SEO Blogging » Design

Do You Want Traffic? Pay Attention To Blog Design!

Sparky — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:53:07 +0000

You do realize that I am talking about traffic to your blog and not traffic on the streets, right? If you are still thinking terms of the latter point, then I suggest you go back to the earliest posts in this blog and learn a bit more about SEO and blogging. Anyhow, I think that traffic is one of the most important things – if not THE most important – that bloggers want to have, at least those bloggers who want other people to read their blogs.

So how do you get traffic? When you start up a blog, it does not mean that you will automatically have people visiting it. I still remember my first blog…when I created it, I didn’t really get any serious traffic till a month later. Of course, I didn’t really know what to do then. But there are many ways by which you get attract traffic to your blog. That is basically what we have been aiming for in talking about links and the use of keywords. But are there other ways by which you can generate traffic to your blog? Of course!

One of the more overlooked aspects in blogging (when it comes to maintaining traffic) is the layout and design of the blog. You see, you can always get people to visit your site at least ONCE. Force your mom, your sisters, your brothers, your friends – and even strangers, to visit your blog and you got at least one new visitor. But how do you ensure that they will come back?

One consideration is the ease of navigation. It’s simple. Provide the relevant links to archives, categories, and other pertinent info and your chances of keeping your visitors interested will be higher.

Fonts Do Matter

Sparky — Wed, 25 May 2011 05:12:52 +0000

With the internet growing at an enormous rate every day, websites are indeed in stiff competition. Most businesses now opt to go online hoping to raise public awareness of their products and services and improve sales as well. It is, therefore, of utmost importance to give attention to the details you put in in your website- content, graphics, photos, list of categories, etc. Improving your site’s readability is one sure way to get the attention of web users and prospective clients and keep them coming back.

First thing to consider is the fonts you use. Make sure the fonts you utilize are simple and can easily be read, not too small and straining to the eyes during prolonged exposure. A font size of 11 or 12 is best. Keep in mind that web users are fast surfers so you would not want them to change to a different web page right away. Fonts that are cool to the eyes and not difficult to read should be used.

For the titles of your websites and web pages, avoid using very colorful fonts. Better use a combination of black or dark grey or any dark due and a brighter color. Neon colors are a no-no. Choose darker or lighter colors if you must.

It’s best also to use just one font type for one whole page and even for the rest of your web pages. Arial and Verdana are highly recommended for fast reading. Readers usually go for the contents of your site but if at first glance they find the page barely readable because of your fonts plus a crowded page set-up, they will, no doubt, leave instantly.

Strong homepages generate new customers

dave — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:35:30 +0000

When it comes to surfing the internet, the common belief is that viewers will decide their impression of a website within the first four seconds of accessing the homepage.

With the majority of companies turning to the online community in order to either support their high street business or operate entirely via the internet, a clear and compelling e-commerce web design is more important than ever in generating custom.

A website must firstly have a professional appearance: images must be good quality, written text must have a good flow and be without spelling and grammatical mistakes, and it must be clear from the homepage the products and services you offer.

Once the viewer has been won over by your website’s first impression, there must also be a clear menu bar so that they can navigate further in order to find about more about the services that have caught their attention – or place an order if you are a retail-based business.

At www.clickconsult.com, we have a team of more than 25 expert web marketing professionals ideally suited to create the optimum website for your company. As well as creating the right aesthetics and easy-to-use layout, we offer an additional service in that we also have internet marketing experts among our staff.

The words you choose to use in your website copy will directly affect where it appears during internet search engine results. Therefore our internet marketing experts will work in conjunction with our web development team to ensure your site not only looks smart, but also generates traffic.

Common Coding Errors that are Bad for SEO

Sparky — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 06:54:36 +0000

According to Bing Webmaster Center’s Rick DeJarnette some of the most common errors that can tank a site include:

An invalid mark-up code – To make sure that your mark-up code is valid use a validator such as the W3C Markup Validation Service. Of course when validating you should know which errors to look out for by asking the following questions:

* Does your file contain a document type declaration (DTD) statement?
* Are all of your tags closed properly?
* Are your tags written in lower case letters?
* Are all of the tag attribute values, even numerals, as in

, enclosed in quotes?
* Are the tag attributes used in your code valid?
* Are you using deprecated tags?
* Are your tags positioned in the right place in your code?
* Are your tags nested correctly?
* Are you using the escape special character & for the ampersand character in your href attribute URL values?

After validation you should still test your pages on different browsers to see how well they fare and make adjustments accordingly.

Bad links – Bad links include mistyped and expired URLs as well as structural and site design problems that compromises your site’s SEO. Link checkers are available online to help you check your links. Some of the more common link problems also include:
* File Not Found 404 errors
* Missing page elements
* Mixed canonicalized links
* Navigation blockages

Other coding errors that can kill your site include:

* Missing, empty, or duplicate title tag
* Missing, empty, or duplicate meta description tag
* Missing, empty, or duplicate h1 tag

For a detailed discussion on each common mistake you can read Rick DeJarnette post here.

Consistency in SEO

Sparky — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:11:09 +0000

Consistency is very important in SEO. Without consistency the effectiveness of all your efforts will be lessened a great deal leading to wasted time and effort. For maximum effectiveness make sure you are consistent in:

Posting frequency – this goes for sites with blogs. Consistency does not mean daily posting but at least have something new each month or each week for your readers (and search engine spiders) to read. Remember to use keywords though (consistency again!) because the blog is meant to serve fresh content for spiders to crawl and you want them to be harvesting a good crop of keywords.

Format – this includes everything from your URLs to your page layout. If you have decided on the URL format to use then be consistent in linking/re-directing links to the preferred URL format so you can maximize your link juice. When it comes to page layout find out and stick to what works for you. To know what works for you observe the conversion rates for pages with different formats. Same is true for the use of headers, images, tagging, and everything else.

Effort – SEO is not a one time thing. You need to be consistent in your SEO efforts meaning that you need to keep abreast of the latest SEO techniques. This is very important because search engines constantly tweak their ranking algorithms, which can lead to new very useful methods that you need to employ as well as lend once useful or insignificant factors suddenly harmful. So constantly check the latest SEO news and be consistent in updating your site to accommodate new happenings.

Domain names and their usefulness

dave — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 14:40:43 +0000

Decision of domain names are generally by the domain name system or the DNS that states all the rules and regulations according to which different domain and sub domain names are formed. A domain name comes to use for identifying the host. Doing domain check finds the availability of domain names for a particular extension. There are a number of domain check websites available on the internet that allows you to do the same.

Domain names follow a hierarchy beginning with the topmost level that consists of the generic and the country code top-level domains. These are reserved for the use of the government of a particular country and cannot come for use by the common people. The next level comprises of all the common domain names that people can use to host their website or connect to the internet. Use of correct domain names for your website is very vital for search engine optimization. In case you use a general domain name such as .com then you have few chances to top any search engines ranking whereas if you use area specific domain names then the results are impressive. You can optimize your site for a particular search engine by these small ways.

The introduction of domain names defined the various authorities or control in the internet. Another use of them is to introduce the concept of easily memorable names for internet addresses in place of just mere IP addresses so that everybody can remember them with ease.

Importance of Site Structure

Sparky — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:43:02 +0000

One of the biggest mistakes yet most common mistakes of new websites is not having a good site structure. It is a huge mistake not only because it can affect your users as they navigate from page to page but also because it can affect your site’s SEO.

Site structure for the user:

If your site is unstructured navigation can become confusing because jumping from page to page would be like leaping from portal to portal with no sense of direction. Structure is needed so that visitors can know where they are in the site with respect to other sections of the site or at least the homepage, making it easier for them to access the info they need. With this in mind note that having structure in your site won’t be enough. You need to have structure AND your navigation structure has to be evident to the user!

Site structure for SEO:

An unstructured site can lead to problems because you might end up deep linking, which can lead to pages missed by crawlers. Another problem would be if some of your more important pages end up not getting much of your link authority while some of the less important pages end up with a lot of link juice. This will lead to the unimportant pages ranking better and users landing on pages you don’t want them to land. We all know how important landing pages are because as the old adage goes: first impressions last. So to minimize problem just create a structured site and if your site currently has no structure then it’s time to set up the structure it lacks.

Image Source: CreativeTechs

About Web design contests

dave — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:50:20 +0000

When you are searching the internet, it is commonly believed that viewers form their opinion of a website within the first four seconds when going through the homepage of the site.

The majority of companies are getting support from the online services for promoting either their high standard business or are operating totally through the internet, clearly there is e-commerce web design contest among the web sites.

At first the website must maintain an appearance which has a professional touch: images should have good quality, text should be written in a good flow and shouldn’t have spelling and grammatical mistakes, and it should have a clear mention about the products and services offered on the homepage.

Once the viewer is impressed by your web design site, there should be a clear menu bar for further navigation so that they can get to know more about the services that they might find interesting – or for placing an order if you have a retail-based business site.

To achieve victory in web design contest some web design sites employ a team of many expert web marketing professionals for creating the website maximum suitable for your company. As well as developing the correct and easy-to-use layout, an additional service is also provided in that internet marketing experts are also present in the staff.

The words which are chosen for using in your website copy directly affects where it is shown during results you get by searching with internet search engines. Hence internet marketing experts work hand in hand with web development people to make sure that your site looks innovative and can also gain visitors.

Try to get your firm reviewed online

dave — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:38:41 +0000

There is a multitude of review sites scattered all over the net. Some of them may well be relevant to your firm and your site. They are the online equivalent of ‘word-of-mouth’ and it is commonly acknowledged in business circles that ‘word-of-mouth’ is of considerable importance to SMEs in particular. Many users appreciate reviews sites and frequent them fairly often. It may be that your target audience are doing just that. Hence it makes sense that a search engine optimization plan may include a strategy for getting a site reviewed. SEO services are not always about the usual mix of keywords, content and links, it can be about thinking outside the box.

At www.searchengineoptimization.co.uk we know that every site has unique features and individual needs. That is why our campaigns are adjusted to fit the specificities of individual sites.

If a site is a showcase for goods and/or services then it makes sense that it should try to offer excellent value for money. However, taking part in a ‘race to the bottom’ will not be profitable long term. Therefore it makes sense that quality is central to what an online firm delivers, day in, day out. If a site bases its appeal squarely on high quality, it should not be afraid of reviews. If it gets a positive review it may get more traffic from users and it may also benefit from the reference in the competitive struggle for rankings in the search engine results pages. Even a mixed review may be a boon, because users may be interested by the evaluation and will appreciate its likely authenticity. Reviews may also bring links and link acquisition from relevant sites can be very beneficial.

The question, then, is not whether reviews are positive or negative for a site. The question is actually how they can be sought in an ethical fashion. This is something which can be discussed with a specialist search engine optimization firm. Getting a review of your products and services on a relevant review site is not always straightforward, but it can be accomplished. Once one review has been obtained, it is often a bit easier to get another. Blogging and guest blogging can raise your profile. Reviewing other sites in a positive fashion may also be of assistance. One recommended technique is to link with a suitable review site. However, links should be used in accordance with the advice of an experienced expert.

Some firms have received and understood the idea that good reviews are good for their business. However, their enthusiasm has tempted them into faking positive reviews. To avoid users detecting their malpractice, some firms have established review sites to house their own fake reviews. They have then mixed up highly positive reviews with some less impressive ones. Despite their subterfuges, such firms have often been caught out. If their services do not match their reviews, customers are likely to cause problems.

Trying to get your site reviewed is good SEO, but trying too hard or being less than straightforward can be a big mistake.

How to assess your SEO requirements

dave — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:37:01 +0000

A position of complete ignorance is never a strong position to be in. When it comes to business concerns, it is an unacceptable position to be in. The difficulty is, when you’re looking to access specialist services, you are usually doing it because you don’t know much about the field in question. It’s as applicable for search engine optimization as it is for any other area of business.

It is far more desirable to approach a specialist with some knowledge of their subject, and in SEO, that is not too difficult to do. Even so, there is a distinct possibility that when your SEO company’s assessment of your site comes in, a lot of the information on that assessment won’t be expected. A good search engine optimization company will be able to answer your questions, and you can discuss any optimization concerns with our experts at www.seoconsult.co.uk. It can also be a good idea to know what to look for on your site to estimate the SEO work to be done.

1. Assess your pages. The things you should be looking for on your pages include the amount of content you already have, your existing link profile, any disputes with the search engines you’ve had in the past, and your current site structure. It can help to draw up your site structure on a page to check for clear paths. Use some of the free online search engine optimization tools available to give you a head start on where your current site is in terms of SEO.

2. Sort out your desired outcomes. It’s a good idea to look at your current desired outcomes for SEO, and any outcomes you’ve aimed for in the past. Having made some attempt at optimisation in the past is something that should be taken into account in your current optimization attempt. Your previous work could either help your current campaign, as there will be an established good history with the search engines, or it could hinder it if the work wasn’t done well.

3. Sort out areas of concern. If everything was going swimmingly with your site, it’s unlikely that you would be approaching an SEO consultant. Make a list of the problems you think need to be addressed.

These three steps won’t enable you to prepare an SEO plan yourself, but should help you to get an idea of what needs to be done.

Before you start your assessment, it’s important to consider the time factors involved in SEO. Although it might take you only a few hours to review your site, SEO professionals can take between 30 and 70 hours to properly assess a site and build up an optimization plan. The time required will depend on the size of the site, and the kind of work involved. A small site is generally considered to be anything under 1000 pages.

Most SEO companies work on several sites at once, so it’s important to allow a suitable period for your optimization. Although a company may estimate that they’ll take 30 hours to assess your site, they are likely to require a period of weeks to get the results back to you. This needs to be allowed for in your schedule.