The design of a website should be simple, easy to navigate, complete with essential contents and with immediate graphic visibility. The content of the website should be a reflection of your business. Therefore the design should be such that it allows the user to access your site easily.

When you design a website keep in mind that people use different computers and web hosts that use different browsers, and may display the same page of your website differently on different browsers. Some of the older version of browsers may not even display your pages and do not support new modifications and new tags. When you design a website, ensure that it is tested with the latest version of browsers - Internet Explorer and Firefox to benefit from all the new application softwares in use.

You can also check your design on BrowserCam,which allows you to choose different browsers, operating systems, screen resolutions, and remote access to any of their testing machines. It also allows you to submit multiple URL’s. It actually allows you to view how your contents will look like when loaded on different browsers.

It is very annoying when it takes a long time to open the pages. It means that the loading time is more, making the system slow. The user might as well move on to another site where the information is quickly available. It happens when the size of graphics is very high. Keep the graphic size adequately small. You can speed up the response time by having same images on different pages. In this condition the images get loaded from the cache rather then the browser itself. It is very useful for title bars. How to use the graphics to the best advantage can be studied on Web Graphics and Web Page Backgrounds. In a nutshell keep the loading time low.

The design of the website should permit easy navigation. Building a small text menu at the bottom of the screen will aid in navigation. Web Site Navigation gives detailed information on navigation. The web design should have consistency, because it helps your site to be recognized with a brand name. The background, colors, fonts and other buttons should have uniformity throughout. Stick to the standard fonts. Check Web Fonts for more details. For viewing the website a resolution of 800×600 is best without straining your eyes.

Study what others are doing and take the best out of them to design your own eye catching website.

About the Author

To find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home visit: PluginSuccess.com -

Website design firms come in all shapes and sizes.

When choosing which firm you would like to build your website, there are many factors which you need to take into consideration.

There is no point having really nice looking website if no one can see it because it has poor optimisation.

Most web desgn firms will offer additional services such as optimisation, website promotion and may also submit your website to the search engines.

For me the website they have created for you should be fully optimised anyway and I would also expect the web design firm should submit the site to the search engines as a matter of course. It is always worth asking to make sure.

Once they have produced what hopefully is an outstanding website you then need to ask them if they would include a link to your homepage from their own website, preferably their homepage. Search engines these days take these backward links into consideration when they decide where to position your site in their results. As a general rule of thumb the more backward links you have the more visitors to your site you atre likely to have.

If you want to promote the website even further, google adwords is a favourite of mine. This is where you pay to be seen on the right hand side of the results in Google, in the sponsored search section.

In my opinion article marketing is the best way to gain extra visitors to your website. Writing articles such as the one that you are reading is a way of gaining extra backward links not only by submitting it to the article directories but also via other webmasters using the article on the websites, blogs or ezines. This is because you are able to include a link to your website at the bootom of the article.

Text paid adverts on a quality website is a further option that people use to promote their website.

If you are looking to receive an income from your website a program like google adsense could be the answer.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

About the Author

Stephen Hill has a number of websites including:

stuttering

constipation symptom

lasik laser treatment

In this article, I will touch on 4 ideas to find a Web Developer and/or Website Design position. The ideas are not in any type of order, but you will get the idea: create an online portfolio, write good cover letters and resumes, and get a bit aggressive in your job hunt by sending interest letters to employers of interest even if they have not posted a job opening.

Idea 1. Create an online portfolio

Have you ever heard the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Well, it works. Having a portfolio tells a lot about your skills. Employers can actually see your work.

To show off your business or writing skills, write a paragraph describing each project. Include the programming languages or software you used to development the project.

Write a small web application and set a generic user name and password for potential employers to use so they can check out your work. Be sure to test it first before letting anyone else use it.

Idea 2 is the most time consuming and frustrating part of the job hunt. Unfortunately, we need them. When writing resumes and cover letters you must write them to fit a specific job, which means you will have many versions. When saving them to your hard drive name them “companyname_resume”, and “companyname_coverletter” (or something like that) so that if you get an interview you will have the exact resume with you that you sent to them. No more wondering which resume you sent to them or showing up at an interview with a different resume and coverletter than the employer has on file. Or for less work, create company folder names on your hard drive and save the resumes and cover letters to the company named folders.

Idea 2. Write good cover letters and resumes (online, printable, and plain text layout)

An online resume is an html version of your cover letter and resume. This one is a good way to show off your design and development talents.

The printable copy is your professional MS Word formatted resume - create a link to it from your html version. When asked on the job boards to upload a copy of your resume, use the MS Word copy. Be sure to add your URL to your portfolio.

The plain text copy (use Notepad) has no bullets, underlined text, or bold text and everything is flushed to the left for pasting into a text area on job boards like monster.com (http://monster.com), CareerBuilder (http://careerbuilder.com), and Dice (http://dice.com).

I have tried one other idea with pasted resumes on job boards: I take the main keywords from my resume that match their job description and place them at the top of the pasted resume (separated by commas). This makes it easier for their scanning software to pick up your skills. If your resume does not have the keywords in their job description, add them to fit into your resume.

Idea 3. Get aggressive. Don’t wait for a job opening to appear.

If you know of a company or companies you would like to work for, send them a copy of your MS Word cover letter and resume. Before doing this, call the company to get the name of their hiring manager or Human Resource person so that you can specifically use that person’s name on your cover letter and envelope.

Idea 4. Start learning keywords used within your career field

Learn your career keywords. It is very impressive to use career keywords when talking to a potential employer or showing off your skills. It makes you appear very professional and shows that you know what you are talking about. Not only will you learn the new keywords to increase your gift of gab, but you will learn a lot more about your career field.

The best way to get started with this is to write down all the career keywords you are unfamiliar with from job descriptions or information technology articles. Study them and find out exactly what they mean and how they are used. Also, subscribe to a few of the industry magazines both on and offline and read some other resources for your career field: Web Developer.com (http://www.webdeveloper.com/tocs/index.html, ColdFusion Developer’s Journal (http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/), Oracle (http://www.oracle.com/oramag/index.html), Graphic Design (http://www.graphic-design.com/)

Try to find someone who is in the same career field - someone who has been in the field for at least 5 years. They will surely be able to give you tons of advice. If you don’t know any one personally, find a forum online like SitePoint (http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/) and become a member.

I have many more information technology job hunting ideas to share with you all, but I think I better make this particular article short before I end up writing an entire book (no time for that at all).

If you would like to contact me with questions, feel free to contact me at atlantaitpeople@yahoo.com.

About the Author

Regina Stevens is the founder of Atlanta I.T. PEOPLE, http://atlantaitpeople.com. She teaches basic website design and how to use Microsoft applications. She also, as a hobby, writes computer and IT job market articles that can be found on many websites. -

Whether or not you are a designer or would-be designer, do pay attention to these mistakes. They are what distinguish the professional from the amateur. They will also help or hinder your website?s placements on search engine listings. And, they will determine whether or not your visitors stay for a time at or leave - never to return - your website.

MISTAKE #1: Huge graphic files, along with too many graphics. These are the culprits that slow the downloading of a website. Resize the images and lower the resolutions before uploading to the website. Visitors have no patience for waiting to see your website.

MISTAKE #2: Confusing navigation. If visitors and/or the search engine spiders (that visit and index your website) can?t easily find their way around your website, they will leave as fast as a click of the mouse. I love using roll-over buttons, but also realize that for the spiders I need to post text-based links - usually at the bottom of the pages.

MISTAKE #3: The lack of a unique title for each and every page. I have a search-engine-guru friend who stresses the fact that so many pages lack this important feature. Without a title, your website pages will have little or no chance of showing up in the major search engines. When we include keywords in our titles, we increase our chances of top listings. These are super important because no one will find your website just because you have built it.

MISTAKE #4: The use of ?Mystery Meat.? Vincent Flanders and Dean Peters in their Web Pages that Suck books compare websites that are confusing - you don’t know what they are about or where they are going - to mystery meat (meat disguised by gravy, etc.). Be obvious - most users are not into guessing what it’s all about. They may surmise that we don’t know either.

MISTAKE #5: Using Flash Intros for the home or landing pages. Even though these can be quite clever and design-rich, most web-surfers I know and talk with, hate them. They take time to load and often produce confusion and ?mystery meat.? It is more expedient to use content that introduces you and/or your website to your visitor.

MISTAKE #6: No or little attention to the use of keywords. It used to be that we would load our meta tags with keywords and a description of what our website was all about. We should still do this, but most of the search engines don?t rely on these today. It is imperative that we use the important keywords throughout our website?s content.

MISTAKE #7: Adding animation for effect. In the beginning, everyone thought this was fun and cute. Maybe for a youngster?s website if used cleverly. But, animation gets old fast. It is like having a blinking neon sign outside your motel room?s window.

MISTAKE #8: Not using alt tags. Alt tags describe your graphics. They are especially for those visitors who have either turned off the graphics or who are using a reader program for the visually or aurally impaired. I find them to also be helpful in describing an object you want your visitors to click on.

If you avoid these eight MISTAKES, you will have a good start to a successful website.

There’s two ways to get a website developed - pay, or design it yourself. If you’ve chosen the latter, you’ll need several things. First, you’ll need web hosting. Web hosting can range from $2 to $200 per month, depending on your needs. Consult a web hosting review site for more information. Next, you’ll have to have some background in computing or internet programming. You’ll need to know at least HTML. Thirdly, you’ll have to have a way to upload your files. Some hosts have online uploads, others require FTP.

Today’s web design encompasses many different technologies that must blend seamlessly to allow for the best combination of form and function in a site. If you’ve decided to design your first website, it can be a daunting task. Rather, most professionals suggest finding a low-cost alternative. Many web developers have a forte - either design or programming. Finding a well-rounded website design firm or individual is difficult, but the business’ portfolio is the best indication.

In order to be certain of the firm’s abilities, further scrutinizing is imperative. The firm has a nice looking site that flows well and has an aesthetic appeal, a great testament to their abilities. But does this eye for the creative flow through its clients’ sites, too? It’s importance to be certain of this question. Browsing through the portfolio alone often isn’t enough. Get feedback from the clients if possible (with the firm’s approval). Are they satisfied? Do they feel that the firm was easy to work with? And moreover, is there site an adequate representation of what they wanted?

Once you’ve found a firm that you feel is worthwhile, it’s time to ask for a quote. Hopefully, the firm has a questionnaire that you can easily fill out. These surveys will ask questions about how many pages your site will have, whether writing is necessary, and if there is any extra functionality. You probably already have a budget in mind, but it’s better for a company to tell you what they think the work is worth. They know how many hours of work are involved, and will (hopefully) break down the price for you to let you know exactly what you’re paying for. Web design can range from $5 to $100 per hour, and many web designers have a forte that they will charge more for. Sometimes, it’s even necessary to work with multiple firms to get the best deal.

Today’s trend is outsourcing. Many Indian and other overseas programmers and designers are willing to work for exponentially less than American web designers. This trend has its pros and cons. While the money saved is beneficial, the overseas designers rarely speak fluent English. Communication is an imperative part of web design, and often projects can go awry without it.

Obviously, you have a difficult design ahead of you. With all the great web design firms out there, sometimes cost does equal quality. Make a decision, get a second opinion, and always be thorough in your explanation of what you’re looking for.

About the Author

Take a look through Red Fly’s portfolio, compare to other Irish web design firms, and you’ll see that the company has a lot to offer. Web Development Ireland -

Many people have the misconception that with websites, the more complex and the more fancy graphics you have, the better. But in reality, it’s the cleaner and simpler websites that are the most successful.

Take a look around you and see for your self. http://google.com is a good example. Their website couldn’t be simpler or more clean! They have one graphic and a small amount of content on their home page. Yet they are one of the most popular companies on the internet.

Clean and simple website design is especially important when it comes to business websites. Your website makes a big impression on your viewers of what they think of your company. Is it an unordered mass of jumble and bumble? Or is this company clean, organized, and here to help me?

When a potential customer goes to a poorly designed website, they will most all of the time get confused and just leave within 5 seconds. You lose a sale. While a clean design with good copy will stand a much better chance of making a sale. A visitor will come to your site, get the information they want easily, and be able to navigate clearly. Making him much more inclined to perchace.

It’s important to keep in mind that your website is not for you, but for your visitors. If your website is designed with that in mind from the base up, your visitors will be a lot happier. And happy visitors often lead to happy customers!

A clean website is one that does not get in the way of the visitor. Not overwhelming the viewer with content, providing a nice navigation, and keeping things simple are a big steps in the right direction.

Another thing that helps is having a site map. Visitors often look for these. And are a great way to help people find what they want.

Clean and simple websites also greatly benefit from search engines. They allow the spiders to effectively crawl your website and get the information they need with the least hassle.

Your design is one of the most important parts of your website, so treat it that way and you’re off to a great start!

About the Author: Previously a senior developer, Joseph Marshall started the newly launched http://bear-services.com with the goal of “making the internet a better place.” You can send your views or criticism about this article by e-mail to relations at bear-services dot com. ? Copyright 2005, Bear-Services. All rights reserved

Are you thinking that it is about time your small business had an internet presence, however are not too sure how or who to go to build and promote the website.

This article will hopefully be of benefit to you as it will give you free tips on website promotion and on how to obtain a website on the cheap.

Many people believe that it will cost them thousands to have a website designed and this fact alone puts many people off. Due to the large number of people who now offer website design services, this should not be the case. The websites at the bottom of this article were designed for under ?50 and there is no reason why you should pay over a ?100 for a similar website. It is not just about the price of course, if you pay ?50 and the website is not search engine friendly or looks rubbish then its a waste of ?50.

If you are willing to be patient and to make a few calls and write a few emails you should be able to find a great deal.

Once you have the website built you then need to think about website promotion. A favourite of mine is google adwords, this is where you pay a fee to appear on their sponsored websites section which appears on the right hand side of the search results. This enables you to obtain a first page entry on the search engine for a particular phrase or keyword.

Another idea is to write articles like the one you are reading. You are able to submit the articles to article websites such as:

ezinearticles.com

goarticles.com

searchwarp.com

Other webmasters and ezines are able to use your article on their websites and newsletters thus giving you an additional backward link. The number of backward links a website has will affect its page rank, the higher the number of backward links, the higher the page rank. Generally the higher the page rank, the more visitors your website is likely to get.

About the Author

Stephen Hill has a number of websites including:

stuttering

stuttering help

botox center -

Background

Print & Web was conceived to address the print and web development needs of SMEs, micro businesses, not for profit businesses, charities, sole traders, partnerships and the general public who until now have been ignored or overcharged by the traditional print and web development suppliers. Combining offshore supply chains, local knowledge and globally resourced skills, we are in a position to offer very competitive prices, generally within short time frames using the industry’s spare capacity.

Our developers have created and currently host over 1500 websites. Graphic designers have created numerous logos, leaflets, flyers and other documentation for companies and events.

With no City advisors and institutional shareholders to pay Print & Web can produce products and services using old and new media and help you to leverage your organisations growth and competitiveness through the power of the Internet. Until now these benefits were confined to large well established organisations with the necessary financial resources. Now Print & Web has created the means for businesses and organisations of all sizes and individuals to enjoy the same benefits at truly affordable cost.

Printing

Print & Web is a print broker and uses the philosophy of ?find the most appropriate expert? for the job at that particular time rather than operating on a one size fits all basis.

In this way spare printing capacity is used by Print & Web extensive panel of print providers during periods of what would otherwise be unproductive and underutilised downtime. This approach engenders loyalty with our printing partners who benefit from the extra work through operational scale economies and the additional revenue that in a real sense represents found money.

In addition our customers, both corporate and private, get their work done quickly and efficiently in a dedicated printing environment where our printing partners can focus their whole attention on the task in hand.

Finally, using a network of printing partners enables Print & Web to undertake a very much wider range of work than would otherwise be possible with a single printer or firm. The combination of highly developed negotiating skills and knowledge of the capabilities of each component member within Print & Web’s printing panel is a powerful one. When this is allied to years of experience at managing outsourced relationships and actually running as a global outsourcer the result is a highly competitive and appealing proposition.

Website Design, Creation & Hosting

Through Print & Web customers can also commission websites and receive ancillary guidance on marketing to either make the website ?sell? products and services on an automated basis or provide a means to enhance conventional marketing arrangements. With the experience gained through sister companies of developing and hosting over 1500 websites, we can develop websites quickly and efficiently to your exact specifications.

Where sophisticated shopping carts are required Print & Web uses PayPal and 2 Checkout as preferred payment mechanisms but can also offer a wealth of knowledge about merchant acquisition facilities, credit cards, credit cards and affinity based propositions.

To achieve higher browse to buy ratios websites can be improved through metatags and the use of non-web based marketing to drive enquiries into the website. This can often be more effective than costly search engine optimisation for organisations which lack the global reach and ?footprint? of a multi-national or household name.

Some of the conventional marketing could of course utilise printed point of sales materials, leaflets and brochures developed and produced by Web & Print Solutions’ printing partners. In this way we can be viewed as a one-stop shop solution with true 24/7 follow the sun capability.

March 14, 2006 Norfolk, VA - RVTraderOnline.com, an online showroom of over 75,000 recreational vehicles across the US and a division of Trader Publishing Company has undergone a website redesign to become more user-friendly and provide even more opportunities for dealers, suppliers, and manufacturers to target active RV enthusiasts.

With the advent of a Dealer Spotlight ad on the homepage, dealers are given the opportunity to outshine competing homepage ads with a larger ad on the left side of the page and directly to the left of the homepage search function. This way, no matter what the visitor searches for, they are sure to notice this particular ad and give the dealer maximized exposure and a superb chance to make a good first impression on RVTraderOnline.com.

Other opportunities such as the homepage skyscraper ad and the header banner ad have been increased in size to provide the advertiser with more space for branding. This is the best avenue for an RV manufacturer or supplier to establish branding and name recognition to a market of RV enthusiasts who are repeat visitors to the website. The skyscraper and header banner are run-of-site, providing advertisers a constant showcase so that the ad will be seen by visitors on a countless number of pages on the website. RVTraderOnline.com currently receives nearly 8 million pageviews per month.

Finally, buyers and sellers can find a table containing resources for their recreational vehicles on every page of the website. Resources like insurance quotes, warranties, generators, financing, parts & accessories, and various products for the RV lifestyle, are pages designed for suppliers to stage themselves where visitors are requesting products and services to supplement their new purchases.

Scott Vollmer, the Business Development Manager of RVTraderOnline.com shares his feelings on the website redesign, “this is a long-awaited change that we have been developing and testing for months. After nearly 5 years of the same website design, we’re ready for a new approach, more streamlined maneuverability for our users, and more unique ways for our advertisers to reach and harvest leads.”

RVTraderOnline.com is the leading online classified ad service bringing RV buyers and sellers together in one virtual marketplace with over 500,000 unique visitors per month, (WebTrends, 2005). Advertising their inventory on RVTraderOnline.com, dealers and independent owners alike are reaching RV enthusiasts who are interested in researching and purchasing new and used recreational vehicles online.

Headquartered in Norfolk, VA, RVTraderOnline.com is part of TraderOnline.com’s network of websites covering new and used vehicle categories such as boats, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, aircraft, equipment and collector car vehicles, and general merchandise. TraderOnline.com is a division of Trader Publishing Company, the nation’s largest distributor of photo-classified ad publications. For more information about RVTraderOnline.com, call toll-free 888-813-7304 or visit www.RVTraderOnline.com.

About the Author

Jackie Moniot is the Marketing Manager for RV Trader Online, a division of Trader Publishing Company, the nation’s largest distributor of photo-classified ad publications. -

Website design firms come in all shapes and sizes.

When choosing which firm you would like to build your website, there are many factors which you need to take into consideration.

There is no point having really nice looking website if no one can see it because it has poor optimisation.

Most web desgn firms will offer additional services such as optimisation, website promotion and may also submit your website to the search engines.

For me the website they have created for you should be fully optimised anyway and I would also expect the web design firm should submit the site to the search engines as a matter of course. It is always worth asking to make sure.

Once they have produced what hopefully is an outstanding website you then need to ask them if they would include a link to your homepage from their own website, preferably their homepage. Search engines these days take these backward links into consideration when they decide where to position your site in their results. As a general rule of thumb the more backward links you have the more visitors to your site you atre likely to have.

If you want to promote the website even further, google adwords is a favourite of mine. This is where you pay to be seen on the right hand side of the results in Google, in the sponsored search section.

In my opinion article marketing is the best way to gain extra visitors to your website. Writing articles such as the one that you are reading is a way of gaining extra backward links not only by submitting it to the article directories but also via other webmasters using the article on the websites, blogs or ezines. This is because you are able to include a link to your website at the bootom of the article.

Text paid adverts on a quality website is a further option that people use to promote their website.

If you are looking to receive an income from your website a program like google adsense could be the answer.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

About the Author

Stephen Hill has a number of websites including:

stuttering

constipation symptom

lasik laser treatment

If you think that it?s practically easy to do website design, then you?re probably wrong. The process actually requires more than perfect combination of colors, use of animation and Flash.

If you think that it?s practically easy to do website design, then you?re probably wrong. The process actually requires more than perfect combination of colors, use of animation and Flash, as well as perfect structures of every web page.

What Should You Keep in Mind in Website Design?

If you have an online business, or if you are trying to promote your services and products through the World Wide Web, then you must know that your website will be your mode of connection to your Internet users. Hence, the website design being implemented will determine if you are going to be successful or not.

To help you out, you can remember these website design considerations:

1. Know the purpose of your website. Most definitely, you cannot build a website just for the sake of having one. Otherwise, you are not making the most out of your investment. You need to know the reason behind its creation so, you can also determine what kind of website design you are going to utilize. For example, if you are simply providing information to your target market, then you may want to make sure that articles are easy to scan. If you are selling products or offering services, meanwhile, you should have your own Products and Services page, with accompanying photos and descriptions that are both convenient to look at.

2. Make sure that all links are clickable. Dead links, or those that lead users and search engine spiders to removed or non-accessible pages, will definitely not become too pleasing to both Internet users and search engines. Basically, your target customers would not like to feel deceived or waste their time on dead links. Your website will also be getting supplemental pages, which can hinder your chances of getting excellent page ranks. Hence, when you are doing web design, check the links first before uploading the pages. They should lead you to the page with the right contents.

3. Strike balance among the different elements in your website. Though usability and accessibility will be two of your foremost consideration in creating a website, you should also make sure that your pages appear professional. Internet users still go for websites where contents are properly laid out, there are a number of photos or videos that accompany them, and that the right colors are chosen.

4. Website should be easy to navigate. There are only few people who implement the static Home button technique. This is when Home appears in every web page of your site. Normally, when you have too many pages, users can get lost while browsing. The Home button can help them start from scratch.

5. Site maps and proper headline tags do count. One of the goals in website design is to make all pages of your website easy to index. Hence, you need to add a site map, so it becomes convenient for search engine spiders to index your various web pages. Headline tags will also make you convenient to search in Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

-
This article is meant to all who already have a website or who propose to buy it. Website the term comprises three things : Domain, Hosting (Web space) & Web Design

There are numerous company offering these services. I am here to discuss few points with regards to top and essential things you need to have a thorough check when you get a WEBSITE thru one of these companies.

Now to the article,

Every day, I get few phone calls of this sort :

• Sir, My domain expires in next few days, but the company which registered it is out of business, Please RENEW it
• Sir, I want to transfer the domain to your server but I dont have the domain control panel
• Dear Support Team, The domain is registered thru X and his name is listed as REGISTRANT and Admin Contact, help me
• I have a website since 1998 but I am not getting any enquiries thru it. So whats the point in having it renewed ?
• My website is down most of the time, can you do anything on it?

If you look at the above, you could observe the common problem. Thus, a checklist is required for any WEBSITE. Lets see one by one :

Domain NAME Registration : CHECKLIST

Once your domain is registered, check these things :

1. Is the DOMAIN NAME Registered with an ICANN Accredited Registrar ? (Visit : www.icann.org)
2. Does the REGISTRANT NAME and ADMINSTRATIVE CONTACT show your name/email ?
3. Did the Domain Registration Service Provider give you the Domain CONTROL PANEL with username / password to manage/modify name servers & contact details in real-time ?
4. Do you have the OPTION to get REMINDERS at the time of RENEWAL, well in advance ?

Web Hosting (Web space) : CHECKLIST

1. Support, Support, Support is the KEY issue when it comes to Hosting. Check the response time of the Service Provider before making an option.
2. How skilled the technical persons are ? Just put in few queries and see how they respond ?
3. Get a quick look at the Service Provider Website and make sure its professional looking with user friendly navigation and layout.
4. Check if they have listed TESTIMONIALS, list of sites hosted with them, discount options for bulk purchase, payment modes. Also make sure there are NO Hidden charges. The key part to look is : the BANDWIDTH offered for each hosting plan.
5. Multiple Domains in single hosting space. This is an added advantage and saves your money. You can ask for this option if not provided.
6. Make a deep study on the Hosting Plan you choose. Check all the essential features are provided. To name a few, POP3 mails, SMTP support, FTP Account, Control Panel, Web mail, Spam Controller, Antivirus, Web Statistics.

Website Design : CHECKLIST

1. Does the website designer provide you with free minor updates or for a nominal fee on a yearly contract basis ?
2. Is the website professional looking and appeals to the global audience ?
3. It has been 3 months since your launch and there is NO fruitful enquiries and you are UPSET. Wait..go to : www.google.com and put your website name and click search. Does it show up anywhere in the results ?
4. Does the website designer provided you with monitoring service ?
5. Does the website take lot of time to load. Make sure it loads faster even on slow connections. Too much of Flashy animations, bigger size jpegs are NOT an option for your site. CONTENT is the King. Make sure your website delivers.

The above is just a tip of the iceberg. I have compiled the most essential facts of a WEBSITE Registration, Hosting and Web Design.

Do write to me with your comments and views. My email : siva@aalphanet.com

Teeyes Siva

Sales Head Aalphanet.com

After having a website on the Internet for several years many people decide to hire a web design firm to redesign their Yahoo store website. You may think that this is a great idea, but think twice before you make such a big and costly decision. I currently own and operate 4 Yahoo websites on the Internet and had made the decision to hire one of the many Yahoo web design firms to hopefully improve my websites.

The exact opposite happened. My websites were not improved but rather turned into websites that were very difficult to manage. Please read the following points before you decide to have an outside party charge you for website redesign services. You’ll be glad you did. I hired a website design firm to redesign my Yahoo store and my page views and revenue plummeted! That’s right… we lost over 100,000 page views in the first month alone after the new design was published!

Remember - Yahoo is a billion dollar company and they have spent millions of dollars designing web store platforms that operate very efficiently. Yahoo stores load fast. They are very easy to manage and give their users many options to change the design.

What design firms don’t tell you is that they are going to disable many of the useful features that Yahoo offers on a standard Yahoo web store. What does this mean to you? It means that every time you want to make a simple change to your newly designed website you are going to have to pay the designer to make the changes for you. Why? Because website redesign firms make complicated changes on the back-end of your store making it almost impossible for the average user to understand. That benefits the redesign firm because they know that you will have to pay them to make simple changes that you were once able to do easily on your original Yahoo store site.

Website redesign firms like to give their customers a fancy beautiful site that is very impressive to look at. The only problem is… websites that are fancy are websites that take a very long time to load. Don’t make this mistake! Don’t think that a website that is fancy is a website that your customers will want to use. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Remember that almost 80% off all Internet users still surf the web using a slow 56K modem connected to a phone line. Turning your fast loading Yahoo store into a redesigned website can quadruple your page load times and drive away your customers. Case in point - before we redesigned our Yahoo store it had page load times of about 15 seconds per page which is generally acceptable to anyone using a 56K modem. Most people are willing to wait 15 seconds for a page to load but they are not willing to wait 50 seconds or more - so what do your valued customers do? They drop out of your website before the page even loads! And you just lost a customer that will never return.

Always keep in mind - FAST loading websites are better than fancy websites! Website redesign firms add dozens of unnecessary objects, images and fancy scripts to your pages that only add to your websites load times and this can be a recipe for disaster. Sure, the new design looks great, but your customers using a 56K modem will leave the page before it loads! Website redesign firms use high speed connections while designing your new store so they rarely see the increase in page load times. But remember - most Internet users DO NOT have an expensive high speed connection to the Internet, so the page that loads in 8 seconds on a high speed connection can take 45 seconds to load on a standard 56K modem.

As stated earlier, many standard features of your yahoo store might be disabled by your redesign firm. Features such as final text, icons, insets, abstract and many other features may be disabled at your designer’s discretion. You may think that because you are not an expert at store design that it is a good idea to spend thousands of dollars on a website redesign by an outside firm. What you must realize is that after your new expensive design is completed, you will have to be an expert just to figure out what features are working and what features are not. Because the html code we used in our final text was not quite compatible with our designers new templates, they just disabled final text so it was no longer available to us. Guess what? Final text is a powerful tool in your website. Disabling final text only makes it harder for you to make simple changes to your once easy to operate website.

It took us many months to find out what was working and what was not working properly on our new site design and it drove us crazy. If you’re not an expert (and most people are not) then you might never figure out what changes your designer made to your new website that are effecting it adversely.

The moral of the story should be clear. A Yahoo store is a fast loading Ferrari with excellent features. By choosing to redesign your store using a website redesign firm your are running the risk of turning your Ferrari into a Model T.

I hope this article helps you to make an informed decision as to whether to change your website using a design firm. If you decide to do so… be careful, and make sure that you are aware of the risks.

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Website Redesign- A Perilous Road examines some of the countless decisions required to redesign a website. If you make the wrong decisions, or hire the wrong web designer, you may find that years of hard work are lost and as far as the search engines are concerned- you are brand new again, with no page rank and no presence on the World Wide Web.

About a year and a half ago I started a new business and launched a new website. Since that time my site has gained a reasonable page rank on Google. A search for several of my keywords will produce my site in the listings on pages two, three and four of Google. Page Rank and organic listings are important only if enough people are contacting you for your product or service. This is your ?ROI?. This is your rate of return on your investment of time, energy and money. Most businesses have a ?big room for improvement?. Like most other businesses, I am very interested in achieving higher page rank and ROI. According to Google.com: ?PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.?

It is logical that if you redesign your site in such a way as it appears to be a brand new site to the Google search engines, you start de novo with no page rank and no other pages ?voting? for you. No matter how much you have achieved in terms of Page Rank, or if you have achieved number one, page one status for a keyword in terms of being found on a search of the web, you may have created a ?don?t get out of jail, don?t collect $200, don?t pass go? type of situation for yourself, at least in the internet short run.

These points were brought home to me loud and clear by a member of an internet affinity group who recently wrote: ?Hello,I had my site remodeled last year by a pro. I paid top dollars for SEO. Once my site was published, my ranking and clicks took a nose dive. I have done every thing to get the ranking up but have had no luck. Can someone please tell me what went wrong??Imagine a mirror that is really one way glass. In the movies, there is a common scene where the criminal suspect is being interviewed by the police in a room with a mirror that reflects his image. On the other side of the mirror, invisible to the suspect may be the victim or other policemen looking in at the proceedings. A website is like a one way glass mirror.

When you click on a website, you see what the designers want you to see. The public?s mirror: Images, text, marketing, things that move or flash, contact information, site maps, search for content engines, links to other sites, examples of products or services. What you cannot see are many if not most of the things the search engines see. Many of these things are technical and well beyond the scope of this article, and this author?s expertise. But a little knowledge is dangerous. What went wrong?It appears that the search engines, when looking at the ?other side of the one way mirror? may have concluded that this was a brand new site. Perhaps the files that were a part of the web site were renamed. Perhaps the domain name of the site was changed. Perhaps animation, called flash, or pull down menus prevented the search engines from ?seeing? the website because of their design. Perhaps in the design of the new site, the former inbound links no longer are counted by the search engines. Perhaps the designer did not use any metatags. According to Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch, ?Metatags are not a magic solution.? ?What are meta tags? They are information inserted into the “head” area of your web pages. Other than the title tag, information in the head area of your web pages is not seen by those viewing your pages in browsers. Instead, meta information in this area is used to communicate information that a human visitor may not be concerned with. Meta tags, for example, can tell a browser what “character set” to use or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content?. There is controversy regarding the importance of metatags. One way to decide for yourself is to go to the sites of your top competitors; open their site, and click view at the top of your browser, scroll down to page source and click on it. See what your competitors are doing and decide for yourself.

The bottom line: Website redesign is a very difficult and technical area, subject to controversy and honest differences of opinion. You clearly want a website that attracts the public to your product or services, and attracts the search engines to find you. Google has a new program in beta where you can test several versions of a site to determine what the public likes best. What the search engines value is quite another matter. Choosing the best expert for this project is essential. I recommend that you look for experienced professionals with proven results with a business that is reliable and stable. Give a lot of thought to your content and to your call to action. And give a lot of attention to the requirement that your expert designer redesign your site technically as a reflection of your previous site unless you want to start de novo as if your website is brand new to the World Wide Web.

Copyright ? 2007 Gregg Financial Services www.greggfinancialservices.com

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