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	<title>Web Site Design UK</title>
	<link>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk</link>
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	<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:44:48 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>The elements of good website design</title>
		<link>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=16</link>
		<comments>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=16#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:36:30 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category>Web Design</category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Gary Mattoc (c) 2007 Originally published in SiteProNews, November 19, 2007
What constitutes a good website design? Does it showcase your design prowess? Does it prove what a brilliant graphic designer you are? Does your web design fetch you designing awards? Or does your website design exist to establish a platform for you and your visitors [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Gary Mattoc (c) 2007 Originally published in SiteProNews, November 19, 2007</p>
<p>What constitutes a good website design? Does it showcase your design prowess? Does it prove what a brilliant graphic designer you are? Does your web design fetch you designing awards? Or does your website design exist to establish a platform for you and your visitors to interact with each other unhindered by usability glitches? I think the last point is the most important factor that establishes the basic difference between a successful and an unsuccessful website.</p>
<p>Although the perception of good website design changes from person to person, there are some established conventions that you can follow and these conventions can make sure that your website reaches out to all possible people. When you are designing your website, especially these days, you have to be constantly conscious of the fact that there are numerous browsers and numerous devices that people may use to access your website. No longer do people browse the Internet just through their PCs and laptops; there are many handheld devices that can directly connect to the Internet and enable people to browse your website; people can even browse your website using their mobile phones. And gone are the days when people used just the Internet Explorer as their primary Internet browser.</p>
<p>Your website design also depends on what you are planning to showcase through your website: will it be just text or images or videos or a mixture of all these? You have to design your website accordingly. If it is merely text that you plan to publish then try to make it as less graphical as possible as people coming to your website will be interested in your text and not your images and videos. Similarly a website showcasing your Flash animation expertise will expect lots of Flash work so you needn&#8217;t worry about making your website textually accessible.</p>
<p>So when you are designing your website you have to take all these parameters into consideration. But does it mean that you&#8217;re always accommodating browsers and devises and do not focus on your own business, whatever that is? No, I&#8217;m not suggesting that. Just take care of the following website design guidelines and you will make sure that 95% people (well, there will always be those odd 5% who can never browse the web easily no matter what they try) surfing the Internet can access your website:</p>
<p>1) Create a lighter design. If possible don&#8217;t use too many graphics and JavaScripts that affect a major function of your website. For instance if there is some crucial information on your website and people need to access that information before doing business with you then don&#8217;t make that information accessible only through a JavaScript on an image file or a Flash animation. All your important text should be available only in text and even if you have to resort to using images and other stuff than make sure the textual alternative is always available.</p>
<p>2) Don&#8217;t use colors that cause strain to the eyes. If you want people to come to your website again and again and consume your content or do business with you then you must make their stay over your website as pleasant as possible. No matter how awesome your design looks if the color combinations are strain-full, after a while they will tire of your website and stop coming. Always take care that your background behind the text is far lighter than the text, and vice versa.</p>
<p>3) Create a well defined navigation. If you have multiple pages on your website then there should be a prominently defined navigation system that is easily accessible to everybody. As mentioned above don&#8217;t let your navigation depend on images, JavaScripts, or Flash animation. If possible create just a text-based navigation bar. With CSS designing you can create great looking navigation bars.</p>
<p>4) Design your website using CSS because then you can make your content and your navigation bar appear in a linear fashion. Since all the layout-related placements take place through CSS definitions no matter how your text appears texturally, graphically it will appear as a pleasant layout. The CSS designing techniques also enable you to dabble with intricate layouts without making your website inaccessible. CSS designing will always help you arrange your main content before the navigation link despite making it visually appear beneath the navigation bar or to the right of it.</p>
<p>Follow these basic web design principles and you will have a good website design to boast of. Remember that your website design is created for the sake of your visitors and not to cater to your designing whims and fancies.</p>
<p>The elements of good website design</p>
<p>Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/The+elements+of+good+website+design" rel="tag">The elements of good website design</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Current and Future Search Trends: What the Top Internet Search Engines Are Doing</title>
		<link>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=15</link>
		<comments>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=15#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:19:25 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category>Web Design</category>

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		<description><![CDATA[By Scott Buresh (c) 2007 Medium Blue
The future of search is unclear – what is clear is that change is rapidly happening for all of the top Internet search engines. Google as always is the frontrunner for many of these search trends, but even little guys like Ask.com are making waves. In this article, I [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By Scott Buresh (c) 2007 Medium Blue</p>
<p>The future of search is unclear – what is clear is that change is rapidly happening for all of the top Internet search engines. Google as always is the frontrunner for many of these search trends, but even little guys like Ask.com are making waves. In this article, I will attempt to cover some of the more interesting search trends that are occurring today with the top Internet search engines – but I am by no means being comprehensive about the subject. Things are changing on a weekly, or sometimes even daily, basis, and future articles will cover additional developments in depth.</p>
<p>Universal Search<br />
In May 2007, Google – the leader among top Internet search engines - got people talking (again) when it rolled out its latest search concept, Universal Search. Universal Search was Google&#8217;s attempt to create a single page of search results, rather than separate pages for types of results, such as videos, images, maps, and websites. When it was first introduced, many search engine optimization firms raced around exclaiming that this was one of those search trends that would change everything and that new optimization rules should be created and followed immediately.</p>
<p>I published an article in early 2007 in which I noted, &#8220;The problem with Universal Search is that it can muddy the results, and it can also introduce irrelevant results that a searcher cannot use.&#8221;I also wrote, &#8220;Clearly, Universal Search will change how an SEO campaign is run if it catches on. But this is a real if - users&#8217; search habits are hard to change overnight, even if you are Google and you essentially define what searching is and how it works.&#8221;</p>
<p>And in fact, Universal Search didn&#8217;t quite take off the way Google had hoped. A post on MediaPost&#8217;s Search Insider by Mark Simon boldly states, &#8220;Universal Search will probably not be viewed as the greatest Google fiasco since Google Video, but it&#8217;s clear that it&#8217;s failed to deliver on the vaunted promises made by Marissa Mayer back in May.&#8221; So will we see more of Universal Search, or will it be quietly put to the side? Will other top internet search engines want to use it for themselves? Only time will tell, but it seems like Google needs to do a lot more work before users really warm up to it.</p>
<p>Personalization and Personalized Search<br />
Personalization on the other hand seems to be one of the search trends working very well for Google and many of the other top Internet search engines. In an article I wrote a few months ago, I said &#8220;The basic principle behind personalized search is simple. When you go to Google and type in a search query, Google stores the data. As you return to the engine, a profile of your search habits is built up over time. With this information, Google can understand more about your interests and serve up more relevant search results.&#8221;</p>
<p>How to Get Number 1 Rankings on Google and Yahoo!<br />
As it works right now, if you use a Google product (Gmail, Google toolbar, AdWords, etc.), Google is keeping track of what you search for and what websites you visit, and it&#8217;s then tailoring your results appropriately. Search for &#8220;bass,&#8221; and Google will know whether you mean the fish or the instrument. As I pointed out, though, there are major issues with search trends like personalization: Privacy issues that arise from personalized search are also a big question. The EU recently announced that it is probing into how long Google stores user information (this probe was subsequently extended to include all search engines). AOL recently committed a serious blunder when it released search data from 500,000 of its users, and it was discovered that it was fairly easy to identify many people by the search terms that they use&#8230;</p>
<p>Yet if nobody makes a fuss about this, then it&#8217;s very likely Google – and the other top internet search engines - will start tracking everyone behind the scenes, whether they use a Google product or not.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s actually already starting – right now, the cookie Google places on your machine (did you even know they did that?) will expire in two years – but they won&#8217;t really expire at all. According to the official Google blog: In the coming months, Google will start issuing our users cookies that will be set to auto-expire after 2 years, while auto-renewing the cookies of active users during this time period. In other words, users who do not return to Google will have their cookies auto-expire after 2 years. Regular Google users will have their cookies auto-renew, so that their preferences are not lost. And, as always, all users will still be able to control their cookies at any time via their browsers.</p>
<p>Seems it won&#8217;t be long before Google knows what you&#8217;re searching for before you do.</p>
<p>Expanding &#8220;Sneak Peeks&#8221;<br />
Ask, one of the smaller of the top internet search engines, has been using sneak peeks to entice searchers for a while now. Searchers who use Ask.com can mouse over an icon next to many results and see a screen shot of the website. No clicking needed. Google, always watching for search trends, seems to have noticed, because they&#8217;ve filed a patent for expanding their own snippets. Soon searchers on Google may be able to read expanded summaries of pages, or longer clips of page text. This tactic appeals to searchers who are now demanding more and more information faster and faster from the top Internet search engines, and who don&#8217;t want to waste precious seconds clicking on a link and then on the back button to find just the right site for their needs.</p>
<p>Syntax Queries<br />
When Ask was Ask Jeeves, the butler was supposed to listen to your search queries in the form of questions and then get answers for you. The problem was, this never worked exactly the way it was supposed to. Instead of answering the question based on syntax, the engine still responded to searches in the same way others did, by analyzing the words and returning a list. Jeeves was retired with a bit of fanfare, and the engine handles queries in the more traditional manner for now. But all of the top Internet search engines have continued to work on this concept, with Google again leading the way since it has the manpower and brainpower to do so. I expect that within the next year, this will be one of the search trends that the engines will want to focus on with a greater push toward answering questions rather than just returning related results.</p>
<p>Speech Recognition and the Mobile Market<br />
Speech recognition is really going to be one of the huge search trends in the coming months and years for the top internet search engines. In an interview from this past summer, Peter Norvig, director of Google Research, noted, &#8220;[Google] wanted speech technology that could serve as an interface for phones and also index audio text. After looking at the existing technology, we decided to build our own. We thought that, having the data and computational resources that we do, we could help advance the field.&#8221; With speech recognition in place, one could go to Google (or another of the top internet search engines) and use a microphone to ask a question aloud, or just say some keyphrases, and get a list back immediately.</p>
<p>And speech recognition has the biggest benefit for top internet search engines when it comes to users of mobile devices. Let&#8217;s face it, as advanced as those keyboards may have gotten, they&#8217;re still a pain to use and it&#8217;s time-consuming to type in more than a few sentences. (That&#8217;s y txt msgs r lk ths, u c?). Norvig is on top of that too, noting, &#8220;In general, it looks like things are moving more toward the mobile market, and we thought it was important to deal with the market where you might not have access to a keyboard or might not want to type in search queries.&#8221;</p>
<p>More to Come<br />
As I noted in the beginning, this is just a small sampling of the search trends for the top Internet search engines today. Google, Yahoo, and even Ask are all working tirelessly to get your business and to make search easier, faster, and more accurate. Keep checking back for future articles covering some of the other trends and following up on the ones I&#8217;ve already discussed.</p>
<p>Current and Future Search Trends: What the Top Internet Search Engines Are Doing
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		<title>Critical Components of Optimizing a Site</title>
		<link>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=12</link>
		<comments>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=12#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:41:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>info</dc:creator>
		
		<category>Web Design</category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Each of the following components are critical pieces to a site&#8217;s ability to be crawled, indexed, and ranked by search engine spiders. When properly used in the construction of a website, these features give a site/page the best chance of ranking well for targeted keywords.
Accessibility
An accessible site is one that ensures delivery of its content [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Each of the following components are critical pieces to a site&#8217;s ability to be crawled, indexed, and ranked by search engine spiders. When properly used in the construction of a website, these features give a site/page the best chance of ranking well for targeted keywords.</p>
<div class="article copy"><strong><a title="4a" name="4a" id="4a" />Accessibility</strong></p>
<p>An accessible site is one that ensures delivery of its content successfully as often as possible. The functionality of pages, validity of HTML elements, uptime of the site&#8217;s server, and working status of site coding and components all figure into site accessibility. If these features are ignored or faulty, both search engines and users will select other sites to visit.</p>
<p>The biggest problems in accessibility that most sites encounter fit into the following categories. Addressing these issues satisfactorily will avoid problems getting search engines and visitors to and through your site.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Broken Links</strong> - If an HTML link is broken, the contents of the linked-to page may never be found. In addition, some surmise that search engines negatively degrade rankings on sites &#038; pages with many broken links.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Valid HTML &#038; CSS </strong>- Although arguments exist about the necessity for full validation of HTML and CSS in accordance with <a target="_blank" href="http://validator.w3.org/">W3C guidelines</a>, it is generally agreed that code must meet minimum requirements of functionality and successful display in order to be spidered and cached properly by the search engines.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Functionality of Forms and Applications</strong> - If form submissions, select boxes, javascript, or other input-required elements block content from being reached via direct hyperlinks, search engines may never find them. Keep data that you want accessible to search engines on pages that can be directly accessed via a link. In a similar vein, the successful functionality and implementation of any of these pieces is critical to a site&#8217;s accessibility for visitors. A non-functioning page, form, or code element is unlikely to receive much attention from visitors.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>File Size</strong> - With the exception of a select few documents that search engines consider to be of exceptional importance, web pages greater than 150K in size are typically not fully cached. This is done to reduce index size, bandwidth, and load on the servers, and is important to anyone building pages with exceptionally large amounts of content. If it&#8217;s important that every word and phrase be spidered and indexed, keeping file size under 150K is highly recommended. As with any online endeavor, smaller file size also means faster download speed for users - a worthy metric in its own right.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Downtime &#038; Server Speed</strong> - The performance of your site&#8217;s server may have an adverse impact on search rankings and visitors if downtime and slow transfer speeds are common. Invest in high quality hosting to prevent this issue.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong><a title="4b" name="4b" id="4b" />URLs, Title Tags &#038; Meta Data</strong></p>
<p>URLs, title tags and meta tag components are all information that describe your site and page to visitors and search engines. Keeping them relevant, compelling and accurate are key to ranking well. You can also use these areas as launching points for your keywords, and indeed, successful rankings require their use.</p>
<p>The URL of a document should ideally be as descriptive and brief as possible. If, for example, your site&#8217;s structure has several levels of files and navigation, the URL should reflect this with folders and subfolders. Individual pages&#8217; URLs should also be descriptive without being overly lengthy, so that a visitor who sees only the URL could have a good idea of what to expect on the page.</p>
<p>Critical Components of Optimizing a Site</div>
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		<title>How to Conduct Keyword Research</title>
		<link>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=11</link>
		<comments>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=11#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:36:04 +0000</pubDate>
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		<category>Web Design</category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Keyword research is critical to the process of SEO. Without this component, your efforts to rank well in the major search engines may be mis-directed to the wrong terms and phrases, resulting in rankings that no one will ever see. The process of keyword research involves several phases:
1. Brainstorming - Thinking of what your customers/potential [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Keyword research is critical to the process of SEO. Without this component, your efforts to rank well in the major search engines may be mis-directed to the wrong terms and phrases, resulting in rankings that no one will ever see. The process of keyword research involves several phases:</p>
<p>1. Brainstorming - Thinking of what your customers/potential visitors would be likely to type in to search engines in an attempt to find the information/services your site offers (including alternate spellings, wordings, synonyms, etc).<br />
2. Surveying Customers - Surveying past or potential customers is a great way to expand your keyword list to include as many terms and phrases as possible. It can also give you a good idea of what&#8217;s likely to be the biggest traffic drivers and produce the highest conversion rates.<br />
3. Applying Data from KW Research Tools - Several tools online (including Wordtracker &#038; Overture - both described below) offer information about the number of times users perform specific searches. Using these tools can offer concrete data about trends in keyword selection.<br />
4. Term Selection - The next step is to create a matrix or chart that analyzes the terms you believe are valuable and compares traffic, relevancy, and the likelihood of conversions for each. This will allow you to make the best informed decisions about which terms to target. SEOmoz&#8217;s KW Difficulty Tool can also aid in choosing terms that will be achievable for the site.<br />
5. Performance Testing and Analytics - After keyword selection and implementation of targeting, analytics programs (like Indextools and ClickTracks) that measure web traffic, activity, and conversions can be used to further refine keyword selection.</p>
<p>Currently, the most popular sources of keyword data are Overture (re-branded as Yahoo! Search Marketing), which offers data collected from searches performed on Yahoo!&#8217;s engine (with a 22-28% share). While neither&#8217;s data is flawless or entirely accurate, both provide good methods for measuring comparative numbers. For example, while Overture and Wordtracker may disagree on numbers and say that &#8220;red bicycles&#8221; gets 240 vs. 380 searches per day (across all engines), both will generally indicate that this is a more popular term than &#8220;scarlet bicycles&#8221;, &#8220;maroon bicycles&#8221;, or even &#8220;blue bicycles.&#8221;</p>
<p>In Wordtracker, which provides more detail but has a considerably smaller share of data, terms and phrases are separated by capitalization, plurality, and word ordering. In the Overture tool, multiple search phrases are combined. For example, Wordtracker would independently show numbers for &#8220;car loans&#8221;, &#8220;Car Loans&#8221;, &#8220;car loan&#8221;, and &#8220;cars Loan&#8221;, whereas Overture would give a single number that encompasses all of these. The granularity of data can be more useful for analyzing searches that may result in unique results pages (plurals often do and different word orders almost always do), but capitalization is of less consequence as the search engines don&#8217;t deliver different results based on capitalization.</p>
<p>Remember that Wordtracker and Overture are both useful tools for relative keyword data, but can be highly inaccurate when compared to the actual number of searches performed. In other words, use the tools to select which terms to target, but don&#8217;t rely on them for predicting the amount of traffic you can achieve. If your goal is estimating traffic numbers, use programs like Google&#8217;s Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing to test the number of impressions a particular term/phrase gets.</p>
<p>Targeting the Right Terms</p>
<p>Targeting the best possible terms is of critical importance. This encompasses more than merely measuring traffic levels and choosing the highest trafficked terms. An intelligent process for keyword selection will measure each of the following:</p>
<p>* Conversion Rate - the percent of users searching with the term/phrase that converts (click an ad, buy a product, complete a transaction, etc.)</p>
<p>* Predicted Traffic - An estimate of how many users will be searching for the given term/phrase each month</p>
<p>* Value per Customer - An average amount of revenue earned per customer using the term or phrase to search - comparing big-ticket search terms vs. smaller ones.</p>
<p>* Keyword Competition - A rough measurement of the competitive environment and the level of difficulty for the given term/phrase. This is typically measured by metrics that include the number of competitors, the strength of those competitors&#8217; links, and the financial motivation to be in the sector. SEOmoz&#8217;s Keyword Difficulty Tool can assist in this process.</p>
<p>Once you&#8217;ve analyzed each of these elements, you can make effective decisions about the terms and phrases to target. When starting a new site, it&#8217;s highly recommended to target only one or possibly two unique phrases on a single page. Although it is possible to optimize for more phrases and terms, it&#8217;s generally best to keep separate terms on separate pages, as you can provide individualized information for each in this manner. As websites grow and mature, gaining links and legitimacy with the engines, targeting multiple terms per page becomes more feasible.<br />
The Long Tail of Search</p>
<p>The &#8220;long tail&#8221; is a concept pioneered by Chris Anderson (the editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, who runs the Long Tail blog). From Chris&#8217;s description:</p>
<p>The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of &#8220;hits&#8221; (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.</p>
<p>This concept relates exceptionally well to keyword search terms in the major engines. Although the largest traffic numbers are typically for broad terms at the &#8220;head&#8221; of the keyword curve, great value lies in the thousands of unique, rarely used, niche terms in the &#8220;tail.&#8221; These terms can provide higher conversion rates and more interested and valuable visitors to a site, as these specific terms can relate to exactly the topics, products, and services your site provides.</p>
<p>How to Conduct Keyword Research
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		<title>PPC vs SEO</title>
		<link>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=9</link>
		<comments>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=9#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:20:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>info</dc:creator>
		
		<category>Web Design</category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=9</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Carrie Reeder talks about the pros and cons of pay-per-click advertising versus search engine optimization. Find out how PPC and SEO can complement each other in one&#8217;s web marketing plan and overall marketing strategy.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising &#038; Search Engine Optimization
There are pro&#8217;s &#038; con&#8217;s to both Pay-Per-Click advertising and optimizing for natural search engine traffic.
PPC advertising [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Carrie Reeder talks about the pros and cons of pay-per-click advertising versus search engine optimization. Find out how PPC and SEO can complement each other in one&#8217;s web marketing plan and overall marketing strategy.</em></p>
<p>Pay-Per-Click Advertising &#038; Search Engine Optimization</p>
<p>There are pro&#8217;s &#038; con&#8217;s to both Pay-Per-Click advertising and optimizing for natural search engine traffic.</p>
<p>PPC advertising has many great benefits. First of all, you get your traffic going quickly. I have used this advantage many times. I test new products and even new websites through PPC advertising before making a decision to promote or scrap my new website or product idea.</p>
<p>I am a firm believer in testing new products before throwing large amounts of money into advertising. PPC advertising is a great way to do this. For example, with Google&#8217;s Adwords program, you can post your ad, pay a $5 sign-up fee and have highly targeted traffic to your website within an hour. How is that for efficiency?</p>
<p>Also, you can moniter your click charges and stop them before they get too expensive. By the time you have spent your budget on clicks, you should have a pretty good idea of how successful your product is going to be.</p>
<p>I think of PPC advertising as being the most useful when starting a new business or product. WIth PPC advertising, you can quickly and efficiently find out which keywords you need to target and which products are the most popular.</p>
<p>Once that testing period is over, however, it&#8217;s time to look into Search Engine Optimization. PPC advertising can be very expensive, costing hundreds, even thousands a month in advertising costs. Once you know what keywords to target, it&#8217;s time to put together a plan on how you are going to optimize your website. The drawbacks to search engine optimization is that it requires a lengthy amount of time to get your site to rank high with your keywords. That is why I suggest using this method after the testing period is over, when you already know your business will be profitable.</p>
<p>Search Engine Optimization is definately a slow way to get your website traffic if you plan on not using PPC traffic. It could be a long, expensive road before you even begin selling your product. Search engines can take months, even years to start pulling up high with the search engines. But, natural search engine traffic is definately the best long term way to get the majority of your traffic.</p>
<p>When getting your site to start pulling up in SE natural listings there are 2 main things that need to be done:</p>
<p>Search engine traffic requires you to submit your site to many different search engines and wait, maybe even months for them to spider your website.</p>
<p>I have had much better luck with another route. You can pay a fee to have your website listed in a very high ranking directory like www.dmoz.com (free), www.yahoo.com&#8217;s directory ($299), sbd.bcentral.com (only $50), or another website where your link is on a page that has a page ranking of 4,5,6 or higher. The sites I mentioned above have rankings of 8 or 9. When you have your link on a site with that high of a ranking, the search engines are spidering those sites constantly and will find your website and spider it very quickly. Not only will they find it quickly but because you are linked to a high ranking site, you will also rank higher with the SE.</p>
<p>When looking for backlinks, focus on sites with content related to yours and high page rankings of 4 or higher.</p>
<p>As for content on your site, try to include about 200-500 words of content or text on most of the pages of your site. Text makes your site bulkier. Make sure to integrate all of the keywords you want to target within the content of your site. Don&#8217;t worry about cramming the same keywords in over and over. Search engines may possibly even blacklist your site for keyword stuffing, if you try to do that.</p>
<p>There is a lot to know about Search Engine Optimization but, those are the 2 main factors when getting started.</p>
<p>In summary, when starting out, I suggest using PPC advertising for testing products and keywords. Spend time optimizing your site for search engine traffic after you have tested your products and keywords.</p>
<p>PPC vs SEO
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<p>Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/PPC+vs+SEO" rel="tag">PPC vs SEO</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>SEO Copywriting</title>
		<link>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=7</link>
		<comments>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=7#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2007 08:16:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>info</dc:creator>
		
		<category>Web Design</category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=7</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Karon Thackston talks about how to write SEO-friendly copy for your website. Find out some of the rules of thumb for creating copy for both your visitors and search engines as well.
Search engine copywriting has become an extremely important part of the overall search engine optimization process. However, in addition, search engine copywriting has developed [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Karon Thackston talks about how to write SEO-friendly copy for your website. Find out some of the rules of thumb for creating copy for both your visitors and search engines as well.</em></p>
<p>Search engine copywriting has become an extremely important part of the overall search engine optimization process. However, in addition, search engine copywriting has developed into a misunderstood craft.</p>
<p>Shoving keywords in anywhere they can possibly go is not considered search engine copywriting. The process is more defined than that. Successful SEO copywriting takes planning. Any half-hearted efforts at writing copy geared strictly toward the engines will usually result in a decline in your customer&#8217;s experience at your site.</p>
<p>What&#8217;s the best way to write SEO copy? Starting with a plan is always a good idea. Keep in mind, these are guidelines of techniques that can be used *IF* they make sense for your site visitors. I never recommend writing solely for the search engines. In the case of search engine copywriting, the customer is truly #1.</p>
<p>1) Use Three Keyphrases Per Page - Not a carved-in-stone rule, the guideline of three keyphrases per page gives good variety and helps keep the copy from sounding too repetitive. I always choose keyphrases first - before I write - because they can have a direct impact on the focus of the page.</p>
<p>2) Have 250 or More Words of Copy - The length of your copy depends on several things: Your target customer&#8217;s preferred communication style, whether the product is new to the marketplace, if a detailed explanation needs to be given, site design and many other factors. However, the 250-word minimum gives enough room to get your message across and offer an effective level of keyword support. Remember though, it&#8217;s all about the customer. If your target customers prefer longer copy, write longer copy. If they like shorter copy, write shorter copy.</p>
<p>3) Write In Natural Language - &#8220;Natural language&#8221; is a term popular in SEO copywriting. It means that the reader should not be able to (or should barely be able to) detect what keyphrases the page is being optimized for. The copy should flow as if it were not written with the search engines in mind. You don’t want the copy to sound forced or stiff. When you generate ideas for the page copy, keep your keywords in mind. Ask yourself whether you can use them in the copy in such a way that they won&#8217;t be obtrusive.</p>
<p>4) Use Keyword Phrases In Headlines and Sub-headlines - IF it makes sense to do so. You will not blow your rankings if you have no keyword-filled</p>
<p>or other tags. If your headline sounds stupid with keywords in it, don&#8217;t use them. There are countless sites online that rank highly which have no keywords in the headline.</p>
<p>5) Use Keyword Phrases Once or Twice Per Paragraph - Again IF it makes sense. Remember what I keep repeating? None of these guidelines are carved in stone. Read your copy out loud. If it sounds stupid or forced, take out some keywords or find ways to rework them so they flow more naturally.</p>
<p>6) Use Keyword Phrases In Bold, Italic or Bulleted Lists - IF it makes sense to do so. Don&#8217;t automatically bold or italicize every instance of your keywords. It will make your page look stupid, and your visitors will wonder what kind of drugs you&#8217;ve been doing!</p>
<p>7) Do NOT Use Keyword Phrases As Substitutes For Generic Terms -<br />
For example, do not replace every instance of the generic word &#8220;cruise&#8221; with the keyphrase &#8220;Mexico cruise vacation.&#8221; Your copy will sound ridiculous.</p>
<p>We offer Mexico cruise vacation packages on the most popular Mexico cruise vacation ships to the most breathtaking Mexico cruise vacation destinations. Oh please!!</p>
<p>8) Use Keyword Phrases As Anchor Text In Links - This is certainly not always possible. If your primary keyphrase is &#8220;Mexico Cruise Vacation,&#8221; you absolutely should not write every link to include that phrase. However, if you can include keywords in anchor text within body copy or in text navigation links, you might score a little extra credit.</p>
<p>9) Test and Track - Lastly, and above all, please remember, it may take some tweaking to get your page to convert the way you want it to. All customers are not the same, and all sites are not the same. All keyphrases are not the same. There is no magic bullet. You&#8217;ll have to test and track and see what works best for you.</p>
<p>SEO Copywriting
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<p>Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/SEO+Copywriting" rel="tag">SEO Copywriting</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Why, as web developers, do we operate from Thailand</title>
		<link>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=5</link>
		<comments>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=5#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Sep 2007 14:23:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>info</dc:creator>
		
		<category>Web Design</category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=5</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m going back four and a half years now, when the bubble that had burst a while back from then was having hugely negative effects on the web design industry as a whole. Eventually, and in hindsight naturally, the web design agency I was working for collapsed under the weight of insufficient revenues, high staff [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m going back four and a half years now, when the bubble that had burst a while back from then was having hugely negative effects on the web design industry as a whole. Eventually, and in hindsight naturally, the web design agency I was working for collapsed under the weight of insufficient revenues, high staff costs and, worst of all, nearly a million dollars in unpaid debt from the telco part of the business.</p>
<p>Taken unawares, I suppose, but as a result extraordinary revenues had to be generated each month to pay the huge salary bills and rent in an office in the centre of London. They weren&#8217;t being met.</p>
<p>To break even, we needed consistent revenues of £60,000 a month. To give you some idea of the scale of this, our company in Bangkok would, including salaries, rent, taxes, etc. but excluding  developers costs, survive with that one monthly income for over forty months.</p>
<p>At my previous company our marketing strategy was high-end and search engine marketing was not something that was taken too seriously. In the event, we could never have survived as a company with false expectations in a market gone sour, especially with the cutbacks in the corporate sector on web-related projects. After four years of working on some exceptional sites, we were broke.</p>
<p>All of us had worked for six months for free, running up all sorts of debts, on the promise that we would be paid in full when the telco deal came through. It didn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, I received an unexpected email from a friend and, to cut a long story short, he got me out here to start up my own web company. I work in an office in the centre of Bangkok that costs us nothing, as the real estate company we&#8217;re associated with, Soho Properties Co., Ltd., owns the lease and the two companies share the same owner.</p>
<p>Our staff costs are very reasonably priced in comparison to the UK. I have looked for quality, reliable professionals, specifically from Pakistan and India, to build the business. We&#8217;re in contact with our Pakistani developers every day, where we plan, manage and develop ongoing projects. We are also associated with a company in India, who have far greater staff levels and can therefore take on much larger and complex sites.</p>
<p>Our Pakistani developers have helped raise the profile of our portfolio to a level that much larger companies are looking to employ our services. Most of our enquiries do not come from within Thailand itself; in fact, we have a very limited number of Thai clients. Our clients are based in the UK, America, Germany, France, Austria, Monte Carlo, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Brunei.</p>
<p>A few months ago, when I was visiting my father in the UK, I met up with my old boss. He told me he was charging £2,000 for a static 5-page website. Since then, I have set out to are compete in the UK market for business as well as Bangkok as I figure that you don&#8217;t have to be glued to any specific location if you can communicate online.</p>
<p>This site has been named and optimised for the express purpose of placement on the search engines, where we hope to generate interest in our services and demonstrate, with our portfolio, what we have been able to build up in the past three years.</p>
<p>We think our prices very reasonable, in that the 5-page brochureware site my boss was talking about would only cost £750. I think I have priced our services at just about the right level.</p>
<p>Why, as web developers, do we operate from Thailand
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<p>Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Why" rel="tag">Why</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/as+web+developers" rel="tag">as web developers</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/do+we+operate+from+Thailand" rel="tag">do we operate from Thailand</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>How do I start using RSS feeds?</title>
		<link>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=1</link>
		<comments>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=1#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:51:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>info</dc:creator>
		
		<category>Web Design</category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false"></guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The first thing you need is something called a news reader. This is software that checks RSS feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added to them. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications.
Browser-based news readers let you [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The first thing you need is something called a news reader. This is software that checks RSS feeds and lets you read any new articles that have been added to them. There are many different versions, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications.</p>
<p>Browser-based news readers let you catch up with your RSS feed subscriptions from any computer, whereas downloadable applications let you store them on your main computer, in the same way that you either download your e-mail using Outlook, or keep it on a web-based service like Yahoo!.</p>
<p>Once you have chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want to receive in your news reader, by finding and subscribing to the relevant RSS feeds. For example, if you would like the latest financial news stories, simply visit www.ft.com and you will notice an RSS button. This will lead you to a page that lists a number of different financial news feeds. Simply copy and paste the url into your news reader and the feed will then be displayed in plain text.</p>
<p><strong>News Readers</strong><br />
A list of a few popular news readers are: Bloglines, My Yahoo!, Plus Pluck, NewsGator, Newz Crawler, FeedDemon and Newsfire.</p>
<p><strong>Using RapidFeeds</strong><br />
You can also add content to your own site by signing up at www.rapidfeeds.com for free. Add all the RSS feeds you want to read into MySite. Then, after adjusting the settings — including colour, column width, display descriptions and number of stories, copy and paste the resulting code into your web page in the programming language of you choice.</p>
<p><strong>Submitting Your RSS Feeds</strong><br />
By submitting your RSS feeds and blogs to well-established directories that will boost your site’s traffic tremendously.</p>
<p>How do I start using RSS feeds?
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<p>Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/How+do+I+start+using+RSS+feeds%3F" rel="tag">How do I start using RSS feeds?</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?feed=rss2&amp;p=1</wfw:commentRss>
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		<title>Blending web design with search engine optimisation and blogging</title>
		<link>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=3</link>
		<comments>http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=3#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:15:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>info</dc:creator>
		
		<category>Web Design</category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.web-site-design-uk.biz/websitedesignuk/?p=3</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Web design is not simply about aesthetics, it also has a serious place for businesses to succeed. In many instances clients rely almost exclusively on their search engine placement to secure their position in their relevant market to continue to make profits. This is where the right blend of web design and search engine marketing [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Web design is not simply about aesthetics, it also has a serious place for businesses to succeed. In many instances clients rely almost exclusively on their search engine placement to secure their position in their relevant market to continue to make profits. This is where the right blend of web design and search engine marketing needs to be harmonised by an approach to a site&#8217;s architecture that ensures it is highly visible on the search engines.</p>
<p>Many have said that search engine optimisation as some sort of &#8216;trick&#8217;, and of course it is. The title, meta tags, copy, domain name, outbound and inbound links all play their part in placement and it is the web designers job, when required, to ensure that these &#8216;tricks&#8217; are applied consistently and favourably for the client whilst sticking firmly to &#8216;white-hat&#8217; priciples.</p>
<p>The latest Google update is said to have downgraded the relevance of directory listings and paid-for ads, which more or less leaves article writing as the primary source of that juicy PR7 inbound, Search engine marketers are certainly not going to let up on their set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of their clients&#8217; websites for keywords and phrases that are appropriate to its content and purpose. But the fact remains that the art of blending a site&#8217;s look and feel with keyword-rich text, professional usage of the coding and linking strategies are a finely balanced art. The methodology of applying key research and &#8217;shaping&#8217; the site&#8217;s copy into the popularity of a client&#8217;s search terms, will continue to bring many clients a much higher return on investment (ROI) than if the site was merely aesthetically pleasing.</p>
<p>And then came along Web 2.0, which loosely redefined the web designer into a market space that was termed by Wikipedia the &#8220;transition of websites from isolated information silos to sources of content and functionality&#8230;a computing platform serving web applications to end users and a social phenomenon referring to an approach to creating and distributing Web content itself, characterised by open communication, decentralisation of authority, freedom to share and re-use. Many sites are now supporting RSS feeds, which also has resonance in adding blogging software such as WordPress as a seamless extension to the website itself.</p>
<p>This practice, although not widely used yet, will I feel sure be the norm once both web design ageencies and users start to realise the usefulness of the RSS feed in reading company news and events. So, in short, moving away from the standard practices of the aesthetic yesteryear, both search engine and blogging considerations should certainly feature in a site&#8217;s archiecture for commercial websites.</p>
<p>Blending web design with search engine optimisation and blogging
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<p>Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blending+web+design+with+search+engine+optimisation+and+blogging" rel="tag">Blending web design with search engine optimisation and blogging</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
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