Web Designs Best Practices

How to Develop a Great FAQ Page for an Online Course

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:18:30 PDT

By Rahel Anne Bailie, Intentional Design

When instructors and course designers create an online course, an accompanying FAQ page is often included as part of the package. While the creators of FAQ pages may feel virtuous about providing contextual information, the effectiveness can't be confirmed until the other side of the equation has been calculated: Are learners using the FAQs?

If you think a FAQ page is where learners look for handy information about their courses, think again. Computer users have learned, generally, that FAQ pages are of little-to-no use in actually answering their questions. Because many FAQ pages have become elephant graveyards of non-information, the equivalent of a miscellaneous file folder, the place where information-we-didn't-know-where-to-put was dumped, users have generalized their usage patterns to all FAQ pages. The challenge of creating a FAQ page that learners will find useful has several aspects to it, but can be accomplished with a lot of thought and a little strategic planning.

The first step toward creating an FAQ page is to understand what an FAQ page actually is. FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions, and implied in that acronym is that the questions are frequently asked today. Frankly, if you're still answering the same questions today as you were last year, your learners will likely assume that your courses have the same problems as last year's problems, and that's an entirely separate set of systemic issues. So let's assume that the questions being asked are not due to ongoing poor design or aspects of technical delivery. Let's assume these are questions that fall within the normal range of experience of learners who are generally satisfied but need more information, either while considering your course, during setup, or during course delivery.

First, you need to find out what questions your learners are asking. Where do your learners generally go to ask their questions, and what simple questions do they regularly ask? Do you have a feedback forum—one that works!—on your website where learners can pose questions? These are all valuable sources of information, both in harvesting questions and in providing answers. If you need to answer a question for one person, you can answer it for multiple people at the same time. The following tips will give learners hope that the FAQs are usable and useful:

* Analyze the needs of your audience. If your learners need a mini-tutorial, then providing information in the form of a FAQ probably won't do the trick. You'll want to provide answers to oft-asked questions that didn't really have a place to live—yet. If there are enough questions on a particular theme, perhaps there needs to be a "regular" Web page on the topic, or a task integrated into the course.
* Make sure the questions are written with a specific topic focus. "What about software?" is too vague to be of use to a learner with a burning need to know what software to purchase for a course.
* Make sure the answer addresses the question accurately. If you want learners to use the online FAQ instead of clogging up your telephone lines, check that the instructions actually work—especially if you've made any changes that haven't been thoroughly tested.
* And please, resist the temptation to introduce marketing-speak into the answers. People resort to FAQs to fix a problem, not be convinced of the benefits of your program.
* Have the questions written consistently. This makes the questions easier to scan, and more likely for a learner to keep looking for an answer. Some learners will think of using the browser search function, but often not knowing your organization's particular jargon may prevent learners from figuring out what to search for.
* Have the questions professionally written. Nothing will turn off your learners faster than getting an unclear answer when what they need is well-written, plain-language instructions.
* List the questions alphabetically. There's nothing more frustrating than having to search through a haystack of questions for the needle of an answer.
* Sort your questions by audience type. Wading through questions like "why should I consider taking a course online?" to find specifics such as "what are the computer requirements?" is annoying to those looking for general benefits as well as anyone looking for technical information. Open School BC has done a good job of separating this information.
* Group your FAQs by question type, and give each group a heading. This helps learners find their information faster.

Now that you have a great FAQ page, you'll face a related challenge: How do you get learners to use the page? It may be hard to get past the presupposition that a FAQ page is a dust-covered museum of questions from yesteryear. Just as FAQs change, so should your approaches to FAQ presentation; what works today may be obsolete tomorrow. That said, here are a couple of approaches that work in today's

Web world:

Break up your FAQs. Provide an index of FAQ topics, and have each topic open in a new window. There are a few reasons to do this:
o This keeps the FAQ window open, in case the learner needs to find other information later.
o If any FAQ answer needs to be printed, such as a list of computer requirements or a list of books that someone may want to take to a bookstore, the page can be printed without printing the entire list of FAQs.
o More frequently, learners may search for information from a mobile device such as a Blackberry. From personal experience, looking for information on a small screen while in line at a retail store can become excruciating when dealing with long, formatting-intensive pages.
o Use a software utility to extract the top questions and list them as a sidebar. The Help with FAQ section of MySpace.com does an excellent job of re-assuring customers that the information there is current and accurate.
o Don't call the FAQ a FAQ. If you have lots of questions, consider a more useful name that tells learners what the questions are about. If your questions supplement your support, call it a Help Center. Or, if your questions are all about how to set up an account, call your page Getting Started. At CNET, they have both a Help Center and a Tips & Tricks section.
o Refer to the FAQ page from elsewhere. For example, if you have a FAQ section on registration policies that governs fee assessments, you can link to it from the registration section. This indicates to learners that you respect their time enough to point out their obligations before they register.
o Include a link so that learners can ask questions that don't yet exist in your FAQ repertoire, as UBC has done here.
o If you use "Top of page" links to break up a long answer (recommended), make sure the link works in all browsers.

Peeking at a FAQ page is a little like peering into a kitchen during a dinner party. It reveals the personality of the chef: smooth and organized or neglected and disheveled. A dynamic FAQ page can be a valuable part of your overall course offering, particularly if it's considered a knowledge asset and maintained with the same care as the rest of course material.

About the author
Rahel Anne Bailie operates Intentional Design, a consultancy focusing on performance improvement for communication products, and is a managing partner with the Strategy A Consulting Group in Vancouver, BC, Canada. She has taught on technical communication and information design topics in several continuing studies programs in British Columbia, and has given presentations and workshops across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Is the internet better now?

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:48:21 PDT

A NYC Judge creates a new ruling for those who keeping use the internet to defame or bullying others, under the privacy. Be aware you can have a lawsuit against you now!

Read the article posted on MediaPost News
by Wendy Davis, Yesterday, 3:12 PM

Vogue cover model Liskula Cohen is entitled to learn the identity of the person who slammed her on the blog Skanks In NYC, a judge in New York ruled Monday.

Judge Joan Madden agreed with Cohen that the blog, which referred to Cohen as a "skank," potentially defamed her.

"The thrust of the blog is that petitioner is a sexually promiscuous woman," Madden wrote, rejecting the blogger's argument that the comments were mere opinion and hyperbole.

The entire blog consisted of five entries, all made Aug. 21 2008, and was devoted to trashing Cohen. "I would have to say that the first place award for 'Skankiest in NYC' would have to go to Liskula Gentile Cohen," stated one post, which goes on to call her a "psychotic, lying, whoring ... skank."

In March, the person behind the blog took it down following settlement negotiations.

Cohen filed papers in January asking the court to order Google, which hosted the blog, to identify the author. At the time, Madden ordered Google to notify the blogger so that he or she could retain counsel and object to being unmasked.

A lawyer for the blogger subsequently appeared in the case and asked Madden to reject the request to identify the author. The attorney argued that the blog was not defamatory because it expressed opinions, not facts. Only factual assertions can be libelous.

But Madden found that use of the terms "skank," "skanky," "ho" and "whoring" possibly defamed Cohen because they appeared in captions near photos of the model in provocative poses. "Under these circumstances," Madden wrote, the words combined with the suggestive photos "carry a negative implication of sexual promiscuity."

Madden also rejected the blogger's contention that the words were vague insults. "In the context of this specific blog, such words cannot be reasonably viewed as comparable in meaning and usage to the word 'jerk' or any other loose and vague insult," Madden held. Cohen, Madden wrote, "has sufficiently established the merits of her proposed cause of action for defamation" and is therefore entitled to learn the blogger's identity.

In general, people have a First Amendment right to speak anonymously, but there are exceptions for libel. Sam Bayard, assistant director of the digital rights group Citizen Media Law Project, said that this particular blog might have crossed the line from protected speech to libel. "I think it's really close," he said. But, he added, the comments combined with the photos might be enough to constitute defamation. "It's probably the right call at this stage of the lawsuit."

A spokeperson for the blogger's lawyers said they are still analyzing their options.

It is your site included on DMOZ?

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:54:47 PDT

I had to post the DMOZ blog here so you as a webmaster questioning why your site or client's website is not listed on DMOZ

My question posted on the DMOZ blog.

How two companies offering the same services and using the same suppliers can have unique content? So therefore the oldest company (luck them got included) is listed but the new ones offering more quality and better services, to the same costumer niche will be left out, very interesting concept from DMOZ, laze one and definitely not equal opportunity directory. Thats why a bunch of crappy sites still listed.

Posted on Aug 18th 2009 by Carlos Dantas

The reply to my question posted by crowbar

"How two companies offering the same services and using the same suppliers can have unique content?"

By offering information about your particular company, or knowing your business and customers well enough to offer them some important information about your product or services that they would find very useful, but that another company doesn't have on their site.

Otherwise, why would an information seeker want to look at your site, instead of a current listing? (if they both offer the same thing)

We're not interested in equal opportunity for site owners, we're not a listing service. What we're interested in is building a category that becomes a good resource for information seekers. That is why we're only interested in the unique (original) content on each site and how it makes the category better, nothing else.

Posted on Aug 18th 2009 by crowbar

My answer to crowbar's post

Your reply confirm my point, thanks a lot!
"We're not interested in equal opportunity for site owners"
I got it is a DMOZ dictatorship Viva La Revolution!

"By offering information about your particular company, or knowing your business and customers well enough to offer them some important information about your product or services that they would find very useful, but that another company doesn't have on their site."

What a statement(are you a politician? you sounds like because you say a lot but did not answer - it is like the "unique content" - BS), based on your information DMOZ should only list the chicken or the egg? Seriously DMOZ should list only the manufacturers,they know better then anybody else their products, they offer most of the content for all the resellers (services/products) websites and they know their market niche and goals. At the end resellers only offer services, products or promotions based on what the manufacturers allow them to do.

A quick Quizz:
What is the unique content between HomeDepot and Lowes?
What is the unique content between Walmart and Target?
Ok, other point for my concern! Thanks Again!

"Otherwise, why would an information seeker want to look at your site, instead of a current listing?"
Because offering more options the "end client" makes that decision not DMOZ, the user should decided what service or product supplier, is better not DMOZ. Now DMOZ is DICTATING what is good or bad, what is relevant or not, when DMOZ costumers (directory users) should make that decision, at the end they will pay for it. It is kind of monopoly of information and empowering the "DMOZ editors" to make a decision which doesn't belongs to them in the first place. It is my humbled opinion as a user, I don't care if any site is listed here or not. It is a fact of rights.

Post your comments. Thanks!

Twitter, Should I Tweet? How Best To Tweet!

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:14:35 PDT

If you haven’t noticed that the word Twitter is somewhat of a ‘buzz word’ at the moment, you must have been living under a rock. But the question is, should you be doing it and what are the tangible results it can return?

Worldwide traffic to Twitter.com reached 10 million visitors in February 2009, up a whopping 700 percent from the same time last year, according to comScore.

As a creative agency we’re expected to ‘keep up with the Jones’s’ so of course when Twitter reared it’s birdy head last year, we made a point of climbing the tree to check out what all the tweet was about (sorry it’s hard to write a piece about Twitter without having some fun with the ‘twitterisms’.)

So perhaps firstly a how to set up a Twitter account would be a useful piece of information to some of you who have not yet got on the bandwagon. If you’re well into twittering and want some real tips, skip ahead to the next star set now.
Search Engine Submission

Like setting up a web-based email account such as gmail, yahoo or hotmail, it’s pretty easy and of course free. Simply go to http://www.twitter.com and click on the big green button the front page (at least it was green the day we went there) which says ‘get started –Join!’

The rest we’re sure you’ll navigate your way through no dramas – enter full name, username (just like domain names people are snapping up twitter territory with good usernames that reflect the niche they would like to dominate the market they are trying to target or something else suitably witty so choose something with this in mind), password, email and a code to copy. All pretty straight forward.

If you like to display yourself as a unique individual you may like to click on the settings tab and customize the look of your profile. You may also like to find what other friends from any given email address (that is an online one i.e. gmail, yahoo or hotmail) is already on twitter. You may search to find new friends in the form of celebrities, business people or groups in line with what you do. Once you’ve faffed about with the menu options, you’re now the proud owner of a twitter account.

But here’s the crazy thing: after examining some 300,000 Twitter accounts, a Harvard Business School professor reported earlier this month that 10 percent of the service’s users account for more than 90 percent of tweets. The study dovetails with recent analysis by the media research firm Nielsen asserting that 60 percent of Twitter users do not return from one month to the next. And we’ve got a pretty good hunch why this is. It’s because people don’t know what to do with a twitter once they have one. They haven’t yet worked out how potentially powerful their twitter account can be.

Essentially with twitter you have 140 characters to tell people what you are doing. Which whilst it may sound like a mindless and time wasting past time can actually produce real commercial returns. The key to getting the return is, like any other marketing, setting out with a specific objective in mind. Before you write another ‘Tweet’ to your Twitter account ask yourself what it is you want to achieve from Twitter? Is it (and all of these things are possible with Twitter):

* Building Community—creating a strong community of followers that ultimately help drive business objectives and bring in new customers
* Customer Service—using Twitter to successfully engage with customers needing help and showing a personal side to your company
* Selling—driving online and offline sales by using Twitter to post promotions, discounts and offers
* Prospecting—creating demand and pinpointing potential customers needing the type of solution your product/service/event offers
* Branding & Awareness—employing Twitter in creative ways to increase awareness around a product, person (celebrity) or business
* Fundraising—using Twitter to spread the word about important causes i.e. events, deadlines to help someone etc

Well Twitter can do all of these things.

To put these in context here are five case studies of businesses we’ve uncovered online who have used twitter for real commercial success.

Twittering for Local business

A New Orleans local pizza shop ‘Naked Pizzas’ got onto twitter and signed up anybody and everybody it could find in its local area. With his first concerted effort at a Twitter-only promotion, the owner was able to drive 15% of daily revenues with Twitter. And of those 15%, 90% were new customers! Not bad for a guy who didn’t even have an account 5 weeks prior. And, here’s the crazy part, it’s all him. No expensive PR firm. No “Social Media Expert”, just a guy on a mission to change the world one pizza at a time. Now you know what they can do when things are quiet? Run a special! Within minutes of twittering an irresistible deal, their pizza sales can go crazy.

Well known brand tries to invigorate itself

Skittles, the lolly brand started a twitter conversation about the brand in the hopes of bringing the product top of mind and getting exposure through viral means. Skittles posted a live, uncensored feed of any tweets talking about Skittles on their website as a brand like Skittles can only be helped by more exposure and it’s not exactly something that people are going to moan about! Skittles was in a position to benefit from the publicity largely without taking a hit to its brand.

Twittering for a good cause

Bonnie Sayers, a mother of children with autism, decided to use Twitter to promote awareness of autism and to allow those who live with it to share their experiences and knowledge with others. Dubbed “Twitter Autism Day” and connected with the #ASD hashtag, this was a HUGE success both by the standards of the benefits it created for those who participated as well as the number of tweets it generated. It ecame a “trending topic” on more than one occasion during the day. Parents and care givers sharing their experiences over Twitter was a great way to connect with others who had experience with autism, and it gave those who wanted to help the opportunity to help spread that awareness through following along and retweeting.

Big Dollar Dell figures

In a blog post this week, Dell the computer giant revealed that it has generated more than $2 million in revenue from @DellOutlet, one of its many Twitter sites. Not bad for a little twittering! The secret formula for Dell has been to use Twitter as a way to extend exclusive offers, discounts and other forms of savings. Everyone loves a bargain, right? Before you knew it, thousands of people were following @DellOutlet -and it’s numbers are now in excess of 600,000.

I’ll have that to go

When J.R. Cohen, Operations Manager for CoffeeGroundz (@coffeegroundz) Cafe in Houston, Texas first heard about Twitter from one of his customers, he was puzzled but intrigued. Today, he credits Twitter with almost doubling his clientele and with opening his eyes to a whole new way to build Community. Seeing an opportunity, Cohen started taking to-go orders via direct message from any of his Twitter Clientele.Cool Twitter Tools / Twitter links you have to know about On a final note I’ll leave you with some fun links to check out. They’re some of the coolest twitter tools we’ve found in our travels. Feel free to share others via comments.

* http://twitterholic.com/ - Check out the current leaderboard of the most followed people on twitter. Celebs such as Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, lily allen, Britney spears and Martha Stewart feature as to smart media outlets such as Time.com, The New York Times, Good Morning America and Nightline (also American) to politicians scuh as Barrack Obama.

* Search.twitter.com works well for finding your friends, celebrities, or organizations, or for searching for specific topics you’re interested in.

* http://twitgoo.com/ or www.twitpic.com - Make your twitter account more visually engaging by adding pictures. These could be product images, social pics of you or your colleagues at an event, your work, attendees to an event or just inspirational/arty things.

* http://www.tweetlater.com/ — You don’t have to tweet on a daily or weekly basis. Get smart and tweet ahead of time. This system allows you to post tweets to be sent later as well as to send automatic messages every time someone new follows you. Users can set up Tweets to happen later on the day, week, or month. Also allows you to set up Twitter alerts for any keywords, people, companies, etc. that you want to track. Alerts are sent to you via email. Also allows you to auto follow those who follow you and send them a welcome message.

* Twtvite - Send invitations and track RSVPs online. Example: http://twtvite.com/wlsvw

* Twtqpon - Create coupons for distribution on twitter or anywhere online. Example:http://twtqpon.com/7uz1

* Twitterfeed - Have a blog? Automatically tweet (send a message) each new blog post.

* http://www.tweepler.com/ - Evaluate new followers & decide if you want to follow them back.

We’d love to hear of any other top twitter tips or tools you’d like to share. Send them through via a comment!

About the Author

Yvette Adams the director of The Creative Collective http://www.thecreativecollective.com.au, an award winning creative services agency based in Queensland, Australia offering the full range of creative services including PR, awards applications, websites, internet marketing, seo, graphic design, print production, photography and more..

Optimize Your Website with These Simple Tips - Think Links

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:01:36 PDT

By Greg Newell (c) 2009

As more and more marketing functions move to the web, businesses are at least starting to understand the requirements of ranking for keywords relevant to the business. Most however still don't understand how Google and other search engines determine who gets top placements. The guidelines here will at least put you in position to achieve higher search engine ranks.

For businesses that want to wade into this arena, here are some guidelines that might save you the cost associated with website optimization. Bear in mind that there's no free ride here. Expect to put some time in this effort if you really want to see results.

Consider this a short lesson in "on-page" SEO, things that you can do to your website to improve search engine visibility. This list should be applied to EACH PAGE of your site. (You should measure your results by tracking site rank and monitor your traffic with Google Analytics).

For all pages on your website, you should:

1. Pick a primary keyword phrase that you want the page to rank for (a keyword phrase can be one or more words).

2. Pick a couple of secondary keyword phrases related to the main keyword phrase.

3. Put the primary keyword phrase at the beginning of the list of keywords in your metatags.

4. Include the secondary keyword phrases also in the keyword metatag list.

5. Use the primary keyword phrase in the description metatag. (try to also include the secondary keywords in the description)

Don't load in keyword phrases that you won't be discussing on the page in either the keyword or description metatags. (It doesn't help).

6. Put the primary keyword phrase in the url (if you can). Use underscores to separate words.

7. Put the primary keyword phrase in the Title of the page (this is a biggie!)

8. Use the primary keyword between H1 Header tags in the content area.

9. I usually recommend the content follow a five paragraph essay broken up with graphics etc. Open the page introducing the main keyword phrase and mention the secondary keywords in context (1st paragraph). Each paragraph after this should discuss a secondary keyword and relate it back to the primary keyword. You can highlight sub-paragraphs with H2 or H3 Header tags using the secondary keyword terms to make them stand out. The closing paragraph summarizes the importance of the primary keyword as it relates to secondary keywords (again using those terms in context).

10. Put keywords in alt-text of the images. Use images to break up the text and enhance the content. Keep the images relevant.
Note: Secondary keywords could become primary keywords for sub-pages. In that way, your site is a never-ending work in progress.

NEXT STEP: When you've shored up the content of your site, you should then take a look at your internal linking. Use keyword loaded hyperlinks. For example, if you have an inner page about wedding flowers and find occasion to call attention to that page, hyperlink the words "wedding flowers" to that page. The point being: the words that you use in the hyperlink define what Google thinks the target page is about. Same goes for your home page. Instead of "Home", you should link "Keyword Phrase" (whatever that keyword phrase is) to the home page. One way to do this: Imagine creating an index to your site that enumerates the keywords that you want to rank for and links those keywords to appropriate pages within the site (for example). You can get creative but again keep your link text focused on the keywords that you want to show up for in the search engines. Include a "mini" index of keyword links on a page linking the reader to related pages of content. You can see that this will make it easier for the site visitor to find related information AND it will also send the search engine spiders in a frenzy (in a good way).

NEXT STEP: That pretty much covers all you can do for your site. Next, pay attention to the in-bound links you have coming to your site. The same rule above applies to those links as well. So first, approach your existing link partners whom you already have inbound links with and ask to redefine the links that they have. You should provide the code to them if they don't know how to do it. Use keyword defined hyperlinks instead of just linking the URL. If you redefined all the links that you had TO your site with your primary keyword phrase instead of your URL, you very likely will see a significant bump in your rank relative to that keyword phrase.

I think once you get this far, you should be seeing significant improvements in your rank. The key to SEO beyond this is finding ways to generate inbound links of this nature.

THINK LINKS!

About The Author
Greg Newell is an Internet Marketing specialist located in Hamilton Ohio. He leverages his WSI franchise to deliver outstanding results to customers in Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati. Call if you have SEO Ohio website requirements. http://www.wsiNetReturns.com .

Monetizing Your Website

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:29:37 PDT

By Scottie Claiborne - Right Click Web Services- Usability and SEO

Many people these days are looking for ways to "make money on the Internet". These are not people looking to take their bricks-and-mortar business online to expand, or sell things they have manufactured, but instead people who are looking to create revenue from having a website.

It's not an impossible goal, but it's not as easy as the spam e-mail you receive would have you believe. It takes real work, just like any other business, and the rewards can be somewhat shaky if you are depending on free traffic from the search engines to build your business. But done correctly, there are some tried and true ways to make your website turn a profit.

Valuable Resource

The very first thing you must do is make your site a resource. You've heard it before most likely-- what does it mean?

It means making your site useful to a specific audience- it could be a local portal site, a specific brand of car enthusiast site, a craft or hobby site, or even a political opinion site. The best thing to do is turn something you love into a resource site- you may be devoted to the conservation of a river in your area or have great ideas for keeping kids occupied during the summer-- build a site around your unique knowledge and ideas.

Site Promotion

You've built your site and it rocks- the people who visit leave you great feedback and send you e-mails about how helpful it is. You are adding to your content regularly and keeping it updated and interesting- now you need to turn up the volume on the traffic.

Search out similar and complimentary sites to your topic and let them know about your site. Send an e-mail letting them know what the value to their visitors is and ask them to include a link to your site. There may be commercial, hobby, or other resource sites that would be happy to include a link to your useful resource.

Find any forums or other venues that are complimentary to your topic and join them-- often you are allowed a signature link in your posts that will help people find your resource. Consider starting your own forum if none exist.

Send out a press release to local media and online (try www.prweb.com/PRWeb) detailing the newsworthy aspects of your site. Write articles on your topic for redistribution on other sites (provided they include a link to the original article).

Affiliate Marketing

Now we are ready to make some money! There are many, many affiliate programs available on the web that allow you to join simply by filling out an application. The key is to find products and services your visitors want to buy.

A good place to start is (http://www.linkshare.com/) LinkShare, a sort of affiliate consolidator for many major companies. Browse their affiliate partners and be selective- only choose the ones that will appeal to your audience.

Many companies only offer their affiliate program through their site so don't overlook those programs you glanced at while looking for link partners. Knowledge goods (reports and e-books) are a great product to sell when they relate to your topic. Authors often have an affiliate program available to resellers. Make sure you DO want to recommend the product before offering it for sale.

If there aren't any knowledge goods in your chosen field, why not write your own e-book? Don't repeat general knowledge- have a reason for writing it. A helpful e-book can not only make money, but it can help establish your reputation as an expert.

If you have a newsletter or blog on your site, you can mention the affiliate products you sell for an even bigger boost in sales. Don't lower your credibility by promoting junk! Only promote those things you really believe in.

Selling Advertising

Banner Ads

Banner ads have a bad reputation, but I'm finding that highly targeted banner ads convert like crazy. If you are selling what the reader wants, they will pay attention.

Text Links

This is a slightly controversial tactic, selling text links for link popularity. As long as you are selling links to related sites, it makes sense. When you start accepting paid links from any industry, your page looks silly and in some engines (like Teoma) you confuse their linking communities, which may make your site less relevant. Be careful when accepting paid links!

Google Adsense

Apply for Google Adsense and you can be showing Google ads on your site in no time. Every time a visitor clicks one of the Google links, you earn money.

For many sites, Adsense alone can turn a hobby into a revenue-producing site.
Build a Directory

This is not a short-term quick-money strategy. But a directory can make long term revenue for you!

The problem with most industry directories is that they start out asking for payment, before they are a proven resource. Build your directory first with free listings, possibly requiring a link back in exchange. Once the content and the search engine rankings are there, THEN it's time to charge for listings.

Once you've proven to companies that your directory sends them business (with your free listings) they'll be happy to pay to remain in the directory- it's a no-brainer.

Consider giving new listings a free trial period even after you move to paid listings- your goal is to have the most comprehensive industry directory possible. Once you have that, you've achieved critical mass and it's no longer a question of "should I join" the directory, but "should I pay extra to be featured" in the directory.
Summary

Isn't there a quick way to make money from the internet anymore? Maybe -- maybe if you send enough spam mails about your low cost Viagra affiliate site, you can make enough to allow you to retire in Tahiti, but I doubt it.

Affiliate sites that do nothing but spam the search engines in an effort to gain traffic are having a harder and harder time succeeding as the engines try and deliver the best sites, not duplicates. The time spent trying to stay one step ahead of filters and algorithm changes is better spent building a resource that will grow and continue to produce revenue over time.

This article originally appeared in the High Rankings newsletter.

Scottie Claiborne is the owner of Right Click Web Services, a firm specializing in usability, search engine optimization, and internet marketing. Copyright © 2003 by Right Click Web Services. All rights reserved under U.S. and international law.

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:15:47 PDT

The Importance of Local Search

Although projections and numbers may differ by source, there's no denying that the future of local search is upon us now!

According to a Piper Jaffray 2008 research paper, 30 percent of all queries contain a city, state or zip code. With 2.6 billion local searches performed each month, the Internet has now surpassed print Yellow Pages and newspaper as a primary source for local consumer service information. And the adoption of smart phones will only add to these numbers; 27 percent of all mobile searches are for local information.

The Players: Local Content Publishers

Online consumers seek local information from two primary sources: search engines, such as Google, and Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs), such as City Search.

Search Engines

When an engine user currently conducts a search that includes a zip code, city name or state name, local search results are returned within the main search results. These listings are positioned below paid search results but above organic listings.

Additionally, local results are usually marked on a street map with push pins or presented with some other identifier, helping them stand out. Users may also search specifically for local information within the maps section of a major search engine. Google Local information also powers mobile searches on iPhones and other Google properties, and Yahoo Local information powers the "Nearby Businesses" information on Yahoo! oneSearch.
Internet Yellow Pages

IYPs play a similar role in local space as comparison shopping engines play in retail space. They provide consumers with a search platform dedicated to one specific vertical, which increases search relevancy for purchase-oriented consumers.

And IYPs grow market share effectively by employing aggressive SEO and SEM efforts. It is not uncommon to have more than half of the resulting 20 first page listings (including paid, organic and local listings) lead back to an IYP.

How The Publishers Acquire & Utilize Business Information

The emergence of local search has left publishers scrambling to acquire general business information to augment their miniscule local indexes. Search engines have traditionally garnered their information by deploying scripted search spiders to crawl the Web and pull in new content. They have relied on this methodology to build organic search indexes, which now have billions of web pages that can be referenced.

Due to the nature of information necessary for local search, the search engines and IYPs cannot employ spiders to pull data and must rely entirely on the information pushed to them by third parties. Third party offerings include individual submissions of business listings, listings pulled directly out of print editions of yellow pages, and information gathered by third party, direct marketers such as Acxiom or InfoUSA.

The information acquired is usually limited to business name, address, telephone number and fax number. The accuracy of the information is dependent on the source, and is not frequently updated. Since users' searches tend to be much more comprehensive search engines now need deeper information - products and services offered, brands carried, hours of operation, amenities, specialties, etc. Including such data in business profiles is vital, especially considering how search algorithms operate in local space.

The Ways of the Algorithm

Most local search engine results are determined by the following criteria:

* Geo-proximity to the searched location/zip code
* Appearance of the searched term within the business name
* Appearance of the searched term within the business profile
* User feedback/reviews

Maximizing exposure in local search results entails creating a complete profile that takes advantage of all additional information allowed in the search space.

Caution Ahead: The Challenges Of Local Search

Though thoroughly discussed, local search is just now come to the forefront of online marketing. Much like the early days of search engine optimization, local search currently resembles a "Wild West" environment, untamed by set regulations and established processes. The space is rapidly developing and fluctuating. Currently, the challenges discussed below warrant addressing.

Protecting Your Data

Local search is intended to be a collaborative effort. If a person finds a great new restaurant or dry cleaner, they are ideally encouraged to add it to the local directory. As with Wikipedia, the general population is thought to have the most knowledge of things going on locally.

While Wikipedia has minimal policing, local search is effectively free-reign. Listings can be deleted, filled with false data, or even created erroneously. This has happened on numerous occasions with people altering the business profile of Google, changing the phone number of Yahoo and, changing the Microsoft business services offered to "escort agency". (Danny Sullivan Article and Profile for Steve Ballmer)

Submitting Your Data

With the exception of Google, no local search publisher offers the ability to bulk upload business listings. This requires businesses to have someone manually input each one of their thousands of locations into multiple publisher databases.
Timely Updates

Much like the early days of search engine optimization where we had to wait months for the listings to update - the local search results often require 4-12 weeks before updates are live.

Unfortunately, there is no set schedule and updates are irregular.

Staff Support

Since local business profiles are considered "organic" and not tied to advertising products on the publisher's end, search engines tend to have very few people allocated to uploading the profiles and troubleshooting.

Tracking Performance

The local publishers do not permit the use of URL tracking parameters or phone numbers in organic local space. Therefore, businesses have a difficult time determining how much value local profiles contribute to the bottom line.

Data Merging Issues

The local search publishers pull from multiple data sources in generating a single business profile. In most circumstances, maintaining control over the content displayed within a business profile is extremely difficult.

About the Author:
Rob Aronson Razorfish helps companies build great brands by creating engaging experiences for consumers whereever they live in the digital world www.razorfish.com.

Eleven Common Web Page Design Frustrations

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:08:35 PDT

I was looking for an article which shows some of my frustrations as a custom web design developer and I found the article below posted by Roger C. Parker's on NewEntrepreneur.com website

Eleven Common Web Page Design Frustrations
And How To Cure Them

Information is the ultimate reason for your web site's existence. Your Web site should transparently communicate its content. Anything that interferes with the immediate and intuitive transfer of information between you and your web site visitor undermines your web site's success.

All too often, however, design interferes with communication. The following are my Top Eleven Web site design frustrations along with suggestions showing how you can cure them. Use these as a guide to improving your Web site.

1. Long lines of text
Long lines of text create boring, hard to read Web sites. Visual boredom results when type extends in an unbroken line from the left to the right margin of the screen. Long lines are tiring because your Web site reader's eyes have to make numerous left-to-right shifts. It's also easy to get lost making the transition from the last word of one line to the first word of the next.

Short liner lines of type, like used in this web site, also creates white space to the left and right of each paragraph. This white spaces frames your message and also provides space to place secondary text or visual information (like my book covers, for example!)

If you are using Microsoft Publisher™ 2000, you can use columns to control the placement of text. With programs, like Microsoft® FrontPage™ 97 you can use tables to reduce line length and build visual contrast into every page. With Net Objects Fusions, you can create guides to control text placement.

If you are creating your Web site using HTML, use the Block Quote tag to indent text from the left and right edges of the screen.

2. Large, meaningless graphics
Large graphics take longer to download than small graphics. Long downloading times are justified if the result is meaningful information. All too often, however, your reward for waiting for a graphic to download is only a large logo or an overly-complicated image map.

Respect your Web site visitor's time! Restrict large graphics to occasions where they communicate valuable information.

Equally important, when including photographs, use thumbnails—or reduced sized images—which visitors can click on to load larger versions.

3. Lack of contrast
Foreground/background contrast is necessary for your visitors to easily read your message. To succeed, words have to be clearly separated from the background.

To ensure maximum legibility, avoid text on top of gray or screened backgrounds, i.e. blue text on a light blue backgrounds. Avoid placing text over patterned backgrounds.

If you want to add color, or visual interest, to your page, place the backgrounds to the left or right of the text, rather than behind the text.

4. Bright backgrounds
Bright colors have their place on the Web, but usually not as background colors. Large amounts of bright reds, oranges, yellows or lime green backgrounds are visually tiring and certain to reduce the time visitors spend at your site.

Instead, choose subdued background colors. Restrict bright colors to a few high-impact words, illustrations or graphic accents.

5. Dead ends and broken promises
Strive for consistency. Anything that looks different is likely to be interpreted as a link. Many Web sites, for example, use subheads set in a different color than the text they introduce. These can be easily confused with links.

Always check, and double-check, links to make sure they lead to the information they promise. Avoid links to pages that do not contain the promised information. Avoid links to "work in progress" locations.

6. Lack of consistency
Consistent colors, layouts and type enhance your firm's image and project credibility and professionalism. Your firm's image is undermined, however, when different colors and layouts are used on different pages of your site.

You'll frequently encounter well-designed Home Pages where the text is neatly indented from the edges of the screen, but when you get deeper into the site, you encounter different background colors and long lines of text. Change undermines credibility and, at worse, can cause visitors to wonder if they've visiting a different site.

Take advantage of your software program's text styles feature to maintain consistency. Styles also make it easy to redesign your site with minimum effort.

7. Pages that cannot be printed
Whenever I encounter a Web page I might want to refer back to later, I print it out using my color printer. This works well, unless the text was set in a light color-like white or yellow against a black or blue background. When your print from your browser, the Web page's background color is not printed. This means you print white or yellow ink on white paper. . . hardly readable!

Avoid light text colors if there is any chance at all your Web site visitors may want to print your pages.

8. Centered text
Centered text appears everywhere on the Web, in headlines, titles, even extended text passages. It is is harder to read than text set flush-left/ragged-right. Centered text forces readers to search for the beginning of each line.

Centered text also doesn't look as good as flush-left text because the space surrounding the text is divided between the left and right sides of each line, instead of being concentrated to the right of the text.

.9. Unnecessary graphic accents
Graphic accents, like horizontal rules dividing topics, can easily clutter-up a page and project an amateurish "My First Web Site!" image. Instead of using horizontal rules to break-up a long articles, insert subheads which preview the text that follows.

To reinforce the impact of the subheads, set them bold and surround them with white space above and below them.

10. Oversize pages
Many Web sites force visitors to scroll sideways, in order to see the endings of words along the right-hand margin. This is unsightly and frustrating. It is often caused by long words placed in table columns too narrow to accommodate them. It can also occur when you create your Web site on a computer with a monitor set at a higher resolution than your typical Web site visitor's.

When using tables to organize text placement, check every page of your Web site before posting it. Build in a margin for error by searching for short words to replace long words. Most important, design for the lowest common denominator monitor setting, typically a 640 by 480.

11. Accidental spacing
The appearance of many Web pages is undermined by unnecessary spaces between words or extremely short lines. This are usually caused by the Web site creator inserting Paragraph Break commands that looked good on their particular browser and screen resolution, using their Web site browser's typeface and type size. But, viewed using a different screen resolution or typeface, these Paragraphs breaks often appear in the middle of a line.

Instead of using HTML Paragraph Break tag to break lines, use tables or columns. Column widths will remain the same, regardless of the default typeface or type size used in your Web site visitor's browser.

10 ways to diversify your links for the sake of long-term ranking

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:47:20 PDT

Your site's link profile: learn how to get high-quality and diverse links

So much has been said about link building that reading every new article is like learning all over again that the grass is green and the sky is blue. However, some things need more accurate definition. You are usually told that nearly all links are important, and the more you get, the better. It's not exactly true.

Search engines treat your incoming links as natural and do not suspect you of buying links if your link profile is diverse (i.e. you have links from different sites that are relevant to yours). Dofollow, one-way links from thematically close but new and relatively small sites, might be as useful as links from older and larger authoritative multipage sites. Especially valuable are in-content links with keyword-rich anchor text.

10 ways to diversify your links for the sake of long-term ranking

Start a Squidoo Lens on your topic.
Create unique quality content, use appropriate keywords and link to your site. You will then have relevant dofollow links from a site that search engines like.
Comment on dofollow blogs.
There are some blogs that have removed the "nofollow" tag on their comments. Most of them are, of course, moderated, so add only valuable and useful comments.

Here are some places to find such blogs:
Comment Hunt
DoFollow Blogs
Courtney Tuttle DoFollow blogs
InlineSEO
Become a guest blogger.
Who knows more about your products than you do? Write a blog post on the theme of your expertise and suggest it to big blogs in your niche. Even if you can't make text links to your site in an article, still quite effective because your author link at least points there, and you will start gaining some reputation and visitors.
Write testimonials.
Offer webmasters or software vendors testimonials on their products or services that you use. Usually a link to your site will be a polite response in exchange for the testimonial.
Contribute to wikis.
The largest known wiki is Wikipedia, where you can add information about your site where it is appropriate. Remember, you should provide information, not advertising. Look for wikis that are related to your website and mention your site as an external resource - if it improves reader experience.
Post press releases.
Use press release distribution services; hundreds of press release websites will list press releases inexpensively or even free of charge and include keyword-rich anchored links back to your website.

Here are some such services:
PRLog
OpenPR
PR.com
I-newswire
Submit your site to relevant directories.
Yes, it sounds old-school in the age of social media, but links from niche people-edited directories are still valuable. Besides, even if these links do not greatly increase your rankings, they will bring you targeted, highly relevant traffic.
Submit articles to article directories.
Try writing unique articles with your keywords and link them to your site, then submit these articles to article directories (use the Web CEO Submission tool to take advantage of the most popular ones).
Take part in Yahoo Answers.
Where appropriate, respond to questions on Yahoo Answers and add a link to your site as an external resource to get more information on the topic.
Use social media.
Add social bookmarks icons to your articles and remember to submit your texts to social media sites. If your content appeals to social media users and becomes popular on one or more high-traffic social sites, your site will be linked to from numerous sites around the Web, beyond the original social sites you have submitted it to.

And remember, links are not only a way to increase your search engine rankings; they are a great way of attracting new targeted traffic that is converted into buyers. That is what you want, isn't it?

Source: WebSeo

Simple And Successful SEO Strategies - On Page Optimization

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:39:30 PDT

SEO doesn't have to be complex and by following these simple on-page optimization techniques you can give your SEO campaign the perfect start.

SEO is often seen as being a difficult and in-depth process, but the reality is that by following some reasonably common sense guidelines it is possible to get good rankings. That's not to say that optimization is a simple or quick process; there are, unfortunately, no short cuts. Your SEO efforts should be a concerted and long term effort in order that you will enjoy the best possible results and should incorporate both on-page and off-page optimization techniques. By following the on-page SEO strategies below you can set a strong foundation to all your SEO work.

Keyword Research

Before you begin penning content and writing title and meta tags you first need to research the keywords you will use on each of your pages. Using the wrong keywords can negatively impact your entire campaign, causing you to lose untold hours and days of work and eventually forcing you to concede that you made the wrong decision and start all over again.

The most appropriate and most beneficial keywords are popular enough that they will enjoy regular searches but without being prohibitively competitive or overly generic. A number of keyword research tools exist and your competitors' websites are a good place to start your early research. Ensure keywords are targeted specifically to the type of content you will provide as well as the service or product you will be selling. More targeted keywords will result in more targeted visitors and targeted visitors mean greater conversion rates and an improved return on your efforts.

Niche And Semantically Related Keywords

A good strategy is to incorporate a reasonable list of competitive keywords with less competitive ones. The more niche keywords will serve you well during the early days of your website and over time you should be able to start competing for the more challenging of the keywords you use. Also incorporate semantically or topically related keywords into your keyword list because the search engines are placing more and more emphasis on those pages that use related keywords as well as primary keywords.

Accessibility And Standards

Site accessibility is an integral part of good website design but it should also be considered an important factor in any SEO strategy. Using standards based code for your website will help to ensure that anybody that wishes to access and view your website will be able to do so. It will also mean that the spiders used by search engines will be able to access and index your pages effectively ensuring that you get the full credit for your site.

Navigation And Intra-Linking

Your navigation menu and internal links should be prominently placed, easy to see, and easy to follow for the spiders. It is good practice to include a text link from the home page to a compliant sitemap on your site, alleviating any potential problems that might arise from broken links or the use of graphical or flash based navigation menus. You can also consider adding links into the main body of your content, although too many will make the page difficult to read and therefore diminish the overall effectiveness so don't get too carried away.

Title And Meta Tags

While search engines do not specifically use the meta tags to help assess the value of a page like they once did, meta tags are still critical to good SEO performance. The title and description tags that you add at the top of a page are used in various ways including in the compiling and display of Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). This is the first thing a potential site visitor will see from your site so this mini listing needs to be as effective as any paid advert or PPC ad. Poorly written titles and descriptions can put many readers off viewing your pages so a little time and effort here can have a very positive effect.

Using your keywords in the title and the description is good practice because these will be highlighted in the search results if they were used in the search query itself. This will make your result more prominent and instantly identify your page as being relevant to the user. Don't needlessly use keywords, however, and don't throw extra keywords into the description at the cost of a well written, short ad.

Other Formatting Tags

On-page content should always be written with the visitor in mind, although obviously it can still be optimized for search engines. As such, proper page structure is important to your reader as well as to the engines. H1 and H2 tags are an effective way of breaking up page content, and give readers the chance to skim through a page and determine its relevance.

A page should only contain a single H1 tag at the top of the content but can include multiple H2 and H3 tags. Alt tags on images should also be included and these as well as the actual file path to the image itself can include important keywords (but do make sure that they actually make sense and are more than just a keyword thrown in for the sake of SEO).

Page Content Optimization

Finally, we get to the heart of the page - the content itself. Use the keywords you researched for a page including semantically related keywords. Write as naturally and appealingly as possible while keeping those keywords in mind and don't get carried away stuffing or cramming them into the body of the text. Not only is this unappealing to readers but is seriously frowned upon by the search engines.

The reader really is the most important aspect of your content. If the majority of your visitors are coming from the search engines remember that they arrived using specific keywords. This means that they are searching for equally specific information relating to those keywords - make sure you deliver on the promise that you made in your title and description tags.

About the Author: Matt Jackson - WebWiseWords is a content writing service enabling website owners and online business owners to buy web content tailored to their needs. Services include affordable and high quality SEO content writing and more.

A Flash In The Night

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:49:53 PDT

How To Light Up Your Website....

As a site-building technology, Flash is hot because it offers visitors the smart and beautiful content presentation and interactivity that everybody wants to see. The reverse of the coin is that the Flash code is still insuperable for search engine robots and they are not as good at getting your Flash website indexed as the pure HTML sites are.

The good news is in the past few years search engines have made a breakthrough in Flash indexation. Google can now read SWF files of all kinds, including buttons, menus, self-contained Flash websites with their content, and extract URLs embedded in Flash.

Adobe in its "SWF searchability FAQ" says they are "working not only with Google but Yahoo! to enable one of the largest fundamental improvements in web search results by making the Flash file format (SWF) a first-class citizen in searchable web content. Google is using the optimized Adobe Flash Player technology now, so users will immediately see improved search results. As Google spiders index more SWF content, search results will continue to get better".

MSN/Live/Bing has been developing its own format, Silverlight, to compete with Flash, so Microsoft is unlikely to develop the toolset to read Flash files.

While waiting for the news from the major search engines, you may have your Flash site indexed and ranked by all search engines.

If you are trying to choose a site-building technology, the most popular strategy is to build an (X)HTML site that uses textual content along with other technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, and Flash instead of including everything in a single Flash file.
If your site is already built in pure Flash, and you just want to optimize the content, the problem is that you will have only one page anyway. The disadvantage of such sites is that there isn't a page structure to organize the content, internal linking, and unique page titles. As a solution, you can create distinct HTML pages to represent each Flash "page" and install the Flash movie on each HTML page.
Google can't discover and index textual content written on images, so don't put any there. Instead, add your texts directly into the Flash file. This way Google will discover and index it.
Get more inbound links to your site. This will raise your ranking in major search engines. Pay attention to the keywords used in link text, they should correlate with your site keyword profile, mainly TITLE and META tags (these tags are vital for Flash sites) of the pages that the links point to.
Give your visitors a choice between viewing an HTML or Flash version as soon as they enter the home page. Add a sample Flash movie with a short message:
"Flash Player v.6 or higher is required to view this site. Download it from the Adobe website or skip this intro to view the HTML version of the site".

By adding a link to the HTML version you provide visitors who have no Flash player an alternative to leaving your site.
Consider using SWFObject for programming. SWFObject is a flexible way to publish your Flash content, while also providing crawlable alternative HTML content. It detects whether or not a browser supports Flash and then serves either a Flash or HTML version of the website based on detection.
Some websites use Flash to force the browser to display headers, pull quotes, or other textual elements in a font that may not be installed on the user's computer. In this case a technique like sIFR will help: it lets users without Flash player read a page, since the content / navigation is actually in HTML - it's just displayed by an embedded Flash object. By using it, you will make your site more visitor-friendly.

Source: Find more information about sIFR at http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/sifr/.

10 High-Profit Redesign Priorities

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:20:01 PDT

Summary:
Several usability findings lead directly to higher sales and increased customer loyalty. These design tactics should be your first priority when updating your website.

1. Email Newsletters
Email newsletters let you maintain a relationship with your customers that lasts beyond their visits to your site. The newsletter is the perfect website companion because it answers a different user need: newsletters keep customers informed and in touch with the company; websites give customers detailed information and let them perform business transactions.

Newsletters are fairly cheap. They require little technology and mustn't be published too frequently. If you don't have a newsletter, then publishing one is probably the single-highest ROI action you can take to improve your Internet presence. If you do have a newsletter, then improving it according to research findings will likely make it several times more valuable to your organization. (Most of the newsletters we've tested failed to meet users' expressed desire for good communication.)

Newsletters have one more benefit: they are the primary way to liberate your site from dependence on search engines. In the long run, achieving this liberation is one of the most important strategic challenges facing Internet managers.

2. Informative Product Pages
The product pages on e-commerce sites, marketing sites, and B2B sites all suffer from information deficit. It's rare to see product descriptions that tell prospects everything they need to know to make a purchasing decision.

In my recent book, I present data showing that poor product information accounted for 8% of the usability problems on the websites we tested. Even worse, poor product information accounted for 10% of the user failures (that is, cases where users gave up, as opposed to "just" being delayed or annoyed). Designing product pages according to user needs is a highly targeted way to encourage sales at a point where users have already indicated interest by virtue of visiting the page.

You need detailed product information, but it must be written in a way that makes sense to people who aren't experts in your field. For example, on the product page for a laptop, don't be like Dell and tell people that the screen is "WSXGA+." Tell them it's 1680 x 1050 pixels. (Be honest: did you know this? And you're probably five times as geeky as a normal person.) Or, better yet, be like Apple and show different screen resolutions next to each other so users can see how much data is visible with each.

3. High-Quality Photography
One of the simplest ways to improve product pages is to show better photographs. For the hero shot at the top of the page, show the most representative photo in a small size. Below that, offer several additional photos that show different angles and close-up details. Also, remember mistake #10 of the top-10 Web design mistakes of 2005: linking from small pictures to pictures that are only slightly bigger. Instead, link to photos that are as close to full-screen enlargements as possible.

Using huge enlargements might seem to contradict the guideline about fast response times for downloading Web pages. But there's a big difference between bloating a navigational page with irrelevant graphics and showing a big photo after the user asked for it. In the first case, the slow download interrupts the user's flow. In the second case, the delay is expected, and while delays are never welcome, they are less of a problem when they're clearly necessary to fulfill a user request.

A great downside of the online medium is that people can't touch and feel your products. But close-ups and quality photographs can still give users a good approximation of a product's tactile qualities, and they are essential to making people feel good about buying online.

For software products or online services, show full-resolution screen shots instead of photos.

4. Product Differentiation and Comparisons
You must soothe user fears about buying the wrong product, or they'll postpone their purchases and probably never buy from your site. When you have multiple products in the same category, you must explain product differences so clearly that it's obvious to people without industry expertise why they should buy one particular product over the others.

Product differentiation is obviously easier for companies that simplify their product lines in the first place. Why offer many different products with virtually no true differences? For example, Dell has four different models of laptops: Inspiron, Latitude, Precision, and XPS, several of which are available in six different trim lines. If there's a clear difference between the models, it's not explained well on the website.

Even if you have a small and clearly defined product line, you must make the differences blatantly obvious on your site.

Comparison tools can also help users choose and thus overcome decision paralysis and facilitate sales. But such tools work well only when they illustrate key differences in a concise and unambiguous manner. Too often, websites take the easy way out and simply throw up a huge table of specifications without highlighting the points where products differ.

5. Support for Reordering
I've already mentioned the best way to get repeat business: offer an email newsletter, which will keep customers thinking about you even when they're not ready to buy. Then, when they want to spend money, they'll remember you.

To make people spend more money, make it easy to reorder. People often need the same things again and again. Why require them to navigate five levels down your site each time? In B2B, customers often need to order supplies, spare parts, or accessories for equipment they've already bought, so you should also facilitate those types of supplementary orders.

In one of our studies last month, test participants especially appreciated it when FreshDirect, an online grocer, let them reorder from their previous shopping lists.

Reordering is a matter of total user experience, beyond the website's user interface. Compose your product line with a view toward reordering. Continue to carry classic products so that people can order new copies of things they like. If you need to launch new products, keep sizes and similar parameters the same. For example, a customer who bought a sweater last year should be able to buy this year's model in the same size and be guaranteed that it'll fit equally well. Keeping sizes identical is much more important for etailing than for the physical retail channel, where customers can try things on before buying.

6. Simplified Text
You can usually double website or intranet usability simply by rewriting the text to follow the guidelines for online content. Better writing is probably the single most important improvement you can make to your site, but it appears fairly far down the top-10 list because it's not a one-time fix. You must hire good writers for all your projects, train them in writing for the Web, and have all of their content edited by even better editors who are even more knowledgeable about content usability.

Expensive though they may be, editors are always worth the cost.

7. Catering to Seniors
Older people are the fastest-growing segment of Internet users. In fact, they are virtually the only remaining growth market in rich countries, where most of the younger people who want to get online already have accounts.

Many senior citizens are rich and have time on their hands. When it becomes difficult for them to get around, the Internet becomes a natural place for them to spend some of their vast piles of money. Seniors are also less into piracy and tend to be more loyal than fad-chasing young people.

Best of all, you can take advantage of the fact that most websites discriminate horribly against older users. Even government websites that supposedly target retirees are designed according to guidelines for thirty-somethings. Because so many sites are hard for them to use, seniors will shower you with business if you're the honorable exception who acknowledges their special needs. (And, those needs aren't even that special -- it's much easier to make sites usable for seniors than for users with disabilities, plus there are many more seniors and they tend to be richer.)

8. Gift-Giving Support
Wish lists and gift certificates are low-cost features that give you incremental sales and introduce your site to new customers.

9. Search
Maybe search shouldn't be on this list; even though the benefits from improving it are immense, the required investment is fairly high -- certainly higher than for the other redesign initiatives listed here. Thus, the cost/benefit ratio is not as stunningly favorable for search as it is for my other recommendations. It's still favorable, though, so you should work on it.

Users increasingly depend on search as a primary interface to the Web. While search is getting fairly good for the Internet at large, it remains miserable on most websites and intranets.

Fixing your site's search requires that you buy and install better search software, and then tune it for your content and user queries (by adapting the spell-checking suggestions, for example). Worse, you must fix your content so that it's searchable. For example, you have to write meaningful page titles that actually explain the page's content so that people will know what they'll get when they click on a search hit. You also have to write using your users' vocabulary.

While it's expensive to rewrite your content for findability, doing so also improves your standing in external search engines, and SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the highest-ROI Internet marketing tactics. This is a much better investment than running ads that most users won't see due to banner blindness.

10. User Testing
User testing should really be #1 on this list because of its ability to set your project right with almost no investment. But I know that most readers tune out when I harp too much on the need for testing: people prefer to be told what to do rather than run their own studies.

However unpopular, I still recommend that you do your own user testing. There are always issues that are unique to your own industry that can't be resolved by reading general research insights. And remember: usability studies can be cheap, especially when you use low-cost paper prototypes that let you test an interface while it's still in the early design phase.
Bonus Tactic: Loyalty Program
For 10 years, I've recommended loyal-user programs, such as frequent-browser points modeled after airlines' frequent-flyer miles. Virtually no websites have taken me up on this idea, so I can't claim that it's a proven high-ROI tactic like those on the official top-10 list. But, take loyalty programs as a bonus idea: it's likely to be one of the main ways the Internet can fight back against search engine overlords and return more of the value to the websites that create it.

We've recently been observing people shopping online and are seeing some user loyalty emerge: more users are now starting out at a preferred site rather than a search engine. Perhaps we're finally seeing some websites that are good enough to be worthy of a bit of loyalty.

To encourage more loyalty, reward your repeat users. Discount offers and free shipping are the obvious ideas, but a website is a computer and we can go beyond these old-world approaches. For example, there are products in limited supply that sell out every holiday shopping season; give your loyal users first dibs on your allocation -- or let them register for future allocations before you make them available to the general public.
Serving Customers, Not Chasing Hype
The high-ROI ideas I have highlighted here have one thing in common: they add value to your site by enhancing its value for customers. That is, they give users what they want and need. These ideas are not the latest over-hyped stories the trade press loves to cover. Users want you to get back to basics and invest in the simple things that really matter to them.

Interface design is about making money for the company. Execution and workmanship are what you need, not fashion and advanced features. Do the basics, and do them well.

Source: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html
Author: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox

10 Tips to Grow Your Business Plain and Simple

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:04:02 PDT

Like any other business the online store has to follows some basic rules to achieve the success. It is not simply have a nice custom web site design. You need to invest time and effort to succeed!

“Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.” Albert Einstein

The majority of small businesses operate at 60% of their potential I once heard. While unable to obtain the source it seemed accurate or maybe even high. *The Small Business Association reports that “two-thirds of new employer establishments survive two years, and 44% survive at least four years.” Read on for 10 tips to help you develop and grow a strong, solid business foundation.

1- Solid Plan with a Clear Simple Vision- Think of the impact you would like your business to have in the world. Think big! You may never reach your ideal vision, but the vision itself is so grand that your team can get excited about it and it sets you up to be unlimited. Then back up. Look at what needs to happen to get there. Create a solid plan with realistic short and long term goals that are achievable.

2- Focus on Profitability vs. Revenue- While revenue is important, high revenue does not add value if your expenses are just as high. What can you do to create more profit? Begin developing various streams of income. What expenses can be reduced or eliminated? How can you operate more efficiently? Think profit.

3- Work “in” and “on” your business- We get so caught up in daily tasks “in” our business we forget to step back to take a wider view from the outside. See it through the customer’s eyes. Look at how it fits into the community. Prepare the future of the company. On the other hand, we can get so comfortable working “on” our business from a planning or management stand point that we forget to step in to talk with customers, handle details, and experience what the employees face daily.

4- Automate and Create Systems- What do you need to automate? What system can you put in place that would free up your time or make you more money? What tasks need to be eliminated, systematized, or delegated. What system would help your employees be more effective and provide the best service? Is there a system that needs to be upgraded? Automation and systems help your business be consistent and efficient.

5- Consistent Marketing Plan- Marketing expert Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerilla Marketing has said that “I hate to admit this, but mediocre marketing with commitment works better than brilliant marketing without commitment.” It is important to have a marketing plan in place that is consistently and persistently being carried out on a daily basis....not just when you need more customers.

6- Increase Value to Your Customers- Give more than customers ask for and more than they expect. There are 3 convenience stores by my neighborhood. The first one built I visited regularly and was satisfied. The second I visited a few times and had to wait every time to get checked out so haven’t returned. Every time I got gas at the third store I was greeted over the intercom with a friendly “Hi, how are you today?". Inside they were friendly and provided kids with a free lollipop. They even added a Post Office. Who do you think got my business on a regular basis with just a little extra effort? The one that gives more than expected. What value can you provide that will increase your “Wow” factor?

7- Innovate- React to the customer’s needs before they know they need it. Sell what the customer wants, then give them what they need. How do you know what they need? Take time to talk to them. At a minimum talk to your best customers and learn from each one you’ve lost. Find out what they would like and what their challenges are. Stay current on market trends in your industry.

8- Leadership vs. Management- Empower your staff to manage themselves. Do you really want to spend your time problem solving? Train them well. Make sure they know the vision of the company and they are on board because there is a personal win in place for them. The personal win gives the employee motivation to cooperate as part of the team.

9- Well Oiled Machine vs. Chaos- Is each section of your business operating efficiently while working together towards a common goal? Or is your team expending time and energy putting out daily fires. What shift would move your business out of crisis/ problem-solving to operating with ease?

10- Develop YOU! - Take one minute to hold your breathe. As you are holding think about what you really want. See what happens. You may have had trouble thinking about what you want because your needs were not being met. When you take care of yourself and feel strong, healthy, happy, and have time and space in your life, then you can focus on what you want and attract more to your business.

Take one step at a time to build a strong, solid business. Along the way build lots of reserves...time, money, space, revenue sources, future products, etc. and begin filling the gap to your potential.

Today’s Dare to Take Action Challenge:
Focus on one tip above for one week. What changes can you make? Take action, build momentum, and move on to the next as you develop a strong foundation to grow on… Starting Now!

* Source- Small Business Association Office of Advocacy- Frequently Asked Questions, updated 6/06, www.sba.gov/advo/stats/sbfaq.pdf

Copyright 2006- 2nd Revision © Beth A. Tabak, All rights reserved.

Links for 2009-06-07 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Web Designs Best Practices
Web Designs Best Practices, tips and advice

Driving Visitors To YOUR Site

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:48:06 PDT

Forcing Visitors to YOUR Website!

A good way to send traffic to your site is to post something that directs people’s attention on one of the networking sites.

(Of course, why stop at one? “Working the Web 2.0 sites” will become one of your core strategies in building traffic to your homepage. But that’s for later. Begin with one or two at most, till you get the hang of it.)

In case you’re curious about how many of these sites there are to choose from, and what their names are, click on http://go2web20.net for a look. By the way, it’s easier to read if you first click on the “sort by name” button at the top right hand side of the display.

I defy you not to be shocked! To scroll through the list, click on the purple down arrow on the bottom of your screen.

Let’s begin with that bookmarking site that brought its owner a fortune, http://del.icio.us.

But what exactly does Web 2.0 do?

A pretty (or gorgeous) face will attract admiring glances, but it takes a appealing personality, and a good helping of character, to sustain a potential partner’s interest beyond the first date.

In a similar fashion, a website can be in the fortunate situation of getting lots of exploratory views, because its owner has taken effective steps to promote it. He or she may even be in the enviable position of having a truly fantastic site, oozing taste, and with widgets galore.

Oh, it’ll get the “admiring glances” all right. But will it attract the sustained interest that’s critical to building the word-of-mouth buzz, which will attract many others and before long turn into a stampede of traffic? How to Drive Traffic to YOUR Website

If those first few people who visit don’t find much of substance, why would they rate your site favourably? Why would they bother to tag it? Why would they blog your site as a sight worth visiting?

Why would they email, IM, sms (etc) their friends about it? See, if they DO NOT do this, then instead of seeing a stampede of traffic, and sales galore of whatever product or service you’re selling, you’re going to be like the space ship that exploded on the launch pad. Looked the goods, went nowhere.

The three most important things

As I’m sure you are aware, there’s a saying in the property game that the three most important things about a property when it comes time to sell are (in order) location, location and location.

If we transpose that to websites which we want to create a stampede of traffic towards, the three most important things are without doubt

1. content,
2. content and
3. content.

Now I’m not stating that this is the ONLY thing of any importance; that would be crazy. But it is the one thing which without which little else will matter.

Take a look at ANY of the high-traffic sites on the sites (go and check on alexa.com if you need some help with that), and you’ll find that without exception, they all deliver a product or a service which a large number of people deem to be important. They provide something which makes life (work, gambling, sex or whatever else is a high priority for lots of people) easier, better or more enjoyable in some way. They all provide value, in the eyes of the marketplace.

Some of these sites are attractive-looking, some of them are just ok; others are just plain ugly. But few regard their aesthetics as being of the utmost importance. It’s what’s on there that matters.

Here’s what people are asking: Does this content answer my questions, wants or needs; does it reward my time and attention? Is my time well spent by vistiting it?

Could I safely recommend it to my friends, especially my online community friends, who trust my judgment — at least somewhat?…

Why not check out my website at Looking for more info on Web 2.0? for more information on the Power of Web 2.0!!

Want to know a proved method to make money? Then forex trading is just for you!!!

Source: digishit.com

Offline Promotion Methods For Your Internet Business

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:34:46 PDT

Accordingly the digishit.com the success of a website is not only related to the custom web design and an online marketing but also the offline promotion methods to implement your website business.

When it comes to marketing your company, things like social media, comment marketing or article marketing naturally come to mind. While these are tried and true ways to advertise an internet business, you may not have considered the fact that traditional marketing can often be as effective, if not more effective, than online marketing.

Why traditional marketing is important ? And Why Do We Use it To Promote?

Why is that? Why does traditional marketing often have a bigger impact on your internet business? There are several reasons:

Overlooked marketing is portable. If you run a small ad in a weekly newspaper, a reader can rip the ad out and take it with them. A banner ad on a website is there only while the reader is on the site the ad is located.

Overlooked marketing is personal. Personal marketing techniques – from passing out business cards, to putting up a flyer at the community board – tend to connect with people on a different level than online marketing techniques. In the traditional world, people know there’s a real individual behind that business card. Online, there’s just a computer.

Overlooked marketing is proven. We’re just beginning to scratch the surface of the marketing potential online. In the long term, it’s likely that most marketing efforts will include, if not exclusively, Internet efforts. Still, traditional techniques have been studied, in some cases, for decades. We know what works traditionally, and we know what doesn’t.

So Where Can You Get Started?

There are colleges and business schools that offer major degrees in marketing. I can’t give you all of the advice those programs could offer here on my little blog. I can, however, suggest some converting ways you can get started in your traditional marketing efforts:

Business cards: This is the easiest way to recruit visitors to your website traditionally. Hand out business cards everywhere – on the bus, at the diner, even in your kids’ school on parents’ night.

Community news: Most newspapers and public television stations offer free “community news” announcements. Create a special offer or even host an event to tell people about your products.

Networking: I’m not talking MySpace or Twitter here, I’m talking about traditional networking. Converse with your friends, co-workers and former employers. Give them the details on what you’re up to with your business, and recruit them as referral based marketers.

No, you won’t get as much traffic from traditional marketing, but the traffic you do get is more likely to be ready to convert!

Learn how to build more website traffic for your sites in any niche.

Source:digishit.com

12 Steps To A Better Web site

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:59:26 PDT

Accordingly Mark Angeletti, the web site design success is basically resumed in 12 steps:

1. Know Your Target Audience
Before any development can take place you must know your viewers browsing habits. It is critical to your website's success that it reflect the values of your viewers. If your target market is the affluent business professional then it should reflect that with a clean easy to navigate and read design. If your website's viewers are younger adults then a more relaxed and informal look may be acceptable. The key is to know your market and build accordingly. It's your target audience that dictates the design of your site- not you.

2. What's the Theme of Your Site
Your website should have a clear and decisive theme. A viewer should know exactly what your website is all about after reading the first paragraph of the index page. If you are selling a product or service it should be evident within the first 30 seconds what that product or service is. If your business offers multiple products, it's best to dedicate a unique page for each product rather than try to sell them all from a single page.

3. The Need for Speed
Let's face it - people are in a hurry. Nobody likes to wait for anything and the Internet is no exception. No matter how much faster the Internet connections are today compared to years gone by it still just doesn't seem fast enough. In fact, many studies show that the faster technology advances, the faster people expect things to be.
With this in mind, how is your websites speed? Viewers should be reading your sites content within 10 to 15 seconds and as noted should know exactly what they will get by spending their precious time at your site.

4. K.I.S.S
No I'm not talking about the old rock band from the 80's with all the makeup. I'm talking about that old saying, Keep It Simple Stupid. If your website's navigation is not intuitive allowing viewers to easily navigate and find what they're looking for, well then perhaps your competitions is.
It's been said that a user should not have to drill-down or click more than 3 times to get to what they are looking for. Coincidentally they can also get to your competition within 3 clicks.

5. Consistency
You will often times hear a golfer tell you the most important part of a golf swing is 'consistency'. You would be wise to also strive for consistency. Your site should have a consistent look, feel, and design across all pages. It can be quite distracting and confusing to the viewer if each page in your site has a different look or navigation to it. It is wise to keep colors, themes, navigation and design consistent throughout the entire site.

6. Are You Credible
If your customers don't believe you to be a credible then all the time, effort and money spent in design and development of your site will be for not. Because of the impersonal nature of the Internet it tends to breed a certain level of mistrust. It's up to you to set the minds of your viewers at ease and create a level of trust.
Two ways that this can be achieved is through the use of a clear and prominently displayed privacy statement as well as your contact information. If you are unwilling to provide this information to your customers, how can they trust you enough to make a purchase?

7. Money Back Guarantee
There is no better way to put your customers at ease then to offer a no exceptions money back guarantee. It shows that you believe in your product or service enough to assume all the risk.

8. Make Payment Easy
This is perhaps one of the single biggest reasons why Amazon.com has become as successful as they have. Make sure your payment process is clear, easy to access and intuitive to use. Eliminate as many steps as possible. Do not ask for more information that is necessary to complete the transaction.
Be sure to monitor your web logs to see if there is a trend of your customers getting to the payment screen and then bailing out. If this is a trend then you need to rethink your payment process.

9. Search Engine Optimization
According to a study by Jupiter Media Matrix over 55% of all Internet purchases begin with a search engine. But 93% of these consumers do not look past the first two pages of search engine results.
To ensure that your web site is ranked high in the search engine listings you need to make sure that your site is correctly optimized. You've come to the right place.

10. Accessibility
"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." -- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web.
While Berners-Lee made this statement over a decade ago it still rings true today. By having an accessible web site for all viewers you are reaching as much as the market as possible.
You can learn more about accessibility at the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) by W3C.

11. Compatibility
While Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser still dominates the lion's share of the market the competition is thickening and will likely continue to do so. It's important that you develop your web site to be as cross-browser friendly as possible.
Compatibility will become even more important in time - when people start surfing the web from alternative sources other than a desktop computer, such as a PDA, mobile phone, car display or wrist-watch. To help you achieve a cross-browser design - refer to the W3C's HTML standards validity check.

12. Content
You will often hear the statement, "Content is King." While this may or may not be true, one thing is for certain, if you want a high search engine listing you need to feed the spiders well. That means serving well tagged content that is keyword loaded. Each page should focus on 2 to 3 keywords and have enough content for the spiders to get the gist of the page.

Build a Sitemap to Put your Site on the Map

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:42:20 PDT

What is a Sitemap?

It is extremely important for search engines to have their index up to date. That is why Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask jointly support the sitemaps protocol. The simplest form of a sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site, along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is relative to other URLs across the site) so that search engines can crawl the site more intelligently.

Sitemaps are particularly beneficial on Web sites where some areas of the Web site are not available through the browsable interface, or Webmasters use rich Ajax or Flash content search engines do not normally process.

Sitemaps supplement and do not replace the existing crawl-based mechanisms search engines use to discover URLs. And using the Sitemaps protocol does not guarantee the indexing of all Web pages. However, a sitemap provides crawlers with hints that help them do a better job of crawling the site.

Sitemaps Protocol

The Sitemaps Protocol format consists of XML tags or may be just a plain text list of URLs. The file itself must be UTF-8 encoded.

Here is a sample sitemap that contains just one URL and uses all optional tags:

"http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">

http://www.example.com/
2005-01-01
monthly
0.8

...

Within each record:

loc is a required field, representing the URL of the Web page.
lastmod is an optional field in the W3C Datetime format (e.g., YYYY-MM-DD and HH-MM-SS if necessary), representing the last time the URL was known to change.
changefreq is an optional field representing how frequently the page is likely to change. Valid values include always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, never.
priority is an optional field representing the relative importance of this URL in the Web site.

The full specification of the protocol is available at Sitemaps.org.

Sitemaps, SEO, and Usability

The main benefits of a Sitemap from the SEO point of view are:

With a sitemap search engines can crawl pages that aren't otherwise discoverable;
You can give search engines information about pages' priority with optional tag in the sitemap. This can help them to order the crawling of the Web site based on priority information;
You can use two more optional tags: "lastmod" tells search engines when a page last changed, and "changefreq" indicates how often the page is likely to change.

In addition to providing more intelligent navigation for search engines, sitemaps are useful as a secondary navigation aide. Research studies confirm that a sitemap is an important benefit for visitors because it gives them an overview of the site's areas at a single glance. Besides being dedicated to the visualization of the information architecture, sitemaps act as a guide to a Web site.

Source: Web CEO

SEO What to Avoid?

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:03:31 PDT

Avoiding Top SEO Mistakes
By Robin Dale (c) 2009

Following are the 9 Biggest SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Mistakes which Web Designers & Web Developers should avoid.

Splash Page

I've seen this mistake many times where people put up just a big banner image and a link "Clíck here to enter" on their homepage. The worst case - the "enter" link is embedded in the Flash object, which makes it impossible for the spiders to follow the link.

This is fine if you don't care about what a search engine knows about your site; otherwise, you're making a BIG mistake. Your homepage is probably your website's highest ranking page and gets crawled frequently by web spiders. Your internal pages will not appear in the search engine index without the proper linking structure to internal pages for the spider to follow.

Your homepage should include (at minimum) target keywords and links to important pages.

Non-spiderable Flash Menus

Many designers make this mistake by using Flash menus such as those fade-in and animated menus. They might look cool to you, but they can't be seen by the search engines; and thus the links in the Flash menu will not be followed.

Image and Flash Content

Web spiders are like a text-based browser, they can't read the text embedded in the graphic image or Flash. Most designers make this mistake by embedding the important content (such as target keywords) in Flash and image.

Overuse of Ajax

A lot of developers are trying to impress their visitors by implementing massive Ajax features (particularly for navigation purposes), but did you know that it is a big SEO mistake? Because, ajax content is loaded dynamically, so it is not spiderable or indexable by search engines.

Another disadvantage of Ajax - since the address URL doesn't reload, your visitor cannot send the current page to their friends.

Versioning of Theme Design

For some reason, some designers love to version their theme design into sub level folders (i.e. domain.com/v2, v3, v4) and redirect to the new folder. Constantly changing the main root location may cause you to lose backlink counts and ranking.

"Click Here" Link Anchor Text

You probably see this a lot where people use "Clíck here" or "Learn more" as the linking text. This is great if you want to be ranked high for "Click Here". But, if you want to tell the search engine that your page is important for a topic, then use, that topic/keyword in your link anchor text. It's much more descriptive (and relevant) to say "learn more about {keyword topic}"

Warning: Don't use the EXACT same anchor text everywhere on your website. This can sometimes be seen as search engine spam too.

Common Title Tag Mistakes

Same or Similar Title Text:

Every page on your site should have a unique title tag with the target keywords in it. Many developers make the mistake of having the same or similar title tags throughout the entire site. That's like telling the search engine that EVERY page on your site refers to the same topic and one isn't any more unique than the other.

One good example of bad Title Tag use would be the default WordPress theme. In case you didn't know, the title tag of the default WordPress theme isn't that useful: Site Name > Blog Archive > Post Title. Why isn't this search engine friendly? Because, every single blog post will have the same text "Site Name > Blog Archive >" at the beginning of the Title Tag. If you really want to include the site name in the title tag, it should be at the end: Post Title | Site Name.

Exceeding the 65 Character Limit:

Many bloggers write very long post titles. So what? In search engine result pages, your title tag is used as the link heading. You have about 65 characters (including spaces) to get your message across or risk it getting cut off.

Keyword Stuffing the Title:

Another common mistake people tend to make is overfilling the title tag with keywords. Saying the same thing 3 times doesn't make you more relevant. Keyword stuffing in the Title Tag is looked at as search engine spam (not good). But it might be smart to repeat the same word in different ways:

"Photo Tips & Photography Techniques for Great Pictures" "Photo" and "Photography" are the same word repeated twice but in different ways because your audience might use either one when performing a search query.

Empty Image Alt Attribute

You should always describe your image in the alt attribute. The alt attribute is what describes your image to a blind web user. Guess what? Search engines can't see images so your alt attribute is a factor in illustrating what your page is relevant for.

Hint: Properly describing your images can help your ranking in the image search results. For example, Google image search brings me hundreds of referrals everyday for the search terms "abstract" and "dj".

Unfriendly URLs

Most blog or CMS platforms have a friendly URL feature built-in, however, not every blogger is taking advantage of this. Friendly URL's are good for both your human audience and the search engines. The URL is also an important spot where your keywords should appear.

Example of Friendly URL: domain.com/page-title
Example of Dynamic URL: domain.com/?p=12356

These things are the pillars of Search Engine Optimization and so to your web site's success path.

About The Author
Robin Dale is the publisher for www.teeky.org. We provide useful, quality articles and news about Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, Dedicated Server Hosting, Windows VPS Hosting UK, Linux VPS Hosting UK, e-commerce hosting, cPanel Hosting, hosting tips & UK Web Hosting.

For More Articles, Visit Us at UK Web Hosting Blog.

Web site designs Adviser

ccdantas@ccdantaswebdesign.com — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:04:25 PDT

What is the first thing that you are looking for on a web site?

It is the visual appealing? Or it is the interaction or maybe the write content information?

What are you really looking for is the answer to whatever your needs are.

A web site is like the store window display, if the visual is unattractive, you do not stop to look at, if after your attention is kept but the content is empty or does not fulfill your needs you move on to the next (store) web site, but if after you spend time inside the store (web site) you found what you need and the content displayed shows the reality between what you see and what it is offered you may not buy right the way but you certainly will come back to pay another visit, that’s how you built visitors loyalty.

With a professional and custom web design and the latest web designs technology, combined and well applied to achieve the success of your online business, your site can built trust and increase your visitor’s loyalty.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, give pointers it is very important for any responsible and honest web designer to know your view and to understand your marketing, and who knows it better then you.

Go to our Tips for a successful web site and learn some good advices in how to succeed on the on-line marketing.

Links for 2009-05-18 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Teen Caribbean Online Magazine – Teencaribbean.com
TeenCaribbean is an online magazine & social network for young men and women featuring jobs, scholarships, competitions, articles, and more.

Links for 2009-04-05 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Saltwater Fishing Charters, Freshwater Fishing Charters, Private Yachts Charters, Boats for Sale, Lodges at Nautical, Waterfront Rentals, Nautical Resources
Nautical head quarters, we offer a list of saltwater fishing charters, freshwater fishing charters, waterfront rentals, fishing lodges, fishing reports, private yachts charters, boats for sale, lodges at nautical, scuba adventures, forums, classifieds and more

Links for 2009-03-09 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Marvelous Electric Inc. - South Florida's electrical contractors company
South Florida's electrical contractors company, Marvelous Electric, INC., offers electrical services to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Links for 2008-12-25 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:00:00 PST

Web design directory - US - find a web designer, firm, company and website design services in your area - Chicago, Houston, New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Dallas
Directory of web designers, web design companies and firms, providing professional, affordable and custom web design services within the US territory.

Links for 2008-12-12 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:00 PST

Pool and Spa Equipment Repairs, swimming pool and spa maintenance all at Beachside Pools, Inc.

Links for 2008-12-09 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 PST

Custom Website designs - Web design services
Custom web site design services. We build affordable custom website designs, executed by certified web designer professionals. Our custom web designs will exceed your expectations

Web Designs Best Practices

How to Develop a Great FAQ Page for an Online Course

Is the internet better now?

A NYC Judge creates a new ruling for those who keeping use the internet to defame or bullying others, under the privacy. Be aware you can have a lawsuit against you now!

Read the article posted on MediaPost Newsby Wendy Davis, Yesterday, 3:12 PM

It is your site included on DMOZ?

Twitter, Should I Tweet? How Best To Tweet!

Optimize Your Website with These Simple Tips - Think Links

Monetizing Your Website

Eleven Common Web Page Design Frustrations

10 ways to diversify your links for the sake of long-term ranking

Your site's link profile: learn how to get high-quality and diverse links

10 ways to diversify your links for the sake of long-term ranking

Simple And Successful SEO Strategies - On Page Optimization

A Flash In The Night

How To Light Up Your Website....

10 High-Profit Redesign Priorities

10 Tips to Grow Your Business Plain and Simple

Links for 2009-06-07 [del.icio.us]

Driving Visitors To YOUR Site

Offline Promotion Methods For Your Internet Business

12 Steps To A Better Web site

Build a Sitemap to Put your Site on the Map

What is a Sitemap?

Sitemaps Protocol

Sitemaps, SEO, and Usability

SEO What to Avoid?

Web site designs Adviser

Links for 2009-05-18 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2009-04-05 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2009-03-09 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2008-12-25 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2008-12-12 [del.icio.us]

Links for 2008-12-09 [del.icio.us]

Read the article posted on MediaPost News
by Wendy Davis, Yesterday, 3:12 PM