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By Rama Banerjee in Web Development

spn_exclusiveA website is a simple collection of web pages consisting of images, videos or other digital assets. The data of the website is hosted on a web server that is accessible via the internet. All websites join the World Wide Web where the data can be accessed all over the globe.

There are so many reasons as to why one should have a website. Some of the following genuine reasons are cited below.

• Marketing: it is the best way to compliment an existing marketing plan. One can tell customers or people about their business’s services and the word of mouth advertising becomes easier.

• Educate: a website is also used to educate clients about what a businessman can do for them. Whilst giving information about the businessman himself, the business man can educate the customers about why they need these services.

• Leadership: Companies, who follow the online strategies, find themselves in a leadership position. It helps increase exposure in the global marketplace. Companies ignore the risk of having the web run of existing competitors and exploit the web to their own advantage.

• 24/7 Access: owning a website helps broaden one’s business. The internet offers an efficient way of helping customers compare prices and shop online. If the competition is online, then the business man or representatives have to be online as well. Customers sit online 24 hours a day even if the business hours for the day close.

• Resources: surfing online helps reach new and potential clients as the website gives all the information required about the business. Online customers have immediate resources for references and referrals.

• Interaction with Customers: there isn’t any other way to keep customers from coming back. Through the website, a business man can interact with his or her clients. The businessman can also interact with them through newsletters, polls, surveys, chat rooms etc. It shows how much the businessman cares about his clients and it is one of the best ways to keep them coming back.

• Instant Legitimacy: as a client, one must know about the company, the product is bought from and it runs a respected business. A well designed business leads to increase in business sales.

• Survey Your Audience: the website is a two-way interactive communication street. When a client or customer visits the website, they read up about the products and services and information given. A businessman can handle is potential customer base by setting up a survey to find out what the clients want and need.

Rama Banerjee – Professional Writer, in Ours Group of Companies, invites you to visit our Latest Technical News section. For web development assistance visit our Search Engine Optimization Services Section. We welcome you to be part of Ours Group of Company. © Copyright – Rama Banerjee. All right reserved Worldwide

By Dirik Hameed in Web Development

webdevThere is a huge range of web scripts available that serve a variety of purposes. You need to pay for some of the scripts but others you can download free of charge. The following article highlights a few web scripts that may prove useful for utilizing on your webhosting account.

If you’re looking for a content management system for your cpanel web hosting account you may want to consider award-winning Joomla, which can be utilized in website and application building. Joomla is available to download for free. Joomla conveniently offers back-end administrator access and front-end content access. The website and the administrators have different system control levels facilitated by Joomla. Joomla has a large number of extensions, the majority of which are free to download, and Joomla itself is simple for the user to utilize.

If you would like to upload videos to your cpanel web hosting account then you might want to consider PHPmotion to meet your website hosting needs. PHPmotion works with a wide range of video formats, for instance avi, divx and mpg. The videos can be edited or deleted at any time and you can change things such as the video title, description and related tags. You can also make the videos private or public, allow or prevent comments about the videos, as well as allow or prevent video embedding. You can download PHPmotion for free and you can also utilize it for music-sharing and picture-sharing websites.

If you want to do business website hosting through your web hosting account then you should consider BigCommerce. This e-commerce software incorporates a drag-and-drop design function which means you can easily design the look and layout of your online store. Some useful functions include an automated email marketing facility and flexibility in displaying the photos you upload to the site. Other convenient features of the software include coupon and gift certificate creation, promotional banner creation for the various pages of your website, a customizable Returns system and an automated inventory control function.

phpAdManager is a great tool for managing banner ads on your website. This tool offers complete control over the banner ads as well as full statistics for each banner. Both graphic-based and html-based ads are supported.

If you want to use your webhosting account for community chat purposes, you might want to consider Pinguchat. There are a range of front-end features, including who’s online, quick private chats, inbox and outbox, YouTube embedding and file sharing features. Pinguchat has a multitude of back-end features as well, for instance the ability to enable and disable YouTube embedding, set the maximum number of room users, add or delete and edit rooms and the ability to make any user admin or a moderator.

There are a multitude of web scripts that can really enhance your web hosting account so you can get the most out of website hosting. You will find a variety that serve the same/similar functions as well as those that carry out different functions so compare prices (some are free, some need to be bought) and particular features to find the best ones for your needs.

For UK web hosting visit UK Web Solutions Direct at http://ukwebsolutionsdirect.co.uk/. UKSWD expertise in cpanel hosting UK – http://ukwebsolutionsdirect.co.uk/uk-web-hosting.php

By Mike Poller in Web Development

domainsStarting next year, ICANN is willing to take $185,000 plus $25,000 annual maintenance fee to sell you your very own top-level domain (TLD) to replace the “.com” domain you are now using.

Sure, Ford may be able to purchase the “.truck” domain and then have their very own www.ford.truck URL. But then what?

Google, Bing and Yahoo still convert keyword searches into potential domain targets. They tell searchers where to look for relevant information. And I don’t see that changing just because Ford or GM buy the “.truck” domain. Buying a new top-level domain will not guarantee you a stampede of visitors.

Of course, Microsoft makes the Internet Explorer browser while Google makes the Chrome browser and has a deal with Firefox for built-in web search. So the top three browsers are under the control of the top two search engines. I just don’t see Google and Microsoft suddenly making their search advertising business irrelevant by making these new top-level domains the default go to sites.

Search will remain a viable business. And for search to remain viable, the new TLDs must not come to dominate by default. The search engines control it, and the search engines will not let it happen.

So where’s the boom in new TLDs? Well imagine if you were a large national association, take the American Bar Association, for example. The ABA claims to be the largest association in the world. If I was ABA president, I would be writing that check for $185,000 right now, and I would want to own the TLD “.lawyer” for my association.

Why? Easy, I would give every member a free email address forward like “firstname.lastname@ABA.lawyer” for life. This will greatly reduce the association communications cost because you now have every member’s email address. Then I would offer to sell domains to member law firms so you could have “firstname.lastname@firmname.lawyer” as an email address. This generates income for the association and makes sustaining membership more valuable. The “.lawyer” domain on one’s email address is like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Of course, having the email address of almost every lawyer soon becomes a viable advertising vehicle. The association will be able to sell ads in weekly/monthly email newsletters.

My guess is, come January 2012, you’ll see the American Medical Association, the Auto Dealer’s Association even the AARP or the ASPCA lining up to buy their own top-level domains. I don’t expect Ford to purchase the “.truck” domain, but I’m pretty certain they’ll purchase “.ford” and every Ford dealer will get a new URL. In addition to their “.com” address, not instead of.

Mike Poller runs a Miami, Florida advertising agency involved in Online, social media, radio, TV, print and outdoor.

By Russell Lundstrom in Web Development

intlbusThe basics of website translation have been covered in numerous articles around the internet. What you won’t find is real information about the nitty-gritty of website translation. The boring, technical details that are never covered. The following strategies are often overlooked,
but are critical for your international success.

The following outline on website translation and localization strategy will briefly introduce you to some of the more important, and often overlooked, areas that will save you considerable time and money before you begin. Your nitty-gritty plan will include:

* A good, clean file and server management strategy.

* A very flexible site design.

* A far-sighted data management plan.

* A well defined roadmap including milestones and budgets.

The first critical step to a successful technical strategy is to review and clean up your file and server management. Having access to your original site files and not just the served files is a must. You cannot make the necessary improvements and changes through a browser.

Take the time to clean up your file naming conventions, file structure, and hosting environments. Create a system that allows for multiple versions of the site to co-exist (the translated versions) and allows for easy management of all the files. Make sure that this file system is able to grow and accommodate the number of future sites you anticipate. Better organization will greatly reward you later on in the process. Think of it this way, for each language, your file count will at least double. The possibility for error increases exponentially.

Creating a long term plan for the hosting and serving of your websites is another important strategical element. For most businesses it is adequate to host your foreign sites alongside your current source site. As your international business grows your need for local hosting will also grow. Your search engine ranking will also be affected by these choices.

Once your server file management is organized, the next investment is to review your site design for localization issues. Translated text will either shrink or grow by as much as 30% depending on the target language. Determine if your graphics are going to need to be re-sized or converted into a different format; preferably text links. Look at dynamic content served on your site.

Is your design going break when the translated text is served? What if one of your target languages is Arabic or Asian? Is your site design able to display right to left text?

Speaking of dynamic content, do you have a plan for your dynamic content to be translated. This includes external data sources such as news and blog feeds as well as internal data sources. If your site uses data tables, it is critical to have a strategy to manage the data within the tables. Similar to your server file management, your data tables will get unmanageable as you add additional languages if you do not have a good data strategy.

Included within certain data strategies are content management systems. Many different systems exist, but each handles multiple languages differently. Spend the time to research the best solution for your particular company needs.

What sort of global gateway are you going to serve your website though? Easy navigation for your foreign visitors is the first impression you are going to provide and will often times become a critical factor in your success. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Many different options are available to direct your visitors to the translated versions of your site. You will have to choose the best one that fits within the needs of your site.

Finally, you will need to define your success milestones. Before you move forward into that actual process of translating and localizing your website, you should have a budget and timeline defined. After mapping out your international and technical strategies, a project budget and timeline should fall naturally into place. Knowing how much you are going to spend and for what, and how long it is going to take are critical questions you must be able to answer.

Succeeding in international business is extremely rewarding as long as you have the proper processes to guide you. Many different resources are available on the Internet. Search around or ask your language provider to help you write your localization strategy. Taking the time to think this through will give you the foundation necessary to make the most of your international efforts.

In subsequent articles we will begin to put the project together and begin the actual translation processes.

Russell Lundstrom is an expert in international business and website translation. He has been helping companies succeed overseas for more than twenty years. You can learn how to grow your own business internationally by joining the community at http://globalsitesecrets.com and by following Russell on Twitter @gssguy.

By Daniel Locker in Web Development

webdevHow can you create a website for your business?

You can go to website Builder Company and pay for the website creation or you can create a website yourself.

For a long time I thought that in order to create a website you must be a programmer or a computer science engineer, you need to know technical languages as HTML, PHP, ASP and even C++ (I heard these names few times, but never knew what it means). I was wrong…nothing of the above is necessary.

First of all you just need to know what a website actually is. I will try to describe it assuming that the reader of this article knows nothing about website building. Website is a number of pages with text and images which are located on hosting server. Instead of keeping them in your “Documents” folder, you need to store them on a large computer that is called a server, so your pages could be accessed by other people via search engines or directly using your domain. This server is called web hosting. There are hosting companies that provide you with hosting solution for your website.

Additional element of a website is Content Management System (CSM). Once your pages are hosted you will need to have Content Management System to be able to change content, update information and upload new images. The lack of user friendly CSM will make the changes in your website very difficult and expensive.

Searching for “create a website” in Search Engines will show you a lot of companies that can create a website for you and companies that provide software that you can use to create your own website by yourself.

I have checked two kinds of website building solutions: one is free website builder (powered by Google) and the other one is a solution that allows you to create a website for free, but charges you for hosting.

“Google Sites” provides a solution for anyone who wants to build a simple website for his business. The hosting is for free, you can integrate images and videos using “You Tube” and “Picasa”. There are Help Topics for every function and Help Forum that you can search for answers, if you have some questions about implementing specific design or function. Free Google site currently don’t support Forum and Virtual Store implementation. But it is a really great solution for a small business that needs to be seen on the internet. It is absolutely free.

Second solution is website builder software that provides you with a 30 days free trial and charges for hosting solution afterwards. “Live City” is a great solution for businesses that their need is to have a website, which can be changed during time. A website created in this system can grow with your business. You can create a simple website to provide information about your business or you can create an ecommerce site by simply integrating virtual store element during the creation process. There is no need in any technical knowledge, no need to pay a lot of money to build virtual store. You can just add it with one click.

I have built a few websites in “Google sites” and in “Live City” sites. I have really enjoyed the simple drag and drop website builder used in Live City. It took me two hours to build a website; I greatly enjoyed the simple solution of designing the website, changing colors of background, tables, and fonts. The Content Management System is really convenient. It is a really great solution and the price is really low. Imagine yourself having virtual store for about 13$ per month.

You don’t need to have technical knowledge or high budget to create your own website. You can upgrade your business for free or for a minimal monthly fee and get visible online for all the potential customers who are looking for the service or product you provide.

Just choose the solution that fits you most. The sky is the limit!

This article introduces the reader to website builder software, the great way to create a website for free. To start creating your site go to
http://Sites.LiveCity.com/i.asp?id=252837&t=2

By Pat Lindle in Web Development

webbrowsersIt actually sounds like something from a sci-fi flick, The Browser Wars”, but it is not. It is a very real fight and until recently the top contenders were Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, with Firefox clearly being the better program. That was until Google threw its hat in the ring.

Now it goes without saying that the true fight has begun between Firefox and Google Chrome. If you are interested in how they stack up against each other read on.

Speed: Chrome is by far the fastest. It uses the Webkit engine layout and independent speed tests have already cemented this engine as the leader in overall speed.

Although Firefox did attempt to amp up its search speed with the introduction of its 3.5, it still looses hands down.

Security: All browsers have had occasional security risks. However Chrome treats each tab as an individual process.
This means that if one search result in the tab is infected by a malicious site, then it is contained and subsequently “pawned.” This keeps the infection from spreading to the other tabs. This alone gives Google Chrome the edge over Firefox.

Search Options: This is the one area that Google Chrome falls short in. As of now the program cannot support any other browser. Firefox is compatible with all other browsers and is capable of supporting a lot more add-ons than Google Chrome supports. These are important for people who use the browser for more than just a simple search.

Memory: The separation of the tabs for security purposes also may look, at first glance as if that is gross usage of memory space. But tests have proven that is not the case.

The memory usage also depends a lot on the number of other programs running within the browser. Since Firefox users tend to have an abundance of add-ons, this makes for a much larger memory loss. So even though Firefox would win this one, it is with reservations.

The bottom line is that you can’t go wrong with either one of these browsers. Right now, power users will find Chrome to be faster and cleaner. Internet marketers will find more options with Firefox. Use both for maximum effect. Happy browsing!

As you can see both have their benefits and both leave something to be desired. You can download and use both for different projects. Since this is war, you have to find out for yourself which one is best.

Pat Lindle is a consultant over at www.smallbusinessconsultingco.com and principal at the website www.buywebhosting.co helping small business owners with hosting needs.

By Patrick OBrien in Web Development

webdevWe all know that a well thought out site with clear layout and navigation makes the whole user experience far more pleasing for a visitor and encourages repeat and longer visits. So why then, when it comes to presenting numerical information do the majority of web developers get this so wrong?

Web site design has gone through many evolutions with techniques coming and going. Most of this evolution has revolved around page layout and site navigation, today a modern site does indeed present a clear and easy experience for the visitor. However, one area that seems to have been neglected is the display of numerical information. Perhaps this is due, in part, to that fact that not every site has numerical data to display or perhaps web designers are so focused on ‘look and feel’ that they neglect the clarity of information.

Getting visitors to a site is quite a task as we all know. So when we get them there we want them stay and understand the content. If that content involves numerical data then isn’t it worth making a little extra effort to present that data in a format that is both pleasing to the eye and enticing. So how do we do that? Well when you start to think about it, it really isn’t any different to the way we approach general site design. Today we wouldn’t dream of just chucking all the content at random on a page and expecting the visitor to make sense of it. So rather than just take the raw numbers and throw them into a table let’s give it a little thought. Think about what the data could be saying to user and then start to break it down into headline numbers and paragraphs as you would do with text information.

Numerical data can usually be quite easily segmented and totaled. Summing sections of data provide headline attention grabbing numbers, whilst segmenting provides the opportunity to paragraph the data making far more information easily accessible and far more interesting for the viewer. For example, let’s suppose we have a whole series of sales data and let’s imagine our organization sells four products. Our raw data is a set of individual sales numbers. Simply placing this data in one big table, although displaying all the data, does not really provide very much information. For instance a normal user would have no idea which product is most popular or whether there are any trends or seasonal variations. With a little thought and effort we can do much better, let’s start by segmenting our sales figures by month and then within each month segment further by product. For each product / month cell we have two numbers, the total value of sales and the number of sales. Providing this in just a simple table will be far more meaningful than our original raw data set. The user can now begin to see which product is performing well and also whether any particular time of year is good or bad. However we can still do much better.

Even at this level of segmentation we are still making the viewer work to see the story contained within the data. Now that we have the data sensibly segmented it becomes a fairly easy task to display in graphical format. Done well graphs are extremely powerful because they both present information in a visual format and add dimension to the data. Relationships between adjacent data and trends across the range are made crystal clear. Choosing the correct chart style is key for making this work really well. Should we use pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs and something more exotic. In our sales data example remember we are looking to provide some attention grabbing headline followed by a paragraph of interesting detail. A viewer of our information may first be most interested in which of our products is the best performing. Although a bar graph of total sales for each product would provide this information, a pie chart representing the product totals would be more attention grabbing. So for our headline let’s provide the user with a pie chart of total sales. Now all we need to do is provide the paragraph, well the choice with our example data is a multi-series vertical bar chart. We have a series of data for each product segmented by month. Along the x-axis we will plot month and the y-axis will represent value of sales. Each month on the graph will contain 3 bars, one for each product. This simple approach provides the viewer with a great deal of information in one pleasing view. The bar chart tells the complete sales story for each of our products showing both trends and easy visual comparisons.

That’s all well and good, I hear you say, but web pages don’t lend themselves to easily generating graphical display. Well that’s true but there are today a wide variety of software packages that have specifically been designed to plugin to web sites and make the task of turning the numbers into eye catching, story telling graphs easy for the web designer. Generally you set a few options, like colors and then simply provide the segmented data to the software. At page view time your visitor is presented with the graph image.

In summary then, with a little thought and a small amount of effort the numbers can really be brought alive and provide a compelling story for visitors.

Patrick OBrien is an author of the popular JPowered site which has been providing web site software solutions since 1996. JPowered provides software to enable web developers to easily incorporate dynamic graphs and charts into web sites and applications. Web Page Graphing Software PHP Graphing Software

By Skip Conover in Web Development

joomlaI learned how to build a web site using Joomla® “open source” content management software like a newborn baby learns about its environment. This article is intended for you if you are at that level. While I mention some software I use here, please do not take this article as an endorsement of them. There are many other choices you can make to build a professional web site, and I have not evaluated them.

This article is to teach you what the techies don’t think to tell you in their “documentation,” such as it is. You obviously know that you have to establish an account with a web host, and you have done that. You have “hosted” a domain name (URL) on your host’s computers, and you have performed the One-Click Install that gets your free copy of Joomla® built behind your domain. You like Joomla because it is “open source,” and has been thoroughly tested. Its large user base means you can get help when you need it.

Here are 10 basic concepts that you might find useful in building your Joomla site:

1. Create a Spare Domain. Create at least two Domains on your host, and host Joomla on both of them. They can be yourdomainname.com and .org, for example. Just in case you make some big mistake, you can always learn from that mistake, blow Joomla away, and move to the other site quickly. You can then completely remove everything from the first domain, install Joomla again, and have that ready to go in case you make another mistake. If you use only one domain, you might have to start from the beginning, which can slow you down. Joomla is “open source,” great, easy, free, and all of that, but this is the voice of experience speaking.

2. Understand FTP. You must get to understand what FTP (file transfer protocol) software can do for you. I use FileZilla2, but there are many other choices. When you first install Joomla, you must do two things immediately.

You must “navigate to” (means go to) the directories on your hosted server and disable the “installation” directory of Joomla. You can either delete it or change its name using your FTP software. You must rename the file you will find on your “root” directory called “htaccess.txt” to “.htaccess”. It immediately disappears when you do this. I don’t know why, and you probably don’t need to know either. Your Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) won’t work unless you do this.

3. SEF. In order to avoid those long and ugly URLs you sometimes see, you’ve got to install a plug-in that creates Search Engine Friendly (“SEF”) URLs. You need to do this early in your site development, because any pages created without it may have to be converted to SEF later on. This caused me one serious headache, and was one reason I blew away a Joomla web site I had started.

4. Install Joom!Fish. Joom!Fish is free “open source” software that allows you to offer translations of your site into other languages. Even if you have no plans to offer translations now, you may change your mind later to reach a bigger audience. Some of the plug-ins, modules, components, and templates I mention later will not install their Joom!Fish compatible components if they don’t find Joom!Fish on your site. If you install Joom!Fish later, you might not find the functionality you are expecting in those other pieces of software, and reinstallation could become a colossal compatibility headache, with impact on many other parts of your site. Just do it early. You won’t regret the decision.

5. Install a Control Panel. Joomla has a basic control panel, but there are other free control panels that operate within the Joomla environment with superior functionality. I selected K2 for this purpose, but there are many others. The basic K2 component is free, and it has very many plug-ins, templates and modules available for it. If you do this, though, make sure any other software you install on your Joomla site is K2 compatible. K2 is one of the installations that looks for Joom!Fish upon installation, and does not install its relevant files if it does not find Joom!Fish present.

6. Install a Directory. If you have a site that is going to serve a community of people, you will need a Directory of your participants. You should install this soon. I chose SOBI2, which I like because it allows me to charge for links and multiple category entries, and it sets this functionality up with your PayPal® account very easily.

7. Select a Template. You must very early, before you begin adding content, select a template to create the look and feel of your web site. You need to be careful that it is compatible with your Control Panel software. There are literally thousands of templates available, many of them free, so picking one is like shopping at the mall.

8. Browser. For reasons passing understanding, some web browsing software does not allow downloading binary files, which contain the pieces you need to install in Joomla, without corrupting them. Make sure you are using a browser that does allow binary transfer. I am using FoxPro® for this.

9. Password Control. In order to build a Joomla web site, you will need to create accounts on many other web sites. This means too many user IDs and passwords. A word to the wise is to keep a list of all of these somewhere handy, because you will otherwise find them strewn all over your desk, and hard to reproduce. This is the voice of experience!

10. Forums. Techies rarely provide true documentation (instructions) these days. Get over it! It’s partially because they’re so focused on building the next big thing, and partially because the environment is changing so fast that it’s impossible to create a static set of instructions. Most decent software providers do have a Forum, where you can go for help. You register on their site for free, and then you are permitted to ask questions, or find questions previously answered through word search. If the software you are planning to use has no Forum, be very worried.

Bonus Point: Use reCaptcha. I personally hate having to read and fill in those squiggly line words that you find when you are trying to comment on a blog or enter an item, but I have learned they are now essential, and they are fortunately free. This will prevent some nasty robots polluting your site with their spam. It is not the only thing needed for security, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

Skip Conover is an International Executive, Author, and Artist. He and his wife are among the first five couples in the world to meet online (1985) and marry. He turned his long time interest in Jungian Archetype into the Archetype in Action Organization, and he developed its web site at archetypeinaction.org.

By Tom Shivers in Web Development

webdevWhat’s the goal of a website? If your answer wouldn’t be agreeable to the marketing types you work with, then you need to know about conversion rate optimization (CRO) – and how it can make all the difference in a site, as well as your own career.

CRO means testing several designs – or versions of a single design – to identify hidden problems with a website that could cost business for the site owner. The simple truth is that esthetics and strategically placed visuals can make a big difference to increase conversions. So, once you know how well visitors are delivering on the business goal(s) of the site, you can figure out what to change to increase the conversion rate. A fresh set of eyes – trained in web copywriting and design – can help you interpret the analytics information, and be a valuable source of recommendations.

Of course, you can get CRO services from any number of places. You can go to a big web design firm and, after you dole out 15 grand or more, you will likely have a design that fits your online target audience.

Search engine optimization (SEO) companies do many aspects of CRO well: testing headlines, the call to action, content, images, etc. But SEO firms don’t address conversion-based web design as well as a web designer or design firm.

Testing designs for conversion should be a normal part of any web design project, if the goal is to get a response from web visitors. But testing different designs doesn’t have to be difficult (or expensive), especially for a talented and reasonably priced web developer. The problem is that most talented, reasonably priced web developers don’t have a clue about testing their designs for conversion. But they might invest in getting the proper resources in place if businesses asked for it. Where are the talented, reasonably priced web developers who engage in conversion-based design?

Working upside-down
I find that many websites are designed upside-down. That is, the site is more about what the company wants to communicate than about what the target audience is after. {Case in point: When was the last time you actually clicked – let alone read the information – on an “About Us” page? Information like that is usually tailored to the ego of the company’s leader(s).}

This kind of upside-down website focuses on getting tons of traffic so they can sell-sell-sell. . . without thinking through how their target audience perceives and interacts with the website.

If conversion is the goal of all marketing, then the key to getting the response you want from a site is to engage the target audience by building the site for and about them and what they want.

Failing to plan is planning. . .
SEO and paid search campaigns play a big part in planning for a good conversion rate, especially when content is designed specifically to engage the target audience. Otherwise, you waste a lot of costly traffic on content that doesn’t convert.

In the past, most web developers did not consider the implications of SEO during the design phase. Thankfully, that has changed, and most web designers now bring in an SEO professional. In fact, it’s rare to find a web designer who does not also attempt SEO, but that’s a discussion for another time.

But that old pattern remains because today, most web developers do not consider the implications of conversion rate optimization during the design phase. Let me illustrate.

Many businesses get into Internet marketing like this:

  • Design or upgrade the website.
  • Implement Google Adwords, social media and/or SEO.
  • Ask what the target market thinks.

It’s a ready-fire-aim approach to internet marketing that wastes time and resources. But there is a better way:

  1. Know the target audience.
  2. Design the site and develop content to tap into the target market’s motivations, following SEO best practices at each step along the way.
  3. Test the site by letting your users’ natural actions help you craft the design and content that gets the best results.
  4. Continue testing to gain optimal ROI.

CRO certainly isn’t difficult, but it does require on-target analysis of a site’s strengths and weaknesses (and, sometimes, the willingness to set aside egos) in order to develop a site that truly functions effectively.

For developers and designers, there’s no downside to conversion-based design. Nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain.

Tom Shivers is an SEO consultant and president of Capture Commerce, founded in 2000 to provide tailored Internet marketing that gets conversions.

By Paul Wise in Web Development

webdevWhen selling your own services and products on the net, you should have targeted traffic. The major search engines will start to send you targeted prospects, and lots of it, whenever you adopt specific steps.

The 1st step within your own search engine advertising campaign isn’t SEO. Your first step would be to understand the net and the way to effectively utilize it to market your services. The web can be described as a subject material driven medium. Searchers are searching for information and facts. They really don’t wish to be sold to. They desire value. It is possible to supply this kind of value with the subject material you are writing for use on your Internet site, as well as the particular content material you’re posting for your promotions.

As a result, you should create a complete, content managing technique. Your own content managing technique needs to be customer focused, content material driven, in addition to being optimized regarding the major search engines. Your current content managing method must look into both in page and off page optimization points. In page elements consist of optimizing your web page regarding keywords and phrases relevant to your site, titles, as well as website descriptions. Off page aspects incorporate link swapping in addition to one way link creation.

Once you’ve selected the subject for the web page, you’ll want to create your Internet site. Come to a decision on just what subject material you will come up with. Your content have to consist of articles, press announcements, and product or service review articles. It’s also possible to generate totally free e books, reports and news letters, provided the information you include is going to be useful to your site customer. Ahead of working on your content, you need to do your investigation. Discover what Internet users are trying to find. There are many free resources and software on the net to help you complete this particular undertaking. Basically, search for a keyword phrase similar to “key phrase recommendation software.”

The moment you’re all ready to write your sites subject material, select 2 to 3 keywords and phrases to make use of all the way through the actual text for the page. Write your own content material after which optimize your page for all these keyword phrases. Though on page optimization can help you when you don’t have lots of competition for the keywords you picked, it is not enough should you be targeting large competition keywords. To raise your websites search positions, you will need to get as many links as you can from high traffic web pages with high Google page rank. Establishing one way links from other web pages can even make it easier to boost your search positions.

Perform a search in your favorite search engine to find Internet sites you’ll be able to link to. Examine these websites. Check to see just what key phrases they use in order to enhance their web pages. Find out if they swap hyperlinks, and if that’s the case, ask for a link exchange.

The way to succeed when you find yourself using search engine marketing techniques is always to do your homework before you generate your site. The bottom line is that no matter the amount of links you have got pointing back to your Internet site, or how effectively you enhance your web page for the various search engines, you will not gain a high position for key phrases that are way too competitive without having a long time along with lots of energy put in, even up to a year or more.

You should also understand that you will not reach your goals in any kind of home business that you aren’t going to be enthusiastic about. Choose a subject you prefer, which has its own marketplace and then develop a articles and other content rich, search engine friendly web page. Get your name out there and constantly keep advertising your product or service. You will be successful in the end.

Need traffic? It’s no secret that in order to bring in traffic you should utilize the power of Article Marketing. Article Marketing Services such as www.articlecontentengine.com will help you to do exactly that without taking up all of your valuable time.

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