP hosting providers offer ASP hosting exclusively. The trend is ASP hosting is just one of the services of web host providers.
The rest of non-ASP hosting providers offer the open source PHP as the scripting language. Relatively ASP hosting is higher in rate because it makes use of a proprietary operating system. ASP hosting can be possible with some limitations if is paired with non-Windows operating system like Linux or Sun Solaris.
With new ASP features and upgrades available, ASP hosting using Windows should be a wise move because these are built to run under this environment. ASP hosting is possible using non-windows operating system but you may face incompatibility problem.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
Are you Satisfied with your Website Design? By: John Smith
Are you Satisfied with your Website Design?
Before you answer this question about your website design back up and ask yourself this questions. What does the word "satisfy" mean?
We've all heard the word "satisfy" in the forums we read, news articles, television and radio etc.
The word satisfy could apply to almost everything we do. Are you satisfied with your relationship with your significant other? Satisfied with your verbal grasp of the English language? Satisfied with your financial portfolio? Satisfied with your parenting skills? And, most important, are you satisfied with your website design?
The answer should in most cases always be NO.
If this be the case for your website design and you still feel that there is no manipulation going on between the author of this article then please take some time to review what customers have to say about their new website design from Logoworks.com
The Customer is Always Right
Logoworks takes the hassle and expense out of website design. The customer simply tells them how the site is used and what they want to say. Immediately following this information is provided, LogoWorks will send a detailed estimate so the customer knows exactly what the price and time frame will be. There are no hidden charges, service agreements, or hosting fees. The customer always gets the website needed at a price they can afford!
Your website design is often the first interaction customers have with the business. Most agree that a bad design confuses or drives a potential customer away. An effective website design needs to highlight the success of your business, create interest in your product or service, and build trust for your customer. Logoworks has designed hundreds of incredible websites that make the difference for their clients. See for yourself, view their design gallery or read what their customers have to say about their new website.
Save Time and Money When Logoworks Designs a Website:
* At least 2 custom designs - not templates - so you know your site is unique
* At least 2 designers so you get a variety of choices
* Initial designs in five days or less
* Fully programmed, operational site posted to your host account
* Option to add flash, e-commerce, custom sub-pages, copywriting, and more
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
Before you answer this question about your website design back up and ask yourself this questions. What does the word "satisfy" mean?
We've all heard the word "satisfy" in the forums we read, news articles, television and radio etc.
The word satisfy could apply to almost everything we do. Are you satisfied with your relationship with your significant other? Satisfied with your verbal grasp of the English language? Satisfied with your financial portfolio? Satisfied with your parenting skills? And, most important, are you satisfied with your website design?
The answer should in most cases always be NO.
If this be the case for your website design and you still feel that there is no manipulation going on between the author of this article then please take some time to review what customers have to say about their new website design from Logoworks.com
The Customer is Always Right
Logoworks takes the hassle and expense out of website design. The customer simply tells them how the site is used and what they want to say. Immediately following this information is provided, LogoWorks will send a detailed estimate so the customer knows exactly what the price and time frame will be. There are no hidden charges, service agreements, or hosting fees. The customer always gets the website needed at a price they can afford!
Your website design is often the first interaction customers have with the business. Most agree that a bad design confuses or drives a potential customer away. An effective website design needs to highlight the success of your business, create interest in your product or service, and build trust for your customer. Logoworks has designed hundreds of incredible websites that make the difference for their clients. See for yourself, view their design gallery or read what their customers have to say about their new website.
Save Time and Money When Logoworks Designs a Website:
* At least 2 custom designs - not templates - so you know your site is unique
* At least 2 designers so you get a variety of choices
* Initial designs in five days or less
* Fully programmed, operational site posted to your host account
* Option to add flash, e-commerce, custom sub-pages, copywriting, and more
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
Confused About Where to Start Your Website? Here Are Some Easy Design Tips. By: David Rolin-5744
Web Designing is as easy as 1-2-3; claim some of the software tools on the market that "generate" your pages for you. Unfortunately, many web designers today have fallen prey to this marketing gimmick - and the results are obvious. Every now and then, one comes across a website that looks good with a particular browser and a particular screen-resolution; but views it with a different browser, and you can't even read the plain text on the page. Worse still, given the number of operating systems that are used by citizens worldwide, these pages will never be seen properly by more than a half of the intended surfers. Web Designing is, in my opinion, a cocktail of creative skills from the heart and mind of the designer.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Picture file almost as big, Images, no doubt, enhance the look of a page, but it is not advisable to go overboard in stuffing your page with a truckload of images. Most net-surfers use low broadband connection and the average time to load a page should be no longer than 5 seconds. If it's longer, the surfer will most probably click away elsewhere. So, within this time, all the images on a page must be loaded as well. So keep the aggregate page size less than 30k... Another important point to note is that each file on the page requires a separate HTTP request to the server. So a lot of small images - even if they do not add up to a lot in terms of bytes - will slow down the loading a lot. Also do not forget to provide an Alternate Text for each image that you use for navigation. ALT text can help such users immensely.
Navigability & functionality come before artistic excellence. It is no use making your site a masterpiece of art if users cannot navigate around it - even after they reach the main page; they have no clue as to how to go where they want to go. Especially common, is a kind of navigation that some people call Mystery Meat Navigation. That means that unless your mouse moves over an image, you have no idea where that link might take you. Users need to move their mouse all over the place to find out which part is a link and which is not. Follow the K.I.S.S. principle: Keep it simple, stupid!
Another very important practical suggestion: whenever whole page is within a TABLE, the page cannot render (i.e., the page does not show on the screen) unless the entire table is downloaded. You might have noticed this on several websites, when there is no activity for a long time, and suddenly the entire page is visible. Hence, to avoid such a situation Split the table up into two tables one below the other, and let the top one be a short table that displays just the page header and a few navigation links.
As a word of caution, stay away from all browser-specific functions; because if a certain feature is supported by one browser, it will most definitely not be supported by another. It should not hamper the display of the page in the other browser which does not support such functionality. Do not try to popup new windows to clutter the user's screen. All links must open in the same window by default. An exception, however, may be made for pages containing a links list. It is convenient in such cases to open links in another window, so that the user can come back to the links page easily. Even in such cases, it is advisable to give the user a prior note that links would open in a new window.
Java is yet another often-misused technology on web pages. Use Java with discretion, as utilitarian programming language, not as a graphics front-end for your photos/images. There are various things you can do with Java; that does not mean you should do all of them. Java applets are known to run slower, so users experience a certain problem in performance.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the way to go - use one style sheet and control how text looks on your entire site. Make a change to the style sheet and your whole site is updated. It makes life a lot simpler. Consider your target audience. Even if they are a group of teenage girls looking for new shoes, it's never a good idea to use tiny type. It doesn't have to be enormous, but up to a point, larger type is better. The more contrast, the better. Black-on-white or white-on-black are examples of the highest contrast you can get. Use colors if you like. No matter how good a writer you are, people don't want to read endless pages of text. Break it up by using headlines that reflect the subject of the paragraph to follow so people can scan down to the parts that really interest them, or use bulleted lists to change the pace of the writing and slow down the scanning.
Check your spelling, nothing irritates more on a web page than spelling errors, it simply makes you look like you don't care enough to get it right. Use that ubiquitous spell-check tool. Making your website's content more legible is easy. It doesn't take a lot of time, mainly common sense. The payoff will be text that's more readable, customers that stick around long enough to get your message, and improved credibility with your visitors.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
A picture is worth a thousand words. Picture file almost as big, Images, no doubt, enhance the look of a page, but it is not advisable to go overboard in stuffing your page with a truckload of images. Most net-surfers use low broadband connection and the average time to load a page should be no longer than 5 seconds. If it's longer, the surfer will most probably click away elsewhere. So, within this time, all the images on a page must be loaded as well. So keep the aggregate page size less than 30k... Another important point to note is that each file on the page requires a separate HTTP request to the server. So a lot of small images - even if they do not add up to a lot in terms of bytes - will slow down the loading a lot. Also do not forget to provide an Alternate Text for each image that you use for navigation. ALT text can help such users immensely.
Navigability & functionality come before artistic excellence. It is no use making your site a masterpiece of art if users cannot navigate around it - even after they reach the main page; they have no clue as to how to go where they want to go. Especially common, is a kind of navigation that some people call Mystery Meat Navigation. That means that unless your mouse moves over an image, you have no idea where that link might take you. Users need to move their mouse all over the place to find out which part is a link and which is not. Follow the K.I.S.S. principle: Keep it simple, stupid!
Another very important practical suggestion: whenever whole page is within a TABLE, the page cannot render (i.e., the page does not show on the screen) unless the entire table is downloaded. You might have noticed this on several websites, when there is no activity for a long time, and suddenly the entire page is visible. Hence, to avoid such a situation Split the table up into two tables one below the other, and let the top one be a short table that displays just the page header and a few navigation links.
As a word of caution, stay away from all browser-specific functions; because if a certain feature is supported by one browser, it will most definitely not be supported by another. It should not hamper the display of the page in the other browser which does not support such functionality. Do not try to popup new windows to clutter the user's screen. All links must open in the same window by default. An exception, however, may be made for pages containing a links list. It is convenient in such cases to open links in another window, so that the user can come back to the links page easily. Even in such cases, it is advisable to give the user a prior note that links would open in a new window.
Java is yet another often-misused technology on web pages. Use Java with discretion, as utilitarian programming language, not as a graphics front-end for your photos/images. There are various things you can do with Java; that does not mean you should do all of them. Java applets are known to run slower, so users experience a certain problem in performance.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the way to go - use one style sheet and control how text looks on your entire site. Make a change to the style sheet and your whole site is updated. It makes life a lot simpler. Consider your target audience. Even if they are a group of teenage girls looking for new shoes, it's never a good idea to use tiny type. It doesn't have to be enormous, but up to a point, larger type is better. The more contrast, the better. Black-on-white or white-on-black are examples of the highest contrast you can get. Use colors if you like. No matter how good a writer you are, people don't want to read endless pages of text. Break it up by using headlines that reflect the subject of the paragraph to follow so people can scan down to the parts that really interest them, or use bulleted lists to change the pace of the writing and slow down the scanning.
Check your spelling, nothing irritates more on a web page than spelling errors, it simply makes you look like you don't care enough to get it right. Use that ubiquitous spell-check tool. Making your website's content more legible is easy. It doesn't take a lot of time, mainly common sense. The payoff will be text that's more readable, customers that stick around long enough to get your message, and improved credibility with your visitors.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
Is Your Website User Friendly? Here’s Help By: Dallin Horneby-5496
What is EUE? EUE is the most important part of the web site. Realistically there are many aspects of the web site, if not up to par, can lead to failure. If you don't have a good EUE you are on the dead end track to failure.
Some planning and research in EUE will be flawless and running smooth. What does EUE stands for? It stands for End User Experience. Why is this most important part of a web site? If end user has trouble understanding the web site then it will not make a sale and the user will leave and probably never come back. Thousand's of new people are going online everyday. These people are new babies to the internet and many do not understand things that we take for granted. To prevent users from leaving the site try to keep it simple. This is especially true if the web site is going after the general masses. The EUE should be one that leaves a good impression on the visitor. How to achieve a good EUE? Keep the same look and feel throughout the whole web site. The user should have a familiar feeling when they go from page to page. A user should be able to find what they are looking for within 3 clicks. All links on all pages should work. Never have a link that leads a user to a page that says "under construction" or even worse, a page not found error.
Metaphors should not be used because not all users will understand them. If the user doesn't understand what they are looking at, they will not have a good experience. The site should flow from page to page. Ordering a product should be as easy as clicking on the word order. Don't force the user to enter their personal information unless it’s absolutely needed. This might turn away users who want to remain anonymous. A large percent of users still use a dial up modem and can only download at very slow speeds. This will be the trend for the next three to four years. With this in mind, it's very important that the pages download in a reasonable time. Always use a good alt tag description on images. This will comfort the user in that they are waiting for something worthwhile to download.
If the site has a great product or information but the EUE in not good, then site will not do well. A few years ago, if you had a good product and you were one of the first selling it online, your site would do great. Times have changed. The users have all the power. With a click of a button they can find dozens of sites selling or giving the same information away. The end user of the site couldn't give a damn about how great you or your company is but they sure due care that they can get what THEY want from the site quickly, easily, and without ANY aggravation. A great EUE will be the next determining factor of which sites will do well. Without it the site is sure to fail.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
Some planning and research in EUE will be flawless and running smooth. What does EUE stands for? It stands for End User Experience. Why is this most important part of a web site? If end user has trouble understanding the web site then it will not make a sale and the user will leave and probably never come back. Thousand's of new people are going online everyday. These people are new babies to the internet and many do not understand things that we take for granted. To prevent users from leaving the site try to keep it simple. This is especially true if the web site is going after the general masses. The EUE should be one that leaves a good impression on the visitor. How to achieve a good EUE? Keep the same look and feel throughout the whole web site. The user should have a familiar feeling when they go from page to page. A user should be able to find what they are looking for within 3 clicks. All links on all pages should work. Never have a link that leads a user to a page that says "under construction" or even worse, a page not found error.
Metaphors should not be used because not all users will understand them. If the user doesn't understand what they are looking at, they will not have a good experience. The site should flow from page to page. Ordering a product should be as easy as clicking on the word order. Don't force the user to enter their personal information unless it’s absolutely needed. This might turn away users who want to remain anonymous. A large percent of users still use a dial up modem and can only download at very slow speeds. This will be the trend for the next three to four years. With this in mind, it's very important that the pages download in a reasonable time. Always use a good alt tag description on images. This will comfort the user in that they are waiting for something worthwhile to download.
If the site has a great product or information but the EUE in not good, then site will not do well. A few years ago, if you had a good product and you were one of the first selling it online, your site would do great. Times have changed. The users have all the power. With a click of a button they can find dozens of sites selling or giving the same information away. The end user of the site couldn't give a damn about how great you or your company is but they sure due care that they can get what THEY want from the site quickly, easily, and without ANY aggravation. A great EUE will be the next determining factor of which sites will do well. Without it the site is sure to fail.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
Is your Web Design Driving Traffic Away From your Website? Here are some Simple Solutions to Drive them Back Again. By: Kyle Newton-5496
Web-design does not mean designing art pieces with our websites. In fact, it is designing something useful that the clients needs; whether it is an e-commerce site, or a simple branding site. The primary goal is to get your clients message out there. The web design field is maturing and now we know which website structures work and which ones don’t. Keeping this in mind, there is no need to go hog-wild with your designs – you know what works already!
The 80/20 principle works in just about any field - web design is no different. A classic definition of the principle states: that a small number of the causes (20%) are responsible for most (80%) of the effect. With respect to web design, we can say that 20% of the work takes up 80% of the time. So the approach should be to identify that expensive 20% and do something about! In a typical web design project,this 20% is:
1. Figuring out the Client Requirements and efficiently dealing with them.
2. Thinking and creating the basic structure of the website.
The best idea for web design may be to have "Predefined web site structures – templates" with different themes and covering all the area like e-commerce site, or a simple branding site. The designer must always keep in mind that he is the web designer; he is going to tell the client how the website should be laid out, not the other way around!
Web design becomes a pain when one start it by tinkering -- when you sit down in front of your computer and you start building the website with no plan. You just start ‘tinkering’, trying different layouts, changing positions of images or your navigation etc … This is a recipe to disaster and pain. This should be avoided. Some points that need to be taken care of while designing are:
1. Do not put too much text in one big block. Separate them out into paragraph and put white space between paragraphs. This makes your text look more readable.
2. If you check the websites of big companies (Microsoft, Yahoo, etc), you will find that they still prefer a white background with black text for their main text. If you must have a colored background, make sure you try out your page by viewing it in resolutions like 256 colors to see whether the page looks acceptable.
3. Reduce the size of the individual graphics files on your pages by using the following methods:
a. reduce the number of colors in the graphic
b. reduce the size of the image, if possible
c. in animations, reduce the number of frames
d. in animations, don't duplicate the background in every frame; make the first frame a background without any objects that will move, and put all your moving objects in separate frames with transparent backgrounds.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
The 80/20 principle works in just about any field - web design is no different. A classic definition of the principle states: that a small number of the causes (20%) are responsible for most (80%) of the effect. With respect to web design, we can say that 20% of the work takes up 80% of the time. So the approach should be to identify that expensive 20% and do something about! In a typical web design project,this 20% is:
1. Figuring out the Client Requirements and efficiently dealing with them.
2. Thinking and creating the basic structure of the website.
The best idea for web design may be to have "Predefined web site structures – templates" with different themes and covering all the area like e-commerce site, or a simple branding site. The designer must always keep in mind that he is the web designer; he is going to tell the client how the website should be laid out, not the other way around!
Web design becomes a pain when one start it by tinkering -- when you sit down in front of your computer and you start building the website with no plan. You just start ‘tinkering’, trying different layouts, changing positions of images or your navigation etc … This is a recipe to disaster and pain. This should be avoided. Some points that need to be taken care of while designing are:
1. Do not put too much text in one big block. Separate them out into paragraph and put white space between paragraphs. This makes your text look more readable.
2. If you check the websites of big companies (Microsoft, Yahoo, etc), you will find that they still prefer a white background with black text for their main text. If you must have a colored background, make sure you try out your page by viewing it in resolutions like 256 colors to see whether the page looks acceptable.
3. Reduce the size of the individual graphics files on your pages by using the following methods:
a. reduce the number of colors in the graphic
b. reduce the size of the image, if possible
c. in animations, reduce the number of frames
d. in animations, don't duplicate the background in every frame; make the first frame a background without any objects that will move, and put all your moving objects in separate frames with transparent backgrounds.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
The Wrong Web Designer can Spell Disaster from the start. How to choose The Right Designer for your site. By: Dallin Horneby-5845
The first big thing to start with a website is to have 100% complete design in all respects of the site. If anyone is on the prowl for someone or some organization to design or redesign you or your organization's website, it may be both comforting and daunting to know that his choice of designers must be all time high. The question is not where to look, but how to choose the right web designer for you.
There are two major factors that need to be taken into account when selecting the right web designer for designing the website; namely your needs and their organizational structure and skills. Before making a contract a person must have a moment to write down why it is, specifically, you want a website; what will the website be doing? What is your niche? What is market for the site? Who are competitors in market, and how are they attempting to tap into that niche? Did you have a particular brand or image you wish to associate with your products or services?
With your wish-list in hand, it is now time to find the right web designer. The first decision that is required is the need to make here is whether to go with a freelancer, design team, or marketing firm. It is difficult to generalize about any one of these, for there are both very excellent and talented freelancers as well as very bad ones. The same might be said for design teams and even marketing firms. However, here are some things that you will want to consider and investigate.
First, it is important to know if you are dealing with a web design company or a marketing agency and graphic design organization, for the latter often sub-contract web design work. Generally this is not a problem, although it does put a set of people between you and the designers, which may become tiresome, especially on larger projects. A web designer worth his or her digital weight should have a handle on e-marketing design and tactics. If you take the time to find a reliable individual or firm, it should be possible to bypass the marketing agency and still obtain a quality, competitive design. Freelancers are often less expensive, and have the advantage of dealing with only one or a handful of people. However, a freelancer is just one person, and this one person may not be available all the time should problems arise.
Other factors to consider when considering web designers include their portfolios, whether they use templates or original designs, the extent to which they will be able to promote the website once it is designed, the size and client list of their organization, and their ability to both give you what you want and to provide suggestions and ideas of their own based on their own knowledge and experience. Last, and definitely not least, is customer support and response time.
With the Internet being the delocalized entity that it is, it is not unusual for a web designer to perform work for a company either out of state or abroad. While a local designer makes face-to-face meetings easier, the same things can be accomplished with email, the web, and phone. However, if at any point during the selection or design process you feel that the designer or his or her company is anything less than consistent and open in availability, it may be wise to consider alternatives. One thing to look for is whether or not the company is willing to provide you with access to immediate customer support via telephone or chat. When and if something does go wrong, e-mail technical support can move a bit slow.
These were just a few things to watch for and consider when choosing the right web designer for you. Other things you might include could be the designers' web site's Google page rankings, or whether or not customer support over the telephone is toll free and available all of the time. The most important thing to do, however, is to seek as many estimates and proposals as possible. The more candidates you field, the better your chances of hiring the right web designer for you.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
There are two major factors that need to be taken into account when selecting the right web designer for designing the website; namely your needs and their organizational structure and skills. Before making a contract a person must have a moment to write down why it is, specifically, you want a website; what will the website be doing? What is your niche? What is market for the site? Who are competitors in market, and how are they attempting to tap into that niche? Did you have a particular brand or image you wish to associate with your products or services?
With your wish-list in hand, it is now time to find the right web designer. The first decision that is required is the need to make here is whether to go with a freelancer, design team, or marketing firm. It is difficult to generalize about any one of these, for there are both very excellent and talented freelancers as well as very bad ones. The same might be said for design teams and even marketing firms. However, here are some things that you will want to consider and investigate.
First, it is important to know if you are dealing with a web design company or a marketing agency and graphic design organization, for the latter often sub-contract web design work. Generally this is not a problem, although it does put a set of people between you and the designers, which may become tiresome, especially on larger projects. A web designer worth his or her digital weight should have a handle on e-marketing design and tactics. If you take the time to find a reliable individual or firm, it should be possible to bypass the marketing agency and still obtain a quality, competitive design. Freelancers are often less expensive, and have the advantage of dealing with only one or a handful of people. However, a freelancer is just one person, and this one person may not be available all the time should problems arise.
Other factors to consider when considering web designers include their portfolios, whether they use templates or original designs, the extent to which they will be able to promote the website once it is designed, the size and client list of their organization, and their ability to both give you what you want and to provide suggestions and ideas of their own based on their own knowledge and experience. Last, and definitely not least, is customer support and response time.
With the Internet being the delocalized entity that it is, it is not unusual for a web designer to perform work for a company either out of state or abroad. While a local designer makes face-to-face meetings easier, the same things can be accomplished with email, the web, and phone. However, if at any point during the selection or design process you feel that the designer or his or her company is anything less than consistent and open in availability, it may be wise to consider alternatives. One thing to look for is whether or not the company is willing to provide you with access to immediate customer support via telephone or chat. When and if something does go wrong, e-mail technical support can move a bit slow.
These were just a few things to watch for and consider when choosing the right web designer for you. Other things you might include could be the designers' web site's Google page rankings, or whether or not customer support over the telephone is toll free and available all of the time. The most important thing to do, however, is to seek as many estimates and proposals as possible. The more candidates you field, the better your chances of hiring the right web designer for you.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
Have Little Web Design Experience? Here is XML for Beginners By: Dallin Horneby-5496
This article is for readers who have either no prior experience of Web Design or very little time.
No Programs
The best way to write Web pages is to get your hands dirty and write the code yourself.
Programs that produce HTML often do so badly. They often produce Web pages that go long way round about doing things. When you code the pages by hand you have an intimate understanding of what you are doing and can make the actual size of the Web page file as small as possible. This reduces download times so the pages load quicker and the users are happier.
When you use a program to generate HTML, understand how the page is built internally because it does it for you. This is not a problem as long as everything works. But what about when it doesn't? If you find that the Web page doesn't display properly in Internet Explorer 4, and many of the users use that browser, you are going to have to sort it out. This means forgetting about the program and looking at the code.
The Internet is no longer limited to people with computers viewing Web sites through one or two different Web browsers. Everything has a Web browser in it these days. Mobile phones, Televisions, Personal Digital Assistants, Cars, even fridges. Blind users "view" Web sites using speech synthesis or Braille devices. There is no way you can test each page you produce in all of the possible ways it may be used. But there is a way to give the best chance that they will work. This is achieved through producing pages using the standards laid out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the people who work on XHTML and other Internet standards. Once you have produced the pages the W3C provide a validation service to check that the page meets the standards and therefore has the best chance of being used on any device.
Why XHTML?
Since 1990 HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language has been the language recommended for writing Web pages in. And it has been very successful .But HTML has its problems. To sort this mess out the World Wide Web Consortium, the standards body for the Web, came up with XHTML in 1999. XHTML stands for eXtensible Hyper Text Markup Language and is written in a language called XML or eXtensible Markup Language.
As the name implies XHTML has the capability of being extended. You can use extra modules to do things with the pages that weren't possible with HTML. The long-term goal is that the Web pages will be able to be understood by computers as well as humans
Computers already understand Web pages because you use a computer to view them. This is true. But computers only understand how to display the pages, not what they mean. Imagine if computers understood what they meant, you could tell your computer to go and visit all of your local supermarket's Web sites and tell which one is the cheapest for this weeks shopping. Your computer could visit the news sites around the world and bring back the latest headlines that relate to things you are interested in. The possibilities are endless.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
No Programs
The best way to write Web pages is to get your hands dirty and write the code yourself.
Programs that produce HTML often do so badly. They often produce Web pages that go long way round about doing things. When you code the pages by hand you have an intimate understanding of what you are doing and can make the actual size of the Web page file as small as possible. This reduces download times so the pages load quicker and the users are happier.
When you use a program to generate HTML, understand how the page is built internally because it does it for you. This is not a problem as long as everything works. But what about when it doesn't? If you find that the Web page doesn't display properly in Internet Explorer 4, and many of the users use that browser, you are going to have to sort it out. This means forgetting about the program and looking at the code.
The Internet is no longer limited to people with computers viewing Web sites through one or two different Web browsers. Everything has a Web browser in it these days. Mobile phones, Televisions, Personal Digital Assistants, Cars, even fridges. Blind users "view" Web sites using speech synthesis or Braille devices. There is no way you can test each page you produce in all of the possible ways it may be used. But there is a way to give the best chance that they will work. This is achieved through producing pages using the standards laid out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the people who work on XHTML and other Internet standards. Once you have produced the pages the W3C provide a validation service to check that the page meets the standards and therefore has the best chance of being used on any device.
Why XHTML?
Since 1990 HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language has been the language recommended for writing Web pages in. And it has been very successful .But HTML has its problems. To sort this mess out the World Wide Web Consortium, the standards body for the Web, came up with XHTML in 1999. XHTML stands for eXtensible Hyper Text Markup Language and is written in a language called XML or eXtensible Markup Language.
As the name implies XHTML has the capability of being extended. You can use extra modules to do things with the pages that weren't possible with HTML. The long-term goal is that the Web pages will be able to be understood by computers as well as humans
Computers already understand Web pages because you use a computer to view them. This is true. But computers only understand how to display the pages, not what they mean. Imagine if computers understood what they meant, you could tell your computer to go and visit all of your local supermarket's Web sites and tell which one is the cheapest for this weeks shopping. Your computer could visit the news sites around the world and bring back the latest headlines that relate to things you are interested in. The possibilities are endless.
Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com
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