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8 Steps to Design a Surfer Friendly Website That Search Engines Love!
1) Crystal Clear Source Code (HTML/CSS)
Many web-designers give far too much importance to the look and the graphics of the website while ignoring the clarity of the source code. Clean and well-written source code is the first step to website...
Bigmouthmedia On Board
Bigmouthmedia, the award-winning Search Engine Marketing company, has been selected to drive internet traffic to the National Express website. In an ever-increasing online marketplace, National Express hope to capture their share of the potential...
CSS – Site Design Basics Part One
When it comes to designing a Website, there are several modern programming techniques that can make the designer’s task much easier. Once the content and focus of the Website is decided, layout should become the focus of development. What fonts...
Designing for Search Engines
When you design a website, it's easy to focus on what your
visitors are going to see. What you have to realise, though, is
that you're going to have another kind of visitor with a
completely different agenda: they're not going to be looking...
WYSIWYG Versus Coding: HTML With A Purpose
After years of working with entrepreneurs who developed their first web site using an image-based editor, the new world of internet marketing has placed a stronger emphasis on web development that conforms to technical concerns such as search...
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Successful Web Development: 10 Key Elements
There are many elements that are key to successful web development. There is no arguing that elements of talent such as graphic design, writing, and technical expertise are important. In the long run, however, it is the elements that are not directly associated with web development that determine a website's success. For the beginner, it is important to have a broader view of success
** Learn
Read. Learn. Devour all that is available. Learn about HTML, CSS, Bandwidth, Navigation, Writing, Promotion, Statistics, etc. There is so much to learn it is easy to be overwhelmed. Don't worry about the volume of information. Start in an area of weakness or interest and learn more about it. Take baby steps. Most importantly, no matter how much is learned, never consider oneself an expert. Such self-nominating status tends to impede learning.
** Purpose
What is the purpose of the website? Vincent Flander's over at Web Pages That Suck states that a web designer should always tell themselves the following:
1. The only reason my web site exists is to solve my customers' problems.
2. What problems does the page I'm looking at solve?
Sound advice.
** Goals
Set reasonable goals for the web development effort. Don't try to implement all ideas all at once. Create timelines. Build the basics first, and then fill it out later. Set content writing goals (a page a week, a blog post a day, etc.). Set link building goals.
** Organization
Organization goes hand in hand with setting goals. It doesn't matter what the organization method is, as long as it is, well, organized. This means that post-it notes plastered around the edge of a monitor is NOT an organizational method. A simple notebook with simple to-do lists suffices.
** Create a "living" site
A "living" site is one that is updated on a regular basis. Some pages may be updated daily, some monthly, some quarterly, and some yearly. Users can tell old information from new information. Many sites include an "Updated on" timestamp on the bottom of a page. Even if the information is absolutely
correct, if the date is over two years old users tend to click quickly to the next item. A recently updated date (even if no changes were made) helps users know the webmaster has not left the site to die.
** Maintain
This pertains not only to content, which is covered in the point above, but to the overall design and infrastructure of the site. Are the images optimized? Is the design outdated? Are there portions of the site that are not used? Are there portions of the site that could be more user friendly? Are there broken links on the site?
** Backup
Especially if the website is an income producing, livelihood supporting website, make sure it is backed up. At the very least, back it up on a weekly basis. It seems simple, but many a webmaster has let years of work go down the drain because there was not a backup.
** Track
Who visits the website? How many people visit the website? Do they stay and browse the website? Do they click on the right links? Do they buy from the website? The only way to answer these questions is to track a web site. Tracking will inform web design in ways never thought of when the site was originally developed.
** Promote
Tell others about the website. Don't wait until the search engines rank the site well. The more people told, the more people that will come and visit.
** Perseverance
Tired of writing content? Tired of figuring out that quirky Mozilla/IE CSS problem? Tired of link building? Tired of trying to build web traffic? If anything will determine success it is the level of perseverance a web designer brings to the task. Those who persevere and attempt to overcome obstacles will be the successful ones. They may not be the best designers or writers, nor the best marketers or promoters, but they will be the ones constantly learning, changing and implementing new things in order to make their websites a success.
About the Author
Paul Stefanski develops a site about recommended web design tools. It serves as a web resource for web design beginners
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