How To Create Your Own Website - Domains, Browsers And Users
What you want to achieve, and the purpose of the website are some of the many things to take into consideratoin when designing your website. However, there are some golden rules that will apply to all web designs regardless the nature of the website.
Below we’ll dip into
- How to choose a domain name
- Researching your audience
- Layouts - User Friendliness
- Testing on Different Browsers
- Testing with Different Users
Choosing the appropriate domain/URL.
The first step of creating a website is choosing a domain name/URL. Sometimes the best advice is - keep it simple. And also it’s important to include the nature of your business within the domain. If your site is selling cups for example, you want the word ‘cup’ within the web address as opposed to some eloquent or cool sounding word that bears little relation to your business.
Knowing your target audience.
You can create the website the way you wanted, however, this does not guarantee your potential customer will like it. Knowing your target audience is key here, so you can design a site that will appeal to specific demographics. For example, if you are promoting high end perfumes for women that are aged between 40-60, the graphic and copy writing of your website will be very much different from selling perfumes to teenagers. According to research, when visiting a website, people only spend less than 5 seconds to decide whether to continue browsing the website or looking for another site. This all hangs on how catchy or sticky the web page is.
Designing a user friendly lay out.
The lay out in your website should be as easy to use/understand as possible. If you do feel daunted, don’t hesitate to ask about our bournemouth web design services Thinking ahead of the game pays dividends here - don’t put down links, or text, or buttons that you think *might* be useful - get ruthless. Pull all your ideas together in your mind, visualise them just right, then hit that paper with your favourite pencil or pen. Also, think about your customers: will they like it? It’s not necessarily how you would like it. Is it easy enough to use or to find the information? That way, you won’t waste valuable time and effort adjusting the page layout whenever you get a new idea - and you’ll avoid over-working your page design.
Making sure the website functions properly in all the browsers.
Browser Compatibility is vital. If you don’t have this, all the work and sweat you put into your web design will be fruitless - what’s the point if your potential customers can’t find you, or when they do they can’t view your site properly. The two browsers you really need to pay heed to currently are Internet Explorer and Firefox. Ensure your web pages are functioning correctly on either. It is not uncommon for a website that works on one but not the other. You want to check your site works well in as many browsers as possible - the last thing you want is your visitors to land at your page in a browser you didn’t check and they can’t use your website.
User Testing.
To ensure your site is functioning correctly, get some friends who use different browsers to navigate through your website and let you know of any problems so you can fix them before a customer with high expectations comes across them.
Without doubt above are but a few of the multitude of issues to think about when you design your web pages. However if you can follow my advice, you are not far from creating a professional website. Enjoy the ride!
Need help with your business website design? Call us today, we’re happy to help you with your questions.
How To Use Original, Fresh Content To Boost Your Website Rankings
Fresh Content
This is very important for search engine optimisation. One of the things that the search engines rate towards the top of their love-list is a website with original, fresh content. If you post, original, fresh content regularly to your website, you are much more likely to have the search engine spiders visiting your website regularly to crawl for content you’ve posted.
There is nothing wrong with referring to authoritative sources, or quoting other websites or publishers, or indeed with linking to other websites if you feel the source is relevant to the topic you are discussing. The content must be written by you, or by someone for you, it must be original, and you must have the legal right to use it.
If you want your website to be crawled regularly by the search robots, then unique, fresh content is one of the ways to go. This is a crucial, albeit small, part of your complete SEO plan. Don’t expect to be able to create a successful website if you are not producing your own original copy. If indeed you could ever create a website that ranked consistently well over time from scraped, begged or borrowed content that time has passed.
Syndicated content is something that has it’s rightful place as a great source of information. News feeds and RSS feeds related to your market niche are a good supplement to the valuable information you give your visitors, and this will enable you to give increased topical news and information. But these sources should be used in addition to, not instead of, the original content you are posting on your own site.
Need help with your business website design or Search Engine Optimisation? Call us today, we’re happy to help you with any of your questions.
Lloyd Roberts | 123 Web Design Bournemouth
123 Bournemouth SEO
http://www.123webdesignbournemouth.co.uk
01202 23 77 99
How To Use Original, Fresh Content To Boost Your Website Rankings
Fresh Content
This is very important for search engine optimisation. One of the things that the search engines rate towards the top of their love-list is a website with original, fresh content. If you post, original, fresh content regularly to your website, you are much more likely to have the search engine spiders visiting your website regularly to crawl for content you’ve posted.
There is nothing wrong with referring to authoritative sources, or quoting other websites or publishers, or indeed with linking to other websites if you feel the source is relevant to the topic you are discussing. The content must be written by you, or by someone for you, it must be original, and you must have the legal right to use it.
If you want your website to be crawled regularly by the search robots, then unique, fresh content is one of the ways to go. This is a crucial, albeit small, part of your complete SEO plan. Don’t expect to be able to create a successful website if you are not producing your own original copy. If indeed you could ever create a website that ranked consistently well over time from scraped, begged or borrowed content that time has passed.
Syndicated content is something that has it’s rightful place as a great source of information. News feeds and RSS feeds related to your market niche are a good supplement to the valuable information you give your visitors, and this will enable you to give increased topical news and information. But these sources should be used in addition to, not instead of, the original content you are posting on your own site.
Need help with your business website design or Search Engine Optimisation? Call us today, we’re happy to help you with any of your questions.
Lloyd Roberts | 123 Web Design Bournemouth
123 Bournemouth SEO
http://www.123webdesignbournemouth.co.uk
01202 23 77 99
SEO - Backlinks And How To Make Them Work For You
Backlinks
These are the legendary gold dust that everyone wants for their website. All things being equal, the more the better. But a word of warning, be careful that you obtain links from sites that are relevant to your business niche. A link from a website all about floristry, to your website all about dog food, just doesn’t make much sense in the eyes of Google. Try to obtain links from dog owner websites, dog grooming websites, dog training websites - well, you know more about your niche than me, so you know what other niches surround your niche in your online neighbourhood.
If you’re thinking of trying out one of the many schemes out there that allow you to sign up, pay your dollar(s) and purchase links from other websites then proceed with caution. Google knows all about link farms, paid links and link exchange websites. If you try any of these, then the likelihood is that sooner or later you’ll be found out, and any benefit gained from those links will evaporate overnight. Better to put your efforts into links you know will not be scratched by the search engines at some point.
Try getting involved in online communities related to your niche, or making useful suggestions on blogs that are closely related to your area of expertise. Many of these online communities and forums are well respected by search engines due to the massive amount of original content they offer specifically related to their particular niche. Your backlinks from these web properties are likely to carry more weight, and have more longevity, than a paid-for link farm.
Backlinks take time, effort and patience, and of course it helps if you have great content on your own website that people like linking to.
Need help with your SEO? Call us today, we’re happy to help you with your questions.
Lloyd Roberts | 123 Web Design Bournemouth
SEO Bournemouth
http://www.123webdesignbournemouth.co.uk